Forehand Drives and Using that Core

 John Cincola has a nice channel of PB content on YouTube.  He had a video the other day about forehand drives and I wanted to talk about that for a couple of reasons.

Let me summarize the stroke as John sees it.  He wants to face the shot head on and then take the ball just at or inside and in front of his right hand foot.  (Right hand foot???)  He doesn't move his feet sideways as you would hitting a tennis shot.  There is shoulder rotation, hit the ball in front of his feet and let the paddle wrap around his left shoulder.

I like this stroke.  With no real feet movement, it's really easy to reset for the return shot.  Also using your core in a rotational pattern and not, for example, moving your upper body towards the target, is efficient.  The stroke is also short.

I was using this a lot today while playing and I was getting very good power and speed from it.  Then I realized that with little modification, this becomes as excellent service stroke.  While I am happy to see some body and weight shift towards the target on a serve, it's not really required to get enough speed for a good serve.  I started using it as a serve.  I hit the ball lower than I usually do and with more speed.  My control was very good.  My consistency was excellent, I didn't serve out all morning -- but I usually will only serve out about once a week, so I can't claim more control with a small sample.

While I was thinking about this, I was watching my partners serve.  They had pretty good serves, they got them in for example and the depth and speed of the shots was fine.  I did see some body motion towards the target, again, something I like if you have trouble with serving.  But I could see from my partners that there was a lot of power loss in doing so.  The balls were hit from too far forward and as they had to reach for the ball to hit it, they hit softer shots than the effort they put in.  I think having a more square stance and dropping the ball off the front right knee and just using their core to rotate and hit the ball would be more efficient.

Pro tip on serving, you absolutely need to tightly control the location of your ball drop to control angle, direction, and spin.  If you miss serves then check this first.

Link to John's post: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/9J9lwF01gSE

This stroke felt different to me.  I don't use my core rotationally much and I probably want to.  It felt good and strong and I'm going to pursue it.  Now let's seek understanding and progress in other areas.  I also play golf.  If you hit golf balls correctly, you also want this core rotation.  One of my many golf flaws is to move my body towards the target.  What I want to do is to force my body to stay somewhat stable and in position and use that leg brace to power a rotation via the core.  I'm hoping to make this work too.

Take a look at the video, it's all of 30 seconds long, see if it helps you.

A Couple of Musings...

 It's been a long time since I wrote anything.  The reasons for that are that I've found another sport, disc golf, I'm also rekindling my interest in regular golf, and then I feel that my understanding of PB is such that I don't have much new to say. 

I see things that folks are doing and are less than ideal and I think about writing about them, but I've already written those posts, probably a couple of years ago and I don't want do it again.

But there are a couple of things that I wanted to talk about and I'm tired of reading today and felt like writing.  So shall we begin?

A question came up about serving styles the other day.  The question was whether a very long stroke with a lot of reach back was a good thing for serving.  One of my core interests is serving I think that if you are serving out more than once a day, then you are not being efficient.  The way to serve consistently is to have good timing and rhythm and a consistent impact location.

An elaborate stroke where there is a lot of arm and body motion can work very well.  I like the idea of a bit of forward step and a weight shift as I think that imparts a nice sequence and makes for easier timing.  You then add a ball drop at the appropriate time and then it's an easy stroke.  Note that if you volley the serve versus using a bounce serve, then the timing of the drop is different.  But most people will do that automatically after some play.  It's great being a human, we are so good at figuring things out.

So it's basically a backswing, step forward, drop the ball and then hit it.  Make sure you are releasing the ball consistently and fairly close to your forward leg.  You want to hit the ball on an up stroke (required if you use a volley serve) and you can vary how deep you hit the serve by contacting the ball higher than normal.  Advanced pro tip: have some break in your grip so that you brush the ball and impart some top spin.  That will make it easier to keep the ball in bounds.  

Now, when you are not serving, then elaborate strokes, like you see in tennis, are not a good idea.  Those strokes take a lot of time.  You need the time to make a long back stroke and then there is the time to swing at the ball.  Time is valuable in this game you want to hoard yours and try to steal from your opponents.  Yes, there are posts about this topic too.  So a short swing, taking it back no further than your body and a short forward stroke to hit the ball in front of your body is what you want.  At the net, it's a very short stroke, or pop, or push, or block -- nothing slow, and make sure you get your paddle ready for the next shot.

Next topic is about body bagging, aka, trying to deliberately hit your opponents.  If you are playing in a tournament, this is valid, useful, and at some levels required to play well.  However, in rec play, I think it should be avoided.  Especially don't do it when playing with beginners.  They will not appreciate it and if they are not used to it, can be dangerous.  

I'll also suggest that playing against people who are not wearing safety glasses, it's a shot that should be avoided.  I understand it's their decision not to wear glasses, but accidents happen a lot in this game and I would not be happy to cause a serious injury in any deliberate fashion.  

It's really easy to get a ball in the face from ricochets and net balls and partners who clip a ball with edge of their paddle, so I think it's smart to not add deliberate shots to the mix.

If you are going to try to hit someone, aim for a hip, but there is still a chance that a low shot can turn ugly.  It's rec play and we are there to have a good time and go home healthy.  Shots near people I like to avoid as much as possible, even if it's the best shot for the occasion.

I've been playing at May Nissan for the last couple of months.  I'm enjoying it a lot.  It reminds me of what Downs was like a couple of years ago.  It's probably more social and that might just be due to more people and more co-ed than the Downs ever was.  I also wanted to mention that the level of play is getting a lot better and the differences between the beginners and more skilled players is getting smaller.  So the quality of the games is improving and becoming more enjoyable.  Well done, all!

I think that's about all that's on my mind these days, I'll see on the courts.