When we discuss tennis video analysis, we usually think of a scientific way of dissecting a tennis stroke. Most players and coaches undermine the importance of using tennis video analysis in helping to fix certain flaws in tennis technique that may be present in a player’s strokes.
What are the benefits of using the different types of tennis analysis in attempting to break down the small elements of tennis technique of the pros?
Using Tennis Video Analysis
Here at Optimum Tennis, we focus on the type of tennis analysis relating to the tennis technique of a player. One of the things that separate professional and collegiate players is often seen in the tennis strokes. While there are a variety of other factors that influence a player’s skill level, such as strategy, footwork, fitness and even the mental game, a decade of researching top professional players in slow motion have been conclusive. At every level of tennis, players at the elite level usually have superior strokes over the amateur level players.
These small technicalities in technique often go missed by the naked eye, since a tennis swing occurs in mere seconds. Since the human eye is only able to see at around 30 frames per second, the eye misses most of the small parts of tennis technique that occur during a tennis shot. The irony is that during these few seconds, a few key body movements (or the swing path) are missed by the naked eye. Even a small difference in the way a player swings the racket will have a major impact in the way the racket contacts the ball. These differences are the small pieces of tennis technique that are usually responsible for a player’s ability to generate power, topspin and depth.
Using tennis video analysis to learn about the pro tennis strokes is a new concept that is only beginning to be utilized by coaches and players at the amateur level. In every other sport such as baseball, football, golf, a comprehensive slow motion analysis is common knowledge. In tennis, using any kind of tennis video analysis is still a pioneer concept.
Eliminating Flaws in Tennis Technique through Tennis Stroke Analysis
It is my belief that too much importance has been put on the strategy part of tennis by coaches and students. Most players do not engage in tennis analysis, instead they are taught first to learn how to play tennis and play competitively. Tennis players are often put into game or live hitting situations without first developing technically sound tennis strokes.
Most club players have flaws in their tennis technique that go unfixed since they have been swinging that way for years. They may have already begun to play competitive league or tournament matches, but the lack of tennis stroke analysis in the development of their game has confined them to staying at the same level.
Over years of studying the top pro players in tennis, I’ve researched countless slow motion videos of the tennis strokes of the pros. What I’ve noticed is that every top professional player that I’ve researched had distinct commonalities in their tennis technique that seemed to be uniform among the pro players. These key positions occurred during the swing path, and was clear when viewed through slow motion video. In normal speed watching professional tennis on TV or in person, it was nearly impossible to see these key positions and commonalities that I observed. A normal tennis swing in real-time occurs too fast for the human eye to observe the small pieces of tennis technique.
Benefits of Using Tennis Video Analysis
The beauty of tennis stroke analysis is that it puts problems into perspective. An indepth tennis analysis through slow motion video reveals many of the technical problems a player might experience with their tennis strokes. Using tennis video analysis, players can see and visualize their own tennis strokes and compare them with the pros.
Tennis players cannot see themselves performing their swing, and thus they must rely on their brain’s feeling and muscle memory to visualize their current swing. Many times, a player may believe that they are swinging a certain way, but once they are recorded through tennis video analysis they come to the realization that their “real swing” is not nearly the same as they had imagined the swing would be. Often times, the brain does not have an accurate visual picture of the tennis swing, because there is a disconnect between what the brain “feels” and what is actually occurring during a tennis swing.
Tennis analysis is the real deal because once players utilize a video camera to slow down their own strokes, they can then see the exact swing. Most of the time, tennis stroke analysis begins to reveal the technical flaws in a player’s swing pattern. These flaws in tennis technique would have gone unnoticed had a player continued to rely on their brain’s visual image of what it believed to be their current tennis swing.
Improving Your Tennis Strokes With Pro Tennis Stroke Analysis
Tennis video analysis not only shows a visual picture recorded through video, but in many cases it allows a person to slow down the frames so they can see the tennis techniques move by move. In many cases, amateur level players usually lack the key positions in tennis technique that are uniformly present in the top pro players.
This eye opening experience through an in-depth tennis analysis can educate players and help them become aware of the flaws in their strokes that they may have not known previously. Through visualizing the correct tennis stroke in contrast to their current swing, they may be able to override their incorrect tendencies. Without a thorough tennis video analysis, none of this would have been possible . Players have the opportunity to see exactly what flaws that he or she may possess in the stroke mechanics through tennis stroke analysis.
The benefits of tennis stroke analysis to not only research top pro tennis players, but for individual video analysis are many fold. At Optimum Tennis, we’ve taken the time to analyze and break down some of the tennis strokes of the pros in our section below. In each article, we’ve used tennis video analysis to teach you how you too can incorporate some of these key positions into your repertoire.
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