Coco’s Cannon
You’re 5’ 9’’, 140 lbs (1.79m, 64kg), and female. How hard can you serve? Answer: at least 124 mph (200 km/h), because that’s how fast the rocket Coco Gauff threw down in her third...
Why You Can’t Return a Kick Serve (Saccadic Blindness)
When you watch professional players return serve, they rarely look rushed, and when a player hits heavy spin at them, they never look bothered. There’s a clip from an exhibition tournament were Federer requests...
Alcarize Your Forehand
There’s one defining aspects of Carlos Alcaraz’s world class forehand that often gets overlooked – generous use of gravity. Carlos’s unique mechanics are precisely the result of this technical decision, so let’s dive in...
How to Hit the Perfect Forehand
The calendar just switched over to April, and I’d like to christen the new month by recapping the technical underpinnings behind a perfect forehand. Before we start, a quick word of warning: Don’t click...
The Rafa-Style Follow-Through
The “buggy whip forehand.” The “reverse forehand.” The “over the head follow-through.” It goes by many names, but my favorite pays homage to the first man to really abuse it on the pro tour...
The Felix Flick
I get this question a lot: If I’m trying to master the modern forehand, who should I emulate? Look no further than 2022 Rotterdam champion Felix Auger-Aliassime. We always talk about how the optimal...
The Secret to Saving Your Knees
The knee, like the foot, is a beautiful, well engineered piece of biological machinery. And also like the foot, the knee is very easy to injure. When a person is standing, their weight is...
Accelerate Late, Like Jannik Sinner
Velocity is a measure of speed and direction. The sentence “my racket was moving fast when I struck the ball” is referencing the racket’s high velocity. Acceleration, on the other hand, is a measure...
1 Trick to Stop Missing Forehands Out
Almost every tour player prepares for their waist height forehand with their strings down, often with their palm down as well. Some even begin with the hitting face of their racket pointing behind them....
1 Trick to Eliminate 90% of Net Misses
Tour level players hit surprisingly high over the net. The amount of net clearance they’re getting is pretty difficult to see from the typical broadcast view: the bird’s eye camera, and as such, I...