Your Strokes: Fred Bye Forehand

No amount of email analysis can substitute for video in discovering the real problems players face in their strokes.

Every month in Your Strokes, we’ll analyze the stroke of a Tennisplayer.net member and suggest a framework for improving it, by comparing the key parts of the stroke to model positions drawn from high level pro players.

This month we’ll take a look at the forehand of Tennisplayer charter member Fred Bye, a dedicated recreational player and 4.5 league player from Maryland.

It may be a cliche, but it’s still true. “A picture is worth a thousand words.” And in tennis it’s overwhelmingly important. That’s why on Tennisplayer, we’ve avoided features like “Ask the Expert” or “Ask the Pro.”

After years of experience I have come to the conclusion that it’s virtually impossible to diagnose technical stroke problems without actually seeing the stroke in question. I know these because I’ve had the opportunity many times to film players who have previously written me with complex technical questions. I have found that the player’s description of the problem virtually never matched what the video camera actually saw. Because of this, I feel a lot of time and energy can be wasted in…