10 Minutes of Tennis: The Modern Game and How it Can Help YOU

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Good morning, Justin Yeo, world-renowned tennis pro Australian in Puerto Rico.

He's got the background with the...

If you're watching on video, he's got the background with the...

Looks like he's in Puerto Rico, actually, which is a good look.

But today, we are 10 minutes of tennis, and I am Shaun Boyce with GoTennis

And the Atlanta Tennis Podcast.

We are talking about the modern game.

That is the phrase, the modern game.

And how it can help you, you, the listener, you, the watcher,

my YouTube listeners, whoever you are out there,

how it can help you from a tennis point of view.

Is it going to make you better?

Can it help you understand the game better?

Is it different from the non-modern game?

So I want to start with a definition.

Justin Yo, I've done a little research.

I always do my due diligence, and I'm checking out the modern game.

And this does not mean the modern game as what was invented after Jou de Pomme,

I'm talking about the modern game of Rafael Nadal in the last 10, 15,

10, 15 years maybe.

20?

20 years?

Okay, so I'll leave you to the definitions and shorten my question.

Justin, define the modern game for me please.

All right.

Well, we're going to get eight minutes left, so I'll do it.

Okay.

A long first question, sorry.

That's what it was.

It was great as I can.

You know, the modern game, what we've, what the players have learned and what a lot of

a lot of people have learned is the efficiency of how to play tennis.

The tennis has become a lot more baseline, a lot more longer game.

And so when we think of modern, we think of, you know, biomechanics or hitting the ball correctly,

or hitting the ball more efficiently, understanding the components together,

working together, the physical component, working with set and tool and tactical.

And I think modern wise people need to understand that, you know, these guys,

this guy's a serious athlete.

And a probably modern thing that I don't hear a nub of,

of people doing a good warm up physically and a good warm down physically.

These players spend more time in recovery than they did at almost training.

And so we don't, and I think of modern game and especially for an amateur,

the longer they play, the longer they practice, the more they need to be recovering.

And I'm not seeing that at all. That's where the breakdowns happen.

That's when they're standing up on the ball and hitting the ball more with their hands to cut,

you know, compensate. So modern game, what I would say is that people need to understand that

there's a lot more physicality with the modern game. That's not denying how great athletes they

were back in the days because they were. But these guys now are seriously,

getting the way it's played is very, very, very, very upward.

You know, just with the different stances too, we've had so many years of,

and we had straight on neutral stance, or if not cross-step versus now we're seeing a lot more,

then it went open, stands for a long time with the windshield wipe beforehand.

What they realized is we're penetrating the baseline. So now we see semi-open and neutral stance,

when they can get into it, they long to rack the power and drive through the ball.

And probably the biggest change for everybody, which everybody already knows about,

is the strings and the rackets, you know. I think rackets have sort of plateaued a little,

and we see a lot more string. And the string is, you know, five-string or string patterns with wider

pattern, night and night and arrow pattern. We've seen a lot of control by our rackets,

the things are getting thicker versus thin. So there's probably more of a modern game and a

quickest summation as I can in three minutes. Now, how it helps the amateur,

need the right pro. I mean, sorry to say it, but the pro doesn't educate himself, it doesn't understand

the modern game and how to break that into their game. Then you need to find the right pro that

works for you. What you have and making it, you know, try to modernize it, but basically

tend without reinventing the wheel, without changing everything. And definitely not putting

sitting about, it's too hard, it's never going to be so...

And so I've heard four different things. I've heard the technical side, which is,

we're modernizing the grip. We're moving the actual state. You mentioned the stance,

specifically the stance and how we hit the ball and the technical of the rackets and the strings.

So the equipment side, but a lot of that stems from the physicality as you talk about.

These guys and these girls are elite athletes and they're unbelievably physical. And potentially,

you know, we'll consider them that superhero level of human. Okay, so let's understand in the same

way that I tell the kids sometimes and I have to tell an adult everyone's going to, "You're not

Roger." So no, you can't do that. It can be the goal in the same way. It can be that target.

If they've achieved perfection, we cannot, but we can strive for it. So the physicality is one thing,

the equipment, the technical, but then also your coach. Your coach has to understand these things

and how to help you get there. Yeah, and it will, you're great, some great examples there.

There are some rogers out there. I mean, the nitro through the very similar. If you look at parts of

Cicipaz's game, you can see a little bit of Roger. You can see a bit of Roger and obviously the

Alcharez. I see all the three top players in Alcharez a little bit. But really, if we look down at it,

there's no no that. There's no one with his range of motion and his flexibility and his strength

through range of motion. So that's, he's out on his own. There's no question. There's no one,

I don't even see people coming up that are like him. Shelton is a storm, the guy from America,

the big lefty. But unfortunately, he doesn't have all that range because he's a big guy. So it's,

yeah. So, you know, when we think modern and the guy that's dominated for so long, nobody's been

able to replicate what he can do. And so I think what people need to understand is there's a real

serious physical component in the modern game. And if you want to change your game towards more

than modern, you really have to think about being physical as well as obviously technical, but

technical tactical comes together if you've got the right physical components. If you don't have

those physical components, you're going outside the norm to get the right technique and the right

tactics. So that's sort of a quickest summation about the modern game into an amateur's game.

So in that case, I've got to take, there's a little bit of, you know, maintain your lane. There's a

little bit of, I'm going to do what I'm capable of doing now. Yes, I've got a, I got a years plan to

lose my 15, 20 pounds, whatever I am as the amateur player that says, okay, I'm going to work on my flexibility,

but I don't walk out and say, well, I want to do all the things Novak can do now because I can't.

So we talk about those four different aspects that you mentioned. Let's focus on those four

in, in separate times. You can say, okay, well, I can go out and buy all the best equipment. That can

be done. Yeah, let's assume I can afford those things. If you need some help, go to us,

go to let's go to ns.com and we can help you out with some of that, but the technical side, you need

your coach. You want to be able to do that. Don't just start grabbing stuff off of YouTube. There's

some good stuff out there, but if you find that, make sure you contact those people, get some personalized

advice from online information, but find your local coach and ask him about the YouTube information.

If you're looking at the guy online like Ian or Pete or some of those guys that give really

good information, it isn't necessarily directed at you, the tennis player. So you need to go find out,

hey, go ask coach Justin and say, hey, I've got this information and he can help personalize it to you.

And then also, if your tennis coach isn't also your fitness trainer and that is rarely the thing,

many tennis coaches will try to be your fitness trainer also. And some can and there's some

abilities there because we know what we're doing physically, but really a fitness trainer, find one

that can help you work on that flexibility and that movement and that you can work on all four of

those aspects. So those four things from the modern game, we're not really just going to be able to

serve in volleyball, we are through guys and through people looking more. It's just not really going to

happen that way. Right. And a quick summation is that doesn't mean you just go hit the gym. You have to be

very directly around tennis specific exercises around range of motion, around understanding what speed

and little things that just will help just set the bar a little higher for you that will open your game

to maybe a little more technique for a little more tactics. But really understand your lane,

I like that you mentioned the lane because I've seen players that are just better at five shots.

And if actually lane, then let's start making things better in those five shots. You know, don't try to

start hitting 20 and you're never a 20-shot player. You're trying to do something that you're

impossible in your perception or your attention span or whatever, it just doesn't work that way. So

staying in your lane. And you know, I can be, I'll give a one-minute real quick because we're just

where the best here. So IBM, IBM has done the study for like 30 years and they've proved that the

game is zero to four shots. So everybody stop rallying forever. You know, stop hitting for 50 balls.

It's just doesn't work that way. Start if you want to be a better player, better at the first four,

but better at, you know, the first five or six. Yes, you're going to have long routes, but it doesn't

happen all the time. You want to be able to jump and get in early. So, you know, if you want to

modernize your game, take the ball in the rise. It was what was happening in the 70s and the 60s.

And it's seen right now if people are taking the ball in the rise. I mean, the doubt is the truth

of the putting on now. There you go. Modern game. Hello Justin Yeo, 10 minutes of tennis. We'll see you

next week. Thank you, man. Well, there you have it. We want to thank reGeovinnate.com for use of the

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