Efficiency - Example #1

Since the last post (link), I received some questions regarding the "efficiency" I mentioned.

I will share one real-life example which I thought exemplifies efficiency. No names would be revealed. And to protect the anonymity of the actual player, some details might be altered.

Player A

Male. 20+ years old. Very fit and fast footwork. Has ranking points, but he felt he was "stuck" at a certain level and could not move up the rankings despite changing coaches.

He was a heavy-topspin baseliner. Big slice/topspin serves. Very little volleys. From his match videos, I saw most of his shots were contacted about a metre or more outside the baseline.

From our discussions, he believed that racket head speed (RHS) was the most important attribute and had selected his racket and strings to maximise RHS.

RHS is vital for spin. For his case, I agreed that high RHS was important for his game style. 

However, to achieve his desired RHS, he chose a very light racket. About 330 grams strung. Swingweight at low 310s. Using a golf swing speed radar, I clocked his swing speed at 70+ mph average for both wings. Pretty good.

Then I videoed him in a co-operative rally with both players hitting directly to each other's forehands. Then backhands.

Even with his 100 sq inch racket, he was contacting the ball all over the stringbed. Out of 100 forehands and 100 backhands, his sweetspot or COP contact was less than 25%.

For a co-operative rally, this was disastrous!

What I felt he omitted in his racket selection, was that he was extremely strong, fit and moved fast. 

He was not convinced. 

So, after the two hours hitting session, I asked him to run 2.4km at 80% of his fastest pace. He clocked in at 7.25 minutes.

Physically, he was almost 1.8 metres tall, had long limbs, and weighed just below 80 kg. In my opinion, that was very good proportion.

To me, he was not optimising his physical strength, speed and stamina.

His racket was too light. I saw his very well developed footwork and early racket prep. Many of the half volleys he executed aggressively, when his opponent sent the ball just outside the baseline, had near perfect timing.

In my view, his was a case of "over-acceleration". That led to too early release of the wrist hinge and racket face closing too fast. That resulted in poor directional accuracy and inconsistent contact, both on the stringbed and contact point relative to his body position. That held him back from playing 100%.

Both his coach and himself thought these were a result of his grip, timing and lost string tension (ie wear and tear) but I disagreed.

At the next session, I got him to test a modified version of his racket with the same strings and tension. I did not restring his used strings.

Immediately, his timing fell in place. He could "go for it", step in and chase the ball aggressively without fearing the ball veer left or right. 

His shot placement accuracy, depth control and trajectory control all improved. He could place return of serves confidently.

In a video I shot from the side of the baseline, his contact point relative to his body position also improved. Sweet spot hit percentages on the stringbed for co-operative rallies went up to 70% for 100 shots.

This led to other improvements such as a much heavier ball and more offensive forward and high-kicking topspin. 

His coach struggled much more rallying with him this session versus the previous. The coach contacted and returned more shots above his shoulder level vs mid-torso level previously due to the increased kick from the topspin. (And I heard expletives during the rally!!!)

Despite this, the player felt he was struggling with the racket weight. It took him more effort to swing and he was unsure if he could sustain three sets or more with it. 

Before I could answer, his coach retorted: "This is it! This is what we wanted. The kind of shots we have been trying to achieve".

His efficient racket was actually 20+ grams more than what he had believed in. 

Part of the weight was used to beef up the recoil and slow down his racket slightly so he had time to fully release his power into the shots. 

As I expected much more consistent contacts, I believed he would experience less racket twists, so I reduced his excessive twistweight and adjusted his spin-to-power ratio to "compensate" for the increased weight.

It took him about three weeks to acclimatise to the new weight. And when he switched back to one of his lighter sticks for comparison, he felt he could not perform anymore - power, accuracy, spin, control and stability all dipped.

And the acid test? He managed to beat a player he previously struggled with for a very long time!