The Power Revolution in Tennis - Part 1

As I promised at the end of the “Radar Guns 101” post, I’m going to start getting into some of the “$64,000 questions” that come to mind when we hear the term “tennis speed”…

And, from my own observations of the American tennis scene over the past 2, rather, 15 years, the vast majority of these “key” questions regarding speed in tennis focus mainly on the question of how to produce high-speed strokes.

Of course, what seems to escape the notice of the vast majority of players, parents and coaches in the American tennis scene—even at the high-performance level—is the fact that high-speed strokes alone without high-speed court movement leads to limited success at the pro level.

When a player possesses both racket speed and foot speed, then the only real limit to a player’s success is whether or not they are willing to behave in a professional manner as possible. (Yes, if you’re wondering, I consider the attribute commonly known as “mental toughness” as being fundamental and integral to behaving as a true “professional”, whatever your actual profession may be).

So, without further ado, let’s open our discussion of him about the “power revolution” in tennis from a technical perspective…

If you ask me what the single greatest technical misconception that keeps American tennis behind the rest of the elite tennis world today, it’s our fundamental misconception about the proper use of topspin in today’s modern power tennis.

Essentially, the prevailing concept of “topspin” in US tennis still conjures memories of the slow, moonballing topspin of pro tennis that prevailed during the Tennis Boom of the mid-1970s, especially in the minds of today’s top American college and junior coaches. Of course, the game, as always, evolves as the years pass, and the looping, heavy topspin of the Borg era transformed itself into the heavy, penetrating topspin drives first mastered by former ATP #1, Ivan Lendl, and taken to its current pinnacle by current ATP #1, Roger Federer.

Somehow, the prevailing wisdom in American tennis today when it comes to topspin is that playing topspin needs to be minimized in the development of a high-performance player over the course of a player’s career, to be replaced by a faster, flatter and more aggressive stroking and tactical style—the so-called “Big Strike” or “First Strike” gamestyle that’s embraced by most top American pro, college and junior coaches.

The vast majority of American coaches—with their unshakable association of topspin with the slow, looping, moonballer topspin of the 70s—truly believe that while heavy topspin groundstrokes may be acceptable for the 12-and-under competitive player, it has no place in the repertoire of their vision of today’s high-performance player, male or especially, female.

In essence, if you were to ask an American coach what the purpose of topspin is, they will typically answer this way:

“The purpose of topspin is to slow the ball down to help players keep the ball in play.”

And that, folks, is the American bottom line when it comes to understanding the role of topspin in tennis:

“Topspin” = “Slowing the ball down”

With this equation in the mind of our coaches, it is not surprising that their students end up thinking that topspin has no place in the modern game. Kids aren’t dumb, if that is the message that’s being sent by their coaches (and reinforced by their parents), that’s how they're going to play.

Put yourself in the player's shoes... Why would anyone in a sport that’s trying to maximize speed want to learn a skill that’s understood by the “experts” as a means of “slowing” the ball down, not speeding it up?

No wonder a heavy topspin game that’s understood by the top pro coaches to be “standard operating procedure” (SOP) for pro success today, is such a hard idea to swallow in American tennis.

When you misunderstand a fundamental concept and then build entire philosophies (technical, tactical, developmental, etc.) based on a wholly flawed idea, well, it is no surprise that we aren’t very successful at developing viable pro tennis prospects.

If you’re into metaphors…

Because our coaches have a fundamentally flawed view of the role of topspin in the shaping the performance capability of today’s players, what ends up happening when we send our American college and junior prospects into battle at the pro level is the same as if...

An army would send soldiers to battle armed only with clubs and rocks when they know that their enemy has remote-controlled machine guns, missiles and bombs. You know what the outcome is going to be… The outcome is a given.

So, you might be wondering what the correct understanding of the role of topspin is for today’s competitive player? What do the other successful tennis nations of the world understand (i.e. Spain, France, Argentina, etc.) that we don’t’?

This is the “equation” that the successful tennis coaches and nations have in their mind:

“Topspin” = “Control”

In fact, taking the equation to the next logical level, those who want to maximize their ability to succeed in pro tennis have this equation in mind:

“Maximize Topspin” = “Maximize Control” (at high racket/ball speeds)

And for those of you (probably American by birth or tennis upbringing) who still don’t understand this tennis axiom, this is what you need to understand…

The only practical way to play high-speed shots (i.e. groundstrokes that travel over 90 MPH in flight) that land inside the lines with maximum consistency is to apply a ton of topspin to force the ball down toward the court faster. Without sufficient topspin to force the ball down to the court sooner (such that it falls inside the lines), increasing the ball speed alone causes the ball to fly further and most likely beyond the lines and out of play.

For all practical intents and purposes (because the ITF has no plans of changing the dimensions of the tennis court anytime soon, if ever), the only possible way to increase ball speed while maintaining (maximum) control over the ball flight is to maximize the amount of topspin to force that ball down to the court inside those lines.

Is the fog of false American game knowledge beginning to lift about now?

So, let's review...

Q: Want to generate more ball speed without sacrificing control?

A: Learn how to MAXIMIZE TOPSPIN PRODUCTION when swinging at high racket speeds.

Given this truth about topspin, do you now understand the fundamental reason why the Top 2 tennis players—as well every current Top 10 player—on Planet Earth have their games built upon a foundation of heavy topspin groundstrokes?

If you have a problem with this concept, you need to accept the fact that you won’t be able to consistently control your high-speed shots and you won’t put very many balls into play, inside the lines of the court. Competitive tennis success is still fundamentally rooted in consistency (of proper execution), so if you choose to play in a manner where—by definition—you will have trouble keeping the ball inside the lines in the court, your days as a tennis player, much less a competitive player will be short-lived.

Do you dream about a future in professional tennis? Then you need to have the correct understanding about topspin, or else your dream will forever remain just a dream.

So how do you maximize topspin on your groundstrokes?

We’ll start discussing those details in my next post…

Maybe it might be the basis of a new tennis future for some of you out there…

And, wouldn’t that be a great way to ring in 2008!

TTFN and Happy New Year!

P.S. If you’re interested in the “how to transition to pro tennis from college tennis” primer from Todd Martin mentioned in my last post, please email me (speedmaster [at] tennisspeed [dot] com) and I’ll send you a copy of my summary of his featured clinic at the 2007 ITA College Coaches Convention.

Finally, given the ever-growing number of so-called “tennis prodigies” that have emerged courtesy of YouTube (and some overly-ambitious parents), let me say that I’m as curious as the next coach and I already have a pretty good idea about the future prospects of each of those prodigies (see next month’s issue of US Tennis Magazine for a rundown on them) based solely on the concepts I’ve discussed in this post.

Can you guess who among those YouTube prodigies I think has a real shot at a pro future? I’ll reveal my predictions in a future post…

Informal stroke speed survey of US tennis-continued

Recently, I had the opportunity to continue my survey of serve and groundstroke speed in US tennis by measuring the stroke speeds of high school varsity (“HS”) players that participated in a regional qualification tournament for my home state’s 5A Division (overall) State Championships.

To give you a bit of background on the players involved, there were players from 10 different high schools trying to qualify for the State 5A Boys’ Tennis Championships in 7 divisions: Singles #1 to #3 and Doubles #1 to #4. So there was a wide range of players from a variety of competitive backgrounds from those players who only compete for their high school team during the high school season to a sectional Top 20-ranked player.

If I was to describe the approximate playing levels of the 30 players whose speeds I measured, I would estimate that the majority of players would probably be rated somewhere between NTRP 3.7 (by this I mean between NTRP 3.5 and 4.0) all the way to about NTRP 5.0.

Anyway, let’s get down to the nitty-gritty…

The average 1^st serve speed of these HS players was 68.9 MPH.

The average 2^nd serve speed was 60.8 MPH.

The average forehand speed (during neutral rallies) was 46.1 MPH.

The average forehand speed (during neutral rallies) was 46.9 MPH.

Now, let’s put these speeds into some context…

NCAA Division 1 vs. HS Tennis

1^st serve: 90.5 MPH (NCAA) vs. 68.9 MPH (HS)

2^nd serve: 78.5 MPH (NCAA) vs. 60.8 MPH (HS)

Forehand: 78.5 MPH (NCAA) vs. 46.1 MPH (HS)

Backhand: 73.9 MPH (NCAA) vs. 46.9 MPH (HS)

By now, I’m pretty sure that shouldn’t be surprising to you that direct measurements of stroke speed confirm the perception that there should be a pretty big difference in the stroke speeds between college and high school tennis players.

Effectively there is, on average:

• A 20 MPH speed gap between the first and second serves of the typical male collegiate and the better high school varsity player.
• A nearly 30 MPH speed gap between the groundstrokes of the typical male collegiate player and the better high school varsity player.
  
• A 40 to 50 MPH speed gap* between the first and second serves of the top tour pros and the better high school varsity player.

*see my earlier post titled "Memo to American college and junior tennis players: Find another 30 MPH ASAP!" for serve speed data from the top ATP pros.

What I find more than ironic in these measurements is the fact that there are some, perhaps many players, parents and coaches in the US who think that there are more than enough high school varsity tennis players to populate the rosters of collegiate varsity tennis programs and so there is no need to offer collegiate playing opportunities and scholarships to international (read “foreign”) tennis players.

While it’s true that from the perspective of sheer numbers, there are more than enough high school varsity players for college tennis coaches to choose from. From the perspective of tennis ability, the reality is that there are only around 200 to 300 total, legitimate male or female college tennis prospects that emerge from either the US junior and high school tennis ranks each calendar year.

What’s the take-home lesson then? The “better” high school varsity tennis player has no realistic chance of playing for a truly competitive collegiate tennis program, and currently the true route to the collegiate level continues to run through (National) junior tennis and not high school tennis.

For those of you who are familiar with the current competitive tennis pathways here in the US, what I’ve written about in this post is hardly news to you. But for others who aren’t so familiar about how to advance themselves within the American competitive scene, you need to realize that high school varsity tennis competition is really a side or back door to collegiate tennis at best.

The proverbial “front door” to the higher levels of tennis here definitely runs through USTA tournament competition where the goal is to qualify for the National Junior or ITF Championship events held nationwide throughout the calendar year.

And maybe next time I attend a high school varsity tennis match or tournament, I think I will strongly consider measuring the groundstroke speeds of the players using a calendar instead of a radar gun… ;)

TTFN!

Is it possible to have too much racket speed? (Of course not!)

Sorry about the rather long "pause" between posts...


I've been quite busy with the business of TennisSpeed including getting two more NCAA teams started with SpeedChain training (Colorado Women's Tennis (Big 12) and Syracuse Women's Tennis (Big East)) and attending a number of tennis events, including a charity event, one state high school tennis championship tournament and several instructional clinics. And somewhere mixed in all that, I also spent 10 days tuning up the game of one of my touring pro clients.


Anyway, the past two weeks have been especially interesting and I thought I would share some of the things I’ve learned about the state of American tennis from the viewpoint of a wide cross-section of American tennis community.

In particular, I want to bring to light the viewpoint expressed by the typical American tennis parent. Because based on a number of conversations I have had with junior tennis parents over the last 18 months, there are a lot of parents out there who believe that their children have more than ample racket speed to succeed in competitive tennis.

If you’ve been following this blog for a while, you would understand that this common perception is patently false based on the various stroke speed surveys I’ve done at collegiate dual matches and dozens of professional, junior and high school tennis matches (I was able to obtain stroke speed measurements from high school varsity tennis players at a recent Boys’ State Tennis Championships, and I will report those speed measurements in a future post) over the last 18 months.

So, here’s a conversation I had with a parent of a female tournament player (12 years old) whom she claimed was ranked among the Top 3 players in her home section.

Our conversation went something like this:

Parent: “Oh, my daughter has more than enough racket speed. Racket speed is not her problem whatsoever. Actually, I think that she has too much racket speed and it’s not helping her game.”

Me: (addressing the player) “So, what is your first serve speed? (Head shaking and shrugged shoulders from player)

Parent: “Her coach says that she has plenty of racket speed.”

Me: “That’s interesting, you don’t even know what her stroke speeds really are, but you and her coach are sure about her having plenty of racket speed… By the way, did you know that both Venus and Serena could serve over 100 MPH at the age of 12? When Venus played her first pro match at 14, she was serving over 115 MPH.”

(addressing player) “Do you serve over 100 MPH right now?” (Head shaking from player)

Parent: “Well, actually she’s injured right now, so maybe she’s not capable of swinging that fast…”

OK, let me add some context to this conversation…

This particular conversation occurred in front of an information booth for TennisSpeed and all of our speed training products, including the Tennis SpeedChain, at a recent, local charity event. It may well have been that the purpose of this parent was to say something to avoid the possibility of hearing my “SpeedChain pitch” as she read through the information at our booth.

However, based on this parent’s unwavering tone and choice of words, I concluded that she really believes that her daughter has more than sufficient racket speed, and won’t need to improve her racket speed now or in the future.

In fact, that her child swings her racket so fast that her incredible racket speed actually hinders her tennis progress because she understands that high racket speeds (“hitting hard”) compromise her daughter’s ability to control the ball.

And this was not the first time I have heard a tennis parent firmly and decisively assert that their child has terrific, if not incredible racket speed, and that racket speed will never become a factor that will limit their ability to succeed in tennis.

I didn't know that smoking c---k had reached epidemic proportions among junior tennis parents these days.

This point is worth mentioning over and over until the majority of conversations I have with junior tennis parents come to focus on this question:

“How can I help my son/daughter maximize their racket speed?”

As competitive tennis today has evolved into a “true sport” where speed is the single most important physical attribute required to perform at the highest possible levels, the concept of having “too much speed”, whether it be foot speed or racket speed, is simply unthinkable.

Imagine a baseball player complaining about having too much bat speed (fearing that they would hit the baseball “too far”) or throwing speed (throwing too hard where opposing hitters can't hit their pitches). Oh, the horrors of too much speed!

How about a football quarterback complaining about having too much arm speed that he throws the ball “too far that his receivers can’t catch up to his passes”, or a running back or receiver that outruns the defense “too often”? (OK, non-football fans, what happens in those situations is that most football coaches will go out and find receivers who run fast enough to catch the “too strong-armed” quarterback’s passes and find ways for his “too fast” running backs and receivers to touch the ball as much as possible during games…)

As you can see, this concept of “too much speed” in other sports sounds patently absurd, so why does this idea persist in competitive tennis?

Here are a few observations of mine over the years that might explain why this perception of racket speed being a “luxury” or a ”hinderance to development” continues to perpetuate itself in US Tennis:

1. Parents/Teaching Pros/Coaches typically only understand how to teach the sport using bygone classic tennis principles where racket speed couldn’t be readily generated (rackets too small and heavy) nor adequately controlled (not enough topspin production).

2. The last time most coaches/parents played/watched pro tennis LIVE AND IN PERSON was back in the 1980s or 1990s when the game was measurably slower.

3. Most players/coaches/parents have no idea what their (student’s/children’s) stroke speeds really are and seem to have no interest nor motivation to find out. The typical excuse for not knowing their stroke speeds comes out sounding like “who has a radar gun lying around anyway?”

4. Most players/coaches/parents don’t know what the “speed profile” of the top pros really are. They may know their serve speeds, but what about the speeds they achieve on their other strokes like their forehands and backhands? Every coach/parent knows goal-setting is critical for competitive success, but when you don’t know exactly what the goal is… How successful can you expect to be?

5. Tennis on TV does not accurately depict the actual ball speeds, nor variation in ball speeds and spin, and can’t be used to familiarize and educate players/coaches/parents on the physical realities of today’s pro game.

6. Coaches/Parents “indoctrinate” players based solely on their perceptions and understanding of (classic) tennis that based mainly on anecdotal information, out-dated, false or outright misinformation. The typical teaching pro's understanding of tennis in US is based on the near-complete ignorance of facts and reliance on perception rather than detailed analysis.

How should we then begin to educate these speed-challenged members of the tennis community so they can understand the reality that maximizing racket speed is essential and necessary to succeeding in competitive tennis today?

Let’s begin by repeating these basic facts about racket speed in modern tennis:

1. Players must maximize racket speed and spin production to be successful in modern competitive tennis at the pro level.

2. High spin rates are the basis of maximizing stroke control and consistency at high racket speeds.

Having “too much” racket speed or foot speed in tennis is, quite frankly, as ludicrous a concept as “having too much money”. For all practical intents and purposes, having too much foot speed and racket speed is the condition that we should be striving to achieve, not avoid.

Junior tennis parents (and coaches), it’s time to get informed about the impact of speed on your child’s tennis. At least be willing and interested in taking the first step of actually measuring their stroke and foot speed(s). All you need to do this is to get your hands on a stopwatch and a radar gun.

By doing this, you will all know how fast you really are and how much you will need to improve if you want to perform at a level that’s truly comparable to today’s top professionals.

TTFN!

Memo to American College and Junior Players: Find another 30 MPH ASAP!

Several posts ago, I summarized the serve speeds I measured for male and female National junior competitors at the Easter Bowl Championships in Palm Springs in April. I was able to measure serve speeds from players in every age group represented at that event, except for the players in the 18-and-under Boys event, so I have been looking for an opportunity to gather some serve speed numbers from that age division.

Recently, a National Open Junior event was held in Denver for the Boys 18s division, and I used that opportunity to measure the serve speeds (first and second) of the participants there. The tournament field was reasonably strong for a National Open event as the Top 8 seeds in the tournament were all ranked inside the Top 120 nationally, and the Top 5 seeds were ranked inside the Top 60 nationally. There were players ranked as high as #11 in the National 18s and players ranked in the 1500s as well. So there was a wide range of competitive, 18-and-under American junior players represented in this event.

I measured the serve speeds of 34 of the 64 participants during live matchplay, and the results I found were interesting to say the least.

The fastest first serve was 118 MPH, and the fastest second serve was 94 MPH (both by the same player).

The slowest first serve was 63 MPH and the slowest second serve was 60 MPH.

The average first serve speed of the 34 players surveyed was 91 MPH.

The average second serve speed of the 34 players surveyed was 71 MPH.

30% of the total number of first serves measured (200+) exceeded 100 MPH.

70% of the players hit a first serve over 100 MPH.

15% of the players hit a first serve over 110 MPH.

33% of the players hit a second serve over 80 MPH.

What to make of these speed measurements?

The “good news” is… If I were to compare these to the serve speeds I measured at this National Open tournament to those I have measured at the NCAA Division 1 level, these serve speeds of the 34 juniors are directly comparable in terms of both average first and second serve speed. Even the fastest and slowest serves are very similar, if not identical those of D1 players. And, it isn’t too surprising that these junior players share the same serve speed characteristics as the D1 players, as the vast majority of players who are Top 6 or Top 8 in D1 men’s tennis programs are recruited from the players who have high national singles rankings and typically participate in high-level USTA National Junior tournaments such as this National Open.

The "bad news" is… If you compare the serve speeds of these typical US college and junior players to those at the ATP level, the difference is stunning. The typical US college or junior player serves, on average, around 30 MPH SLOWER than a successful ATP player.

For a quick and dirty comparison to the ATP pros, I compiled the serve stats for 16 of the 32 players who made it to the 3^rd round of the Men’s Singles at Wimbledon (upper half of the draw including Federer, Roddick and Gasquet). This is what I found:

The average first serve speed of these 16 male pros was 119 MPH (compared to 91 MPH for our sample of nationally-ranked under 18 boys).

The average second serve speed of these 16 male pros was 99 MPH (compared to 71 MPH for our sample of nationally-ranked under 18 boys).

On average, the ATP men serve around 30 MPH faster, on average for both first and second serves, than the typical American male high-performance (college or nationally-ranked junior) player.

30 MPH!! On average!! Which means that the difference in serve speed could be as much as 40 MPH faster in some cases.

Given this astonishing difference in serve speed capability between the established ATP players and the typical American college or junior player, is it truly realistic for the great majority of young competitive tennis players here in the US to be competitive at the pro level when they are giving away at least 30 MPH on serves alone? Are their pro dreams even reachable?

At the very least, what can they do about closing the speed gap?

If you ask the tennis coaching and conditioning establishment (USTA, USPTA, PTR, etc.) here in the US how to increase your serve speed, they’ll tell you that you have only two alternatives: 1) improve your technique and/or 2) lift weights, pull rubber bands, and throw medicine balls to increase your strength. Well, the former alternative (changing technique) simply takes too long, and the overwhelming evidence from the sports science realm is that the latter (conventional, strength-focused conditioning exercises) simply doesn’t increase your racket, therefore, serve speed.

What now?

If you’ve been reading this blog with any regularity, you already know what the solution to the “I want/need more serve speed problem" is: train with the Tennis SpeedChain.

TTFN!

(Informal) Serve Speed Survey of US College and Junior Tennis

Last week, I had the privilege of traveling to the 2007 Easter Bowl Championships in Rancho Mirage, California with my new client, who played in the Girls’ U18 Easter Bowl ITF tournament. During our trip, I wanted to conduct an informal survey of serve speeds demonstrated by the various players that participated in that very prestigious National junior tournament.

As it turned out, I had the opportunity to measure serve speeds for some college and pro players as well. We arrived in LA a few days before the start of the Easter Bowl tournament and caught the very competitive dual match between the #1 ranked Stanford women and the 10^th-ranked UCLA women (which ended up 4-3 for Stanford), and I was able to record serve speeds for the Stanford and UCLA players who played #1 and #2 singles. I also recorded the serve speeds of one of the tour players I coach who happened to be in LA that weekend.

Unfortunately, my new client lost her first round match at the Easter Bowl, and we came back to LA and spent two days training at UCLA. During those two days, I was also able to measure the serve speeds of some of the starters(#1, 2, 4 and 6) for the UCLA men’s team, as well as the serve speeds of a Bruin alumnus who is currently ranked in the Top 250 in the ATP rankings.

So, without further ado, here is a brief summary of the serve speeds—for both first and second serves—I measured over the course of our 6 day visit to SoCal. For brevity, I’m reporting the range of serves (fastest and slowest) I measured for each of the levels I observed from ATP to NCAA D1 all the way down to the 14 and under boys and girls at the Easter Bowl.

My “survey” is by no means exhaustive, but I was able to measure a wide range of male and female players from Top 3 seeded players to first-time National tournament participants. Unfortunately, we left the desert before the start of the Boys 18s tournament, so I wasn’t able to take any measurements from their age group.

ATP Men—first serve: 101 to 122 MPH; second serve: 78 to 90 MPH

NCAA Men—first serve: 82 to 104 MPH; second serve: 69 to 85 MPH

NCAA Women—first serve: 64 to 89 MPH; second serve: 64 to 74 MPH

U18 Girls—first serve: 67 to 96 MPH; second serve: 63 to 75 MPH

U16 Boys—first serve: 75 to 105 MPH; second serve: 67 to 82 MPH

U16 Girls—first serve: 65 to 83 MPH; second serve: 58 to 70 MPH

U14 Boys—first serve: 63 to 87 MPH; second serve: 55 to 69 MPH

U14 Girls—first serve: 57 to 73 MPH; second serve: 53 to 64 MPH

Oh, and if you are wondering, the fastest serve I measured (122 MPH) was struck by my pro client who has been training with the SpeedChain since last fall.

I hope you will find these results interesting and informative…

TTFN!