Discussed smash factor with my golf coach last week. Yes hitting the sweet spot is important but the biggest factor for amateurs is aligning the club face to swing path. You can feel it in the golf swing when you get it right - the ball pings of the club face. Same I guess in tennis - swipe across the ball or push it with a locked wrist won’t give much of a smash factor even if your racket swing is fast.
This is a good point. This is also why me and Tom Have pretty solid hits, we approach the ball from a good angle. Too many people drop it extremely low and come at it from inefficient angles.
Verdasco has the racquet butt sticking out of his hand (stability), Nadal has it in his palm (flexibility). The latter gives you more options, but also requires more "motor control", which is great if you have it and rubbish if you don't 😊 I use the Verdasco (newly-named, Allsopp).
Interesting point about Federer. If you watch Daniil at 0:04 on .25x speed you can see him hit a ball below the equator and the racket tips over ruclips.net/video/iuOvL1HdYOc/видео.htmlsi=QnOJfvW9WJMPdH1K
Uuuuhh. All the super slo mo videos of pro’s I’ve seen the racket wobbles and goes over the top of where the point of impact was on a forehand, years ago announcers would claim that the player “ covered” the ball. This incorrect observation caused all kinds of havoc at the rec level, people trying to roll the wrist over the ball. If one could attempt to grip tight enough to prevent racket wobble you would have a slow swing death grip and I bet the racket face would still come off from the angle when it made contact with the ball.
@@TomAllsopp Bak n the day when the balls were white I heard a tip that one should give the racket a little squeeze just before contact. It gets worse than that. I think if you grip with the small and ring finger and relax the index and middle finger it helps to relax the arm. Good news is I predict a boom in Golf participation. Once the picklers realize they can cut down their movement AND paralyze the ball. Well that’s golf no?
I think it's a mistake saying that Roger s forehand wasn't that good at the end of his career, it was more about his footwork, getting into the position. So more physical ability
Footwork was the main issue, as it is for anyone getting old. But his arm was getting straighter and everything getting more stretched out. This was technical but probably in a search for power, probably because his movement was slower.
Disagree on the racket turning over analysis. First, find me a video of a pro hitting a shot above the center line of the racket and the racket reacting by opening up. There aren’t any, other than the rare shank where ball hits the top edge of the frame. But there would be if what you say about why it tilts downward due to a below centerline hit with a loose grip. I don’t think you mean to suggest that the racket closes because it’s spinning in Fed’s hand. So we can assume that the racket closes with his wrist/forearm pronating in the process. Ah ha! Pronation is exactly what happens on contact. But it’s an intended action, not an unintended result of an off center hit. All the great forehands show pronation starting just at, or slightly before, contact, no matter where the ball hits the strings. Look at Alcaraz’s massive pronation on his FH, which results in a fully pronated hand/wrist at the end of his follow through. Forearm pronation is the fastest way a human can move something held in the hand. Ask a thermometer.
You think your comments are supported!? I don’t even know how you can come up with your opinions. In the clips I show of Federer you think he’s just pronating more and this is a purposeful move?
@@TomAllsopp I do indeed. The support is contained in the bazillion slow motion videos of Fed (and many others) clearly pronating on their FH, regardless of where the ball meets the strings. Simple observation: See where his thumb knuckle is facing just before contact (toward the sky) and watch as it rotates almost 180 degrees in the milliseconds post contact. The elbow rotates very obviously, too. That’s pronation. You do the same thing, albeit a bit slower. Your racket face is generally facing the ground in the follow through. Do you not realize what’s happening??
@jimhaggerty1863 so just to confirm.. this is an intention move by Federer in the 2 clips? You can call it pronation if you like because obviously the arm rotates that way as the racket twists through lack of stability. But that’s not the pronation anyone including him is looking for.
I would disagree with your Fed observations. First the racket face will naturally close even if you hit the sweet spot if your wrist is loose on contact and you hit slightly below the mid-line of the racket. It does for me. You kind of alluded to this. Also, by using an Eastern grip, you want to hit forward or out in front as much as possible. You want to get your weight into the shot. The more you shift to a western grip, the more back your weight should be. I think Fed's forehand was as good as he was when he was younger and maybe better. Because the courts got slower and slower, Fed had hit with more spin. And because the balls sat up higher, he could not crush as many balls as he use to. Now some indoor courts played fairly fast and in those tournaments, Fed played more like his younger self. I don't know if it's a conspiracy against him or his style but after 2008, more and more tournaments started slowing their surfaces to crawl. I don't believe this was good for the sport as matches got more boring and certainly it kept Fed from winning majors. He finally figured out how to beat these slow courts by fixing his backhand in 2017 and taking balls early. If he done that in 2009, how many more majors could he have won? At least 10.
As you move from continental to eastern to semi-western and western, you have to hit the ball further out if front (contact point) not the other way around. Your weight should be moving forward on all the shots when attacking the ball. Weight on the back foot is a defensive posture regardless of grip.
It shouldn't close as much as it did for Federer in those videos. It's because he was overstretched. And he did that more as he got later into his career.
More western grip actually requires more out in front and more eastern grip can be hit further back . Fed is very unique that he has an eastern grip but hits way out in front. He also has a lot of action in the wrist and a very extreme closed racquet face in the drop which is high risk high reward. Also the straight arm and way out in front is higher risk higher reward. As a result it was very good with his amazing timing but also had a lot more mishits and shanks than most elite ball strikers. Other experts have pointed this out too. The clips in this vid are definitely mishits from fed. Not shanks but not what he wanted to do for sure.
I do know what smash factor is. But obviously you don’t. With the golf driver, the maximum ALLOWED ball speed is 1.5 (100mph swing CANNOT result in a ball speed of more than 150mph); if the driver exceeds a smash factor of more than 1.5, the club is deemed illegal; every head used on the pro tour is supposed to be tested. The mass produced club heads for us might occasionally exceed 1.5 because only batches of clubs are tested. The rest of the clubs are not limited for pros, but 1.5 is still considered a perfect hit. Your entire piece is ridiculous because we have to change our one racket into the full bag of gold clubs. If smash factor were even of the of greatest importance in tennis, we would only swing straight back and straight forward to get maximum compression of the ball (totally flat), which you might not know is a moving object. This would be great if our intention was to see how far we could hit the tennis ball. Since virtually every tennis shot has some degree of shape/spin, you obviously also don’t know what spin is. Spin is an intended mishit which adds control to the shot. And it is the guaranteed variability in human spin on a variety of balls that makes the good spin player more challenging to play; his spin varies regardless of his intent. If you are looking for a high smash factor on a topspin lob, drop shot or second serve, you know nothing about tennis. And that is exactly what you have shown with this ridiculous “content”. And, BTW, I really like gamma grips. They were helpful in my being ranked in the top ten in the world in both singles and doubles.
I don't see how the first bit debunked what I said about smash factor calculation.But huge congrats for finding ways this is not exactly the same for tennis and for shots like lobs. Well done! It's a good message and I'll continue to help people to get maximum efficiency of their strike with these ideas.
OMG what a bunch of bollocks! This guy has no idea what he is talking about! The comment on Federer … 😂😂😂 I’ve been getting instruction from a D1 player he have absolute control … a pro or a GOAT like Federer even more, stating otherwise makes all this advice a moot point!
@@TomAllsopp you said Federer was fumbling his forehand at the end of his career! 🤣 I mean I would love to see you play. For someone to say this is because they understand shit about tennis and shouldn’t really be posting golf analogies with tennis.
@joaolcorreia you’re not very good at this tennis and thinking thing. I said he was getting a little stretched out, maybe to achieve more power on the slower courts than earlier in his career. When over stretched the racket is less stable. You see how logical that is, and how I don’t need to be able to beat him to be able to have such brilliant observations?
I think we cant understand Federer enough and cant replicate his forehand really. Its bacause all of us have diffeerent physics/training/nature features/background/atleticism and so on. We only have to find our personal way to hit the ball (using basic recommendations about preparation, etc). Even if we have Federer-like forehand, it can be only the shadow of his real tennis stroke.
I know enough to say what I said in this video. There’s nothing these guys do that’s difficult to understand. But yes, we shouldn’t try to imitate their strokes. Everyone’s game is unique.
What ya think?
Tom less talk more hitting
@@rintintin7529 can't promise that. Gonna go for less hitting more info
Love watching Tom hit... great lesson and look forward to our next session together.
Top notch content, underrated topic. Keep it up.
I had never heard of smash factor before. That's a neat concept.
Discussed smash factor with my golf coach last week. Yes hitting the sweet spot is important but the biggest factor for amateurs is aligning the club face to swing path. You can feel it in the golf swing when you get it right - the ball pings of the club face. Same I guess in tennis - swipe across the ball or push it with a locked wrist won’t give much of a smash factor even if your racket swing is fast.
This is a good point. This is also why me and Tom Have pretty solid hits, we approach the ball from a good angle. Too many people drop it extremely low and come at it from inefficient angles.
Verdasco has the racquet butt sticking out of his hand (stability), Nadal has it in his palm (flexibility). The latter gives you more options, but also requires more "motor control", which is great if you have it and rubbish if you don't 😊 I use the Verdasco (newly-named, Allsopp).
Interesting point about Federer. If you watch Daniil at 0:04 on .25x speed you can see him hit a ball below the equator and the racket tips over
ruclips.net/video/iuOvL1HdYOc/видео.htmlsi=QnOJfvW9WJMPdH1K
@@stevenmckelvey80 that looks like what I would expect.
There goes that Gamma sponsorship.
Damn, really wanted them balls
@@TomAllsopp isn't gamma known for string or stringing machines? yonex and wilson grips are more superior for sure
What’s my smash factor?
Uuuuhh.
All the super slo mo videos of pro’s I’ve seen the racket wobbles and goes over the top of where the point of impact was on a forehand, years ago announcers would claim that the player “ covered” the ball. This incorrect observation caused all kinds of havoc at the rec level, people trying to roll the wrist over the ball. If one could attempt to grip tight enough to prevent racket wobble you would have a slow swing death grip and I bet the racket face would still come off from the angle when it made contact with the ball.
I believe you should be very firm on contact, but most players attempting that will be too firm for too long.
@@TomAllsopp
Bak n the day when the balls were white I heard a tip that one should give the racket a little squeeze just before contact.
It gets worse than that.
I think if you grip with the small and ring finger and relax the index and middle finger it helps to relax the arm.
Good news is I predict a boom in Golf participation. Once the picklers realize they can cut down their movement AND paralyze the ball. Well that’s golf no?
I think it's a mistake saying that Roger s forehand wasn't that good at the end of his career, it was more about his footwork, getting into the position. So more physical ability
Footwork was the main issue, as it is for anyone getting old. But his arm was getting straighter and everything getting more stretched out. This was technical but probably in a search for power, probably because his movement was slower.
Disagree on the racket turning over analysis. First, find me a video of a pro hitting a shot above the center line of the racket and the racket reacting by opening up. There aren’t any, other than the rare shank where ball hits the top edge of the frame. But there would be if what you say about why it tilts downward due to a below centerline hit with a loose grip. I don’t think you mean to suggest that the racket closes because it’s spinning in Fed’s hand. So we can assume that the racket closes with his wrist/forearm pronating in the process. Ah ha! Pronation is exactly what happens on contact. But it’s an intended action, not an unintended result of an off center hit. All the great forehands show pronation starting just at, or slightly before, contact, no matter where the ball hits the strings. Look at Alcaraz’s massive pronation on his FH, which results in a fully pronated hand/wrist at the end of his follow through. Forearm pronation is the fastest way a human can move something held in the hand. Ask a thermometer.
Sorry, but I don’t agree with any of that. Zero
@@TomAllsopp Noted. But unsupported.
You think your comments are supported!? I don’t even know how you can come up with your opinions. In the clips I show of Federer you think he’s just pronating more and this is a purposeful move?
@@TomAllsopp I do indeed. The support is contained in the bazillion slow motion videos of Fed (and many others) clearly pronating on their FH, regardless of where the ball meets the strings. Simple observation: See where his thumb knuckle is facing just before contact (toward the sky) and watch as it rotates almost 180 degrees in the milliseconds post contact. The elbow rotates very obviously, too. That’s pronation. You do the same thing, albeit a bit slower. Your racket face is generally facing the ground in the follow through. Do you not realize what’s happening??
@jimhaggerty1863 so just to confirm.. this is an intention move by Federer in the 2 clips? You can call it pronation if you like because obviously the arm rotates that way as the racket twists through lack of stability. But that’s not the pronation anyone including him is looking for.
I would disagree with your Fed observations. First the racket face will naturally close even if you hit the sweet spot if your wrist is loose on contact and you hit slightly below the mid-line of the racket. It does for me. You kind of alluded to this. Also, by using an Eastern grip, you want to hit forward or out in front as much as possible. You want to get your weight into the shot. The more you shift to a western grip, the more back your weight should be. I think Fed's forehand was as good as he was when he was younger and maybe better. Because the courts got slower and slower, Fed had hit with more spin. And because the balls sat up higher, he could not crush as many balls as he use to. Now some indoor courts played fairly fast and in those tournaments, Fed played more like his younger self. I don't know if it's a conspiracy against him or his style but after 2008, more and more tournaments started slowing their surfaces to crawl. I don't believe this was good for the sport as matches got more boring and certainly it kept Fed from winning majors. He finally figured out how to beat these slow courts by fixing his backhand in 2017 and taking balls early. If he done that in 2009, how many more majors could he have won? At least 10.
As you move from continental to eastern to semi-western and western, you have to hit the ball further out if front (contact point) not the other way around. Your weight should be moving forward on all the shots when attacking the ball. Weight on the back foot is a defensive posture regardless of grip.
It shouldn't close as much as it did for Federer in those videos. It's because he was overstretched. And he did that more as he got later into his career.
More western grip actually requires more out in front and more eastern grip can be hit further back . Fed is very unique that he has an eastern grip but hits way out in front. He also has a lot of action in the wrist and a very extreme closed racquet face in the drop which is high risk high reward. Also the straight arm and way out in front is higher risk higher reward. As a result it was very good with his amazing timing but also had a lot more mishits and shanks than most elite ball strikers. Other experts have pointed this out too. The clips in this vid are definitely mishits from fed. Not shanks but not what he wanted to do for sure.
I do know what smash factor is. But obviously you don’t. With the golf driver, the maximum ALLOWED ball speed is 1.5 (100mph swing CANNOT result in a ball speed of more than 150mph); if the driver exceeds a smash factor of more than 1.5, the club is deemed illegal; every head used on the pro tour is supposed to be tested. The mass produced club heads for us might occasionally exceed 1.5 because only batches of clubs are tested. The rest of the clubs are not limited for pros, but 1.5 is still considered a perfect hit. Your entire piece is ridiculous because we have to change our one racket into the full bag of gold clubs. If smash factor were even of the of greatest importance in tennis, we would only swing straight back and straight forward to get maximum compression of the ball (totally flat), which you might not know is a moving object. This would be great if our intention was to see how far we could hit the tennis ball. Since virtually every tennis shot has some degree of shape/spin, you obviously also don’t know what spin is. Spin is an intended mishit which adds control to the shot. And it is the guaranteed variability in human spin on a variety of balls that makes the good spin player more challenging to play; his spin varies regardless of his intent. If you are looking for a high smash factor on a topspin lob, drop shot or second serve, you know nothing about tennis. And that is exactly what you have shown with this ridiculous “content”. And, BTW, I really like gamma grips. They were helpful in my being ranked in the top ten in the world in both singles and doubles.
I don't see how the first bit debunked what I said about smash factor calculation.But huge congrats for finding ways this is not exactly the same for tennis and for shots like lobs. Well done! It's a good message and I'll continue to help people to get maximum efficiency of their strike with these ideas.
OMG what a bunch of bollocks! This guy has no idea what he is talking about! The comment on Federer … 😂😂😂 I’ve been getting instruction from a D1 player he have absolute control … a pro or a GOAT like Federer even more, stating otherwise makes all this advice a moot point!
@@joaolcorreia what did I say that was incorrect? Hard to tell from this message talking about a D1 player having control. 🤷🏻♂️
A D1 player!!!! Stop the presses!!!
lol haha
@@TomAllsopp you said Federer was fumbling his forehand at the end of his career! 🤣 I mean I would love to see you play. For someone to say this is because they understand shit about tennis and shouldn’t really be posting golf analogies with tennis.
@joaolcorreia you’re not very good at this tennis and thinking thing. I said he was getting a little stretched out, maybe to achieve more power on the slower courts than earlier in his career. When over stretched the racket is less stable. You see how logical that is, and how I don’t need to be able to beat him to be able to have such brilliant observations?
I think we cant understand Federer enough and cant replicate his forehand really. Its bacause all of us have diffeerent physics/training/nature features/background/atleticism and so on. We only have to find our personal way to hit the ball (using basic recommendations about preparation, etc). Even if we have Federer-like forehand, it can be only the shadow of his real tennis stroke.
I know enough to say what I said in this video. There’s nothing these guys do that’s difficult to understand. But yes, we shouldn’t try to imitate their strokes. Everyone’s game is unique.