allright Safin what i like to do today is play out points
and then kind of coach you through the points see some kind of tendencies that you have
when you play points of course it's not going to be the same as when you play a match but
it's going to be good training i do this with a lot of my students and
it's a good way to work on your game and look what i'm doing here i'm tying my shoes you know
what that means i'm showing respect to you this is a sign of respect i never tie my shoes unless
i'm playing somebody good and this is the ultimate sign of respect my shoes are tied and that means
you're good you're a good player all right so let me serve first okay go again go again sorry
that's a beautiful shot safin normally i would say low percentage shot but because
you were inside the court i felt like you could go down the line and open up very nice
you want to avoid leaving the ball half court right because guys are going to
crush it you want depth doesn't necessarily have to be in the
corners you can go central but depth is important height is important too
nice put away safin good i like how you angled that volley off beautiful job then it
doesn't have to be hit so hard because it's going to shoot off the court at a steep trajectory
oh again control that return what was your mindset that you wanted to take a full cut prior to me
serving or was this kind of trying to get it back in play as deep as i could because the swing
looked a little too long yeah you want to minimize two things because that was a first serve flat
hard first serve you're going to minimize your turn so you're not going to turn the normal amount
you're gonna turn less half or one quarter of your normal turn and exactly the same thing
with the backswing naturally as you turn less the racket will go less back as well those two things
go hand in hand so also a quick movement super super fast on the other end of the stroke you try
to finish it off apply some topspin but you make the correction in the backswing so try again okay
that was a little too short right there so don't reduce the swing speed like even though you're
taking it back shorter you're not turning as much swing fast at the ball and then you're going to
use all that pace that's coming at you if you slow it down too much if you like hold the ball
too long in here if you're kind of steering it you'll slow it down too much try it again okay
okay that return was better because you saw i hit a forehand from a little bit more defensive
position behind the baseline let's try it again i want you to be even more aggressive
okay but remember being aggressive without taking that huge take back without taking the huge turn
that was a tough serve sorry safin no you hit your car twice double hit
late on that come on get out of the way return is often about flexibility think of djokovic
getting your body out of the way making quicker body movements
again
beautiful return safin fantastic and even better half court forehand very good see that shot right
there has improved tremendously right you used to miss a ton of these down the line
finish the return off finish it off
oh you missed it do you remember the one handed backhand lesson we had and you asked me about topspin
and i told you that if you're making your flat backhands it's okay to have a flat backhand but
if you're missing your flat backhand right you've got to put topspin on it remember that yep so
even in your matches against milan i feel like when the ball comes fast the flat backhand is
okay you're kind of almost deflecting it you're using an incoming ball pace it's also okay on
the slice when you're returning a slice i do feel like you get balls a little more floaty
yeah that's when you miss your flat backhand so on those apply topspin even though the ball is higher
apply topspin go don't don't do this which you do normally but go more more here turn
the racket around on the other end so the butt cap is pointing to the other side okay that
backhand you missed right there has been seeing that quite a bit so you got to put more spin
very nice safin very good and you got to that drop shot pretty quick too nice work
missed it that's more of a footwork thing there i feel like you didn't
you didn't move enough there you felt like you caught it a little bit on the bottom of the frame
so it was more of an intensity thing again ball with no pace there don't get nonchalant in those
type of balls even though they look easy they're not requires a lot of setup a lot of intensity
safin when you got power coming your way that's where you bunt that's when you shorten your swing
just deflect that's what a one-handed backhand is beautiful for okay don't take too big of a cut
too many balls down the middle yeah they give me those two too many balls on the middle you
gotta open up the court a little more when you go through the middle it's got to be with more power
because remember at your level that you're playing ball in the middle that's not hard
enough you're going to be in a lot of trouble was that planned or was it just accidental okay got it
yeah don't fall for the fake kick come on be ready you fell for the fake kick
oh you had me there finish the backhand more you're still finishing here like this
turn it around at the end okay and let's just see what happens
did you fall for the fake kick again
oh yeah safin yes
okay not bad do it again second
on the line good safin nice
one thing i can advise you here get that ball real quick is to return slice with topspin for now
yeah stay away from using your slice why would you do that because i think your slice
still has some uh some way to go as far as the technique remember there's often a problem where
you're too bent in here coming into bent yeah so there might be some forearm movement at contact
possibly what happened there on that one and your one-handed backhand is so much better that's why
i would hit 95 of your backhand shots with your regular backhand
very strong safin nice
when it comes right your body what do you like backhand or forehand okay good
again safin come on quick movements
that look long was that was that out
really oh you're not one of those guys that gives that gives balls in that are actually out
i hope not i hope you're not i know players like that balls this far out and they call it in
long long long again same side here last one and then you serve second
on we were feet up that was a short serve we got to go up safin one thing on the return man
high intensity super high intensity your feet have to be on fire second
beautiful job safin nice work take a little break
that was a little bit long here see where your flat backhand hurts you it's
on the return to serve a little bit sometimes second return of serve
second serve and from the corners there i would have put a lot more spin on the ball
i wouldn't slice it because again your slice is not at the proper level yet where it needs to be
so topspin backhand more spin more height over the net
that is the most athletic thing i've ever seen you do
safin that was amazing you're getting better man fitness-wise you see just gotta keep getting
better but it was an amazing get there you slid into it and great feel too nice work
if you start hitting frames on the kicker two things to remind yourself of stay sideways longer
and throw the ball a little bit more right on top of your head
if you open up too much you lose sight of the ball sometimes you can frame it
that's the way to take care of business up at the half court fantastic job man big improvement
at that part of the court handling low balls you're putting a lot more spin you're going for
the good targets high percentage targets a big improvement man nice job nice work
safin you're tall remember to bend okay on that ball right there get
your back knee to the ground you gonna make that shot every time
i'm a little bit worried about the frame shots tell me how often you frame in tournaments
is it frequent or not more often than that i think it's more of a it's a footwork thing
it's increasing the adjustment steps especially on balls that appear to be weaker
so keep moving keep moving your feet keep setting up perfectly
so much better those half course shots good job safin man
i'm proud of you you're showing improvements
so what i think on your serve second serve is good i'm happy with your second serve what i
noticed on the first serve is that the placement is not there your best serve is like the body serve
you're sometimes hitting too much in the guy's slot so what i would practice i would set up cones
like right here here set up cones here here and practice hitting the corners more because you're
serving too many flat serves into the slot apart from the body serve that one's good but
you can't always serve in the body either next time you practice serves set up some
cones second serve is good big improvement half court big improvement of directing the forehand
down the line inside in doing a lot better you're moving faster you're on the right track good work