Introducing the FYB Whiteboard!

I really like the whiteboard... can you let us know how we can get it?

If the opponent is a righty, I prefer down the line 3 times of 4 for the heater and because the net is lower, and one time wide to keep him gessing. On the second ball, the percentages are opposite : 4 times of 5 kick wide, one time down the T with or without kick.
On the second ball, the kick out wide prevents from the aggressive return.

Nice job explaining strategy on the whiteboard. Speaking as a math teach, you need to figure out a way to write on the board while facing the camera so that viewers are not looking at your backside.
Brad

Hi Will,
Just started playing tennis. I find this site a great help as I learn to play. Great Videos! And i like the whiteboard analysis of the game. It provided a deeper meaning in every shot. Keep it up!

-M

Hi Will,
Great stuff. I wonder when will the tennis TV commentators "steal" your whiteboard idea.
Just a small suggestion, I think you should introduce yourself at the beginning of each video. Such as "hi this is Will from FYB, the best tennis coaching web site...".
Thanks for the great work!

WOW ... this Web site is spectacular, he is genial, it allows players of all levels to improve their game. Thanks to the team behind.

Hey Will!

Great site and really interesting whiteboard feature you have here! It helps me understand the positioning on the courts better. Interesting to hear about Federer's sequence that makes it so difficult for opponents to hit a good return. I noticed it on telly a few times but you made it clearer with your explanation. Unfortunately Nadal is out of Wimbledon. Wonder how you rate Andy Murray's chances? Take care and have a good tournament. Hope to see more of such videos!

The whiteboard is a great educational tool for a novice such as myself, who is relatively new to the sport and has a whole lot to learn!!! Thanks for putting together a great website.

Hey everyone,
The FYB Whiteboard is great. It really helps to understand the strategic part of the game. I hope that there will be more of those videos.
In general I must say that I love this website, it help me a lot to improve my game.
In my eyes this site is the No.1 choice for all Tennis Enthusiasts.

Love this website and the new white board. Great job! Thank you.

is magnific ,great idea ,
the tactical aspects in tennis are very important !

Sincerely, eugen from ROMANIA

Thank you so much!! Wonderful analysis, so helpful to my own tennis strategy. Would love to see more vids from FYB. Please make more!!!
P.S... GO FED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Incredible analysis! And I love the tennis progression videos - they are helping me get better at the serves, which before viewing these videos looked like an uphill task to me.

Great stuff !
your board is great, and explanations are simple and very effective, i learned a lot ! how to get my inscription ! it didnt work...

The white board is great! It helps alot and adds a different type of visual. I am new to this site and I love it keep up the good work!

Love the whiteboard! Great instruction and really good points. I'd like to see it used with even more "point play" instruction for both singles and doubles. You guys have an amazing site -- keep up the great work!

Holly

That whtieboard is a great idea and will help to see and understand even more how the pros play. the tactical aspects in tennis are very important and because of FYB I really concentrate on the strategies of the pros while I'm watching a game.
I really thank you for this website and in would like to see more of your very useful videos!

i love tennis so i love fuzzyyellowballs.com!

greetz Philip from Germany

I like the idea of the whiteboard. Different colored markers could be used to designate the first, second, third, etc... shot. Using this board will help define offensive patterns and defensive strategies as well.

Thanks for the feedback folks! We have some bigger markers on the way and some magnets that will help clarify the various points I'm making. Cheers,

Will

Hi Will,
I think you have a great site !!! However I do have a couple of questions. Is it possible to add some topics to you lessons list:
- How to hit a good dropshot?
- How to hit a good lob?
- How to hit cross vs. straight (different foot position or different body rotation?).
I hope you could do something with this. I think you explanations are very good!

Ciao
Steven

First of all, Hi !!!
This is the best tennis site whit lesson that I have ever Seen and whit the blackboard idea, that makes you even better.

Im a Fan of the tennis and a fan of this site, so continue whit this great ideas.

I'm from Brazil. I'm crazy about tennis, I went to Paris, Rolland Garros, this year.

Congratulations for the whiteboard!
Your comments using this divice, give us a better idea, a better look at the game and make it easier for us.

I still think Roger is the big name. What impressed the most is how quick they can move, how fast they read the fowlling shot.

Thanks for the opportunity!

Fortaleza, June 18th, 2009

Sincerely,

Túlio

hi will excellent technique.really helps to understand the court positioning and the directions so good.also proves roger is a great mentally.really amazing video.thanks a lot

AMAZING vid. this really puts an outlook to what may help me on the court. I honesty never thought of what another player may do or how they may react to how I hit. Your analysis easy to follow and clearly detailed great job :)

Great addition! FYB is now my official go-to tennis site and I promote it to all my tennis buddies. Your analysis is on-point, down-to-earth and easy to follow. Great job and keep it up. J, The Netherlands.

Super! Love the board! Love the site! I do agree about backing it up with clips from the actual match. Thanx!

love the whiteboard, great for match critiques. any way we can see some clips of the match to back it up? i dont know if thats a copyright issue, but that would be a cool addition too.

I love this website, awsome job guys, keep it up. The whiteboard idea is great, its gonna be fun to see wimbledon comments on it. About federer, he is just extrordinary.

you should be on TV as a tennis analyst. You're awesome and know so so so much about tennis. I wish you make it real big someday and will always be your fan.

I just wanna thankyou for your site, your tennis lessons and your analysis...You improved my tennis soooo much!! Can't wait for your Wimbledon comments!

Greetings from Italy!

Love the whiteboard and appreciate the depth of commentary. I think action shots included would add to the presentation.

Just keep using it. I think it is a great tool.

Good job ! and pertinent explication !
I love it !

Agree with most of the comments above!!
GREAT!!

Your website is excellent. One of the best or perhaps the best that is easily available for anyone.
I teach my twins tennis as a father regularly and they are improving nicely through hard work and because of your great insights and hints.
Thanks a lot and I hope you will continue doing it.

Kind regards from Hungary.

FYB: In addition to the strategies used by "Fed" that you pointed out, he also served extremely well(66%) with 17 or 18 Aces. He handily won the tiebreak because of service effectiveness(as pointed out by McEnroe a couple of times Soderling didn't touch one of Fed's serves-4 Aces! This is what gave him great confidence in his overall game. It made him feel he could hit all the shots.
Tom W.

i think it is a very good method for explaining the game of Roger or any other player. A little bit of footage of the game while explaining would have added an extra dimension.
Good work guys. Keep it up.

This is very interessent;but in French best for me.HB.

Fantastic innovation to an already very very good website!
Analysis is very astute and insightful.

You mentioned Federer's good use of the drop shot in the French Open final.
Do you think you could work on some tutorials for good drop shot technique? That would be awesome.

Also, are you guys still selling merchandise?
I remember you had some on the old website.
If so, would you post to international destinations?
I'm in Australia.

Nick,
I think as of late merchandise has sort of fallen off the radar, so to speak. We redesigned our site/logo, so the old gear is kinda dated anyway. We have some really big stuff coming down the pipeline right now at FYB, and maybe when it arrives, we will go back and update our gear!

The whiteboard is nice! You guys are adding new things constantly. Very nice.

you found a very useful tool.add some vids and it will be perfect!keep up and make chess look easy.what about adding a demonstration of the spanissh serve in your servr section?

This a great new feature! Keep up the good works!

Hi! this is actually my first comment on FYB ... this is a great website and your whiteboard is a great tool for visualizing movements and techniques.

Keep up the good work, I look forward to seeing the Wimbledon analysis on this new whiteboard!!!

Thanks

PS. Thanks for the great tips on the kickserve, i'm practising now and seeing some great improvements ^-^

As they say: men are visual. The whiteboard will really help us guys to better understand what you are trying to explain.

What a great visual tool! Likewise, white marker would work really well.

Thanks Will. I really like your entire site. I coach high school boys and girls and have found much useful information. Some thoughts - developing a Whiteboard Coaches Clipboard might be something to consider. It would be smaller and coaches could use it during changeovers in matches. Also, a thicker, white marker might be easier to see.
Thanks again.

Really like the whiteboard!

It would be great to see a video clip of the real action followed by the whiteboard analysis. The whiteboard simplifies the description of the action, but the action supplies the perfect context you need to appreciate the tactics.

Excellent idea. And very good comments for Federer game.
Good job

Hi, i don't know what is you multimedia setup, but it is probably possible to draw over video of the actual play, it would be very cool

its perfectly clear to me now, i'm learning fast the whiteboard is indispensable.

great addition - the analysis is easy to understand

love it!

Excellent resource to teach!! Great idea!!!!

Like the board! Will, You were quite claravoyant on your French Open predictions. Could you please gaze in your chrystal ball and see if there is a dinner date with Dementieva in my future?

Heh unfortunately any predictive abilities I may have are limited to the tennis court.

I found the FYB Whiteboard very interesting, helpful in honing old/new strategies--like playing chess--and exciting. Your tutelage makes me want to go out and play more tennis (I play at least 3 to 4 hours a day). Good work...it's a keeper!

Great analysis although I always felt that Federer had more of a total game shotwise than Nadal and that Nadal's topspin ground strokes against a really fast flat ground stroke would often wind up producing a short ball that Soderling could take advantage of whereas Federer used Soderling's pace to return the ball quickly and to wherever he wanted to keep Soderling off balance and throw off his rhythm.

Regards and thanks for the analysis
Norman

Great idea and presentation. Need a little better contrast between marker color and court color.

You are genius Will.

Suggestion: A colored PEN(say, RED AND BLUE) might be helpful to identify which player shot/s are you referring.

Good idea... But too much talks, why don't you add some video sequences in superposition of the whiteboard...

I like the whiteboard because it helps demonstrate ideas better. The marker you used was not very dark so I would suggest a thicker marker.

Hi, Despite my best efforts I am a prisoner of the lower grades of tennis competition, unable to break into that next level. Your web site has made a real difference in how I approach the game and the YFB Board is the next level in concise useful analysis of the top players' games. Keep up the good work.

FYB WHITEBOARD.

IT'S GREAT. IF YOU COMBINE A VIDEO ILLUSTRATION OF WHAT YOUR POINT IS,, THEN IT WOULD CLEARLY EMPHASIZE YOUR ANALYSIS , IT WOULD BE A GREAT ADD-ON.

THANKS,
DR. JOEL TRAZO

Great job ,good teaching the fine points. How about interjecting actual match clip
you have just described to refresh memories. George

If marker were white (or fuzzy yellow), the ball trajectory would be much easier see.

Great vid!
It would be even greater if you could add bits of the actual points played during the match after the explanation on the whiteboard.

Fantastic tool. Great analysis. As usual, FYB leads the way in visually stimulating tennis instruction.

This is very helpful. Having a visual aid like this while discussing positions, movement, and tactics makes everything far easier to comprehend...But "white board" seems like a bit of a misnomer. What about FuzzyYellowBoard?

Hmm, not bad!

great tool, helps a lot to see the visual explanations! thanks for this effort!

Great. I wonder why it had not been done before.

yea this was definately a great idea. i hope to see many more vids posted. i love watching ur analysis of anything lol

Nice addition. It visualizes the explanation, so great!

Wonderful addition. It makes the whole gameplay seem so much more comprehensive. Thx FYB!

The whiteboard is a great visual tool. You guys are constantly improving the website. Job well done!

Great addition!! The whiteboard is a VERY nice way to illustrate court movement and tactics.

Suggestion: thicker marker

Your videos are superb.

The whiteboard is great. Now, the analysis are better to understand it.

Concise, insightful, instructive.

LOVE the new board. Could you please give us some expert advice on doubles play. Love the website, I get excited when there is something new. I want to learn so much about this game I love.

Great idea to use a whiteboard. It makes things a lot easier to understand. I could really imagine what you were talking about. Two thumbs up, also for the good analysis of Fed's game :).

Greetings from Switzerland

S. Monti

I like the whiteboard. The suggestions about thicker markers etc are valid, but really are just fine tweaks on an already great job. Great website overall. I'm a fairly new player, and have learned a tremendous amount from the videos, and commentary. I'm recommending FYB to friends!

One suggestion for instructional video, is an beginners serve video. The flat serve video is good, but the demonstrations are pretty aggressive serves and not well suited to a beginner or even intermediate player. I've found for me, that my timing of the backscratch to toss has to be somewhat different... toss later, since my whole motion is slower. And.. I'm not leaping up to hit the ball.

Thanks for providing a great source of information!

Will, Very good analisis and I love the concept. I have started to become much more aware of strategy in my own game and this is very helpfull. It illustrates the brilliance of Rodger's game and why he will be tough to beat for a long time. Thanks so much!

this was my first comment ever saw no duplicates??????

Loved the white board concept and your presentation Maybe take one level up actually use images
from a particular match use of a green screen to write on the picture like madden does on football........Keep up the good work love what you Did
Ron

Excellent the Whiteboard (or, better named, DrawableCourt).

The suggestions above for different markers IMHO would detract the naturality of your speech.

If you could edit and interpose with scenes from the play that exemplified your commentary it would be great, but I understand that image rights would be a problem...
So, just keep it up!

Bernard, La tronche 15 june,
A great idea to explain tennis strategy of very good players. So we have the possibility to analyse and understand their games and learn a lot out of it. The example you give of the drop shot ( amortie in french) it very interesting to me.
très cordialement Bernard Thouvenin Grenoble France

Hi there! Totally love the concept of the whiteboard + expert vision of the match play!
So great to have you out there. Thanks a lot for your effort, it makes me think much more about my own game on a tennis court...

whiteboard is just awesome!!!

simple away to explain strategy!

it was very clear and easy to understand....

Great addition look forward to your analysis of Wimbledon ...
If I may make a small suggestion - as someone has already pointed out the difference between player movement & ball flight can get confusing - why not try working with 2 colors... if you tape 2 diff color pens together you should, with a little practise, be able to alternate colors using one hand.
Just a thought!

great idea~
thanks for the sharing.

I have watched closely at the grip of Fed's forehand drop shot at RG 2009. He seems to use eastern grip without changing it into continental. (well, it's same as Nadal's net game grip)

any comment?

regards

Very nice analysis. I had attributed Federers success on his drop shot solely to his disguise and not to wrong footing or catching his opponents moving backward. This analysis should help your viewers look for opportunities to incorporate the same strategy (but of course on a mortal level).
Several weeks ago you analyzed Andy Murray's level of play on clay and forecasted his loss well before the finals..
Keep it up

very enjoyable analysis. i think the whiteboard is a terrific idea -- very little (if any) good match analysis on the net or even on TV really (during the whole federer match, they rarely pointed out feds strategy -- only how well he was executing particular shots -- pretty narrow in my opinion, given the depth of experience doing the reporting). i also like the other things fed did to take the advantage away from soderling -- i liked the use of severe slide to make soderling stay low, made soderling come in on slice balls, but they were low and tight so difficult for soderling to unload on, and when he did (as is his nature) they went wide/long; mixed up the game; took time away from soderling to get set for his powerful shots.

anyway, terrific addition to the FWB arsenal of teaching aids!

Use of Whiteboard is an awesome idea. It's a great interactive tool. Looking forward to the great analysis of great matches from Wimbledon over the whiteboard.

The white board is out there, a few more madden chalk techniques and you Wll
set yourself apart in the tennis world. The federer drop shot was the key. It also
would've caused problems for Nadal. Adam doesn't know but you have to keep the
ball in front of you. Then when you see the angle of the racquet face you break to
move to the secondary shot possibility position. (Adam the 27th comment) above
Thanks chuckertennis@gmail.om

Direct, clear, simple, effective!
Excellent presentation tool and skill.
BTW, is that a magnetic whiteboard? May be you can use different colour magnets for different player's positions and movements. I imagine it will be useful especially for doubles games analysis.
Keep it coming!

We have / had planned on magnets, I just didn't have them handy when I filmed this video. So magnets / bigger markers for the subsequent videos!

THX for the all the feedback so far folks!

I have seen many tennis websites, and yours is unequivocally the best. Your explanations are concise and very easy to understand . The whiteboard enhances an already tremendous site. Keep up the good work. You eventually should be a household name like Braden or Van der Meer.

I like the whiteboard too. I know everyone will have different thoughts/opinions but I thought the drawings to be plenty clear.
I did end up unclear at the end of the first explanation of how Fed countered Sod's game by playing closer to the baseline. I understand that Fed played closer to the baseline than Sod's other opponents mentioned, but was that a winning strategy simply because Fed was then returning deeper into Sod's court? That seems like a good strategy but doesn't it count on being able to handle Sod's forehand from a step or two closer up? Maybe the other guys just weren't able to do that.
I watched the match too and got the impression that Sod wasn't hitting as hard in the match with Fed for some reason.

Anyway, I'm a beginner tennis player and get a lot out of this site!
Thanks,
John

Hi John. I made the court positioning point more to illustrate why Nadal / others were unable to control the match vs. Soderling. Fewer angles / more time for Soderling to set up and take big cuts at the ball. Assuming Soderling wasn't hitting as hard vs. Federer (it's possible but I don't have any recollection / evidence to support this), it's probably because he had less time to set up for his groundies bc Fed was hugging the baseline. And you're right -- I suspect those other guys can't take the ball on the rise like Federer. That's why he's the GOAT =)

My suggestion is to show an actual play after white boarding it. It really helps visualize it when you can... um visualize it :)
Also, I agree with the need to use a brighter marker color.
Otherwise, everything else is great - as usual!

Love it, gave me a new idea of how pro's play.

It's really a great possibility to understand the strategies in the game.
You are upgrading yourself
Thanks for that !!!

Great Board, BUT...
Your last segment on Feds position has a error. You said Feds moves in on the drop shot to the same side of the court that he dropped on? I don't think so. You might have caught him trying to guess a bit in this single video clip but he usually plays the HIGH % PLAY. The best position for the dropper you drew would be closer to the crosscourt line you drew on the board. The cross court and angle become higher priority the lower the balls drops below the net.

Hey Adam. He adopted this court position on most of his drop shots. I kept notes during the matches and watched some replays on "the tubes" to make sure I had this right.

I really like it so far. The video is enhanced when coupled with Will's commentary and an actual visual so that novice tennis players who are not familiar with tennis jargon and courts can easily pick it up.

Great tool. Love the whiteboard as it illustrates strategy in a very engaging and compelling fashion. Hope to see lots more use of this exciting tool.

Love the whiteboard. It provides easy to see and understand visuals. HD is also great too!

Great work guys. Love it

Nice kit Will. Would be really good for 'court position' lessons also. I like the bit about Roger covering the drop shot.

i love this site
where else can i find a site which teaches tennis for free like this one
hey
and i love the whiteboard
it helps me get the picture of the strategy better

whiteboard it's perfect, it's more cleary ...
analysis is even great.You are a good coach

Very nice...

Love the strategy talk...

Love the whiteboard concept....too much talking not enough use of the board.

The Whiteboard is great. One idea to make it even more exiting would be to include some scenes from the match to illustrate your observations.

Really enjoy this site, have been looking for this type of white board strategy for some time now, Well Done.

Great idea overall.

1. You may want to get a thicker marker, as someone suggested. That way you won't need to draw a bunch of thinner ones to "imitate" a thicker one (like what you did speaking of Nadal's position behind the baseline).

A "slanted" marker would be even better, allowing thin lines for potential player movements (when you draw with the corner) and thick curves for ball trajectories (when you draw with the entire edge). Using 2 markers of diferent color may be too difficult to handle, I guess, but who knows.

2. Please do not turn your back to the camera to erase things. It may be a good example of proper shoulder rotation ;) but on a video it just slows your speech down and is somewhat distracting since the viewer is still focused on your hand and what it is doing. An instant magical "flash" like those you insert between "paragraphs" would do the trick very well.

Really great idea!! You guys keep getting better and better, thank you so much for this!

Loved it. You are an excellent teacher.

Awesome, especially combined with the insightful analysis of Fed's dropshot. Really great to get a visual representation of where Federer moves after hitting the dropshot, and how this allows him to cover all possible responses from his opponent.

I love the new whiteboard, it makes understanding the break-downs a lot simpler.
This is by far the BEST tennis site out there.

keep it up guys =)

Great idea with the board! If you let me get picky, I would suggest using clearer symbols, e.g. large Xs for player positions. Keep shots curvy and player movements straight, and there won't be any confusion. Dashed lines could also be used to good effect. I'm thinking specifically about your discussion of Federer moving in after the drop shot, the diagram got a bit hairy.

Please change the colour of your board or the marker to make the drawings more visible. In addition, you may consider using a marker that is thicker and has better ink flow to make it even more visible.

Apart from the technical details above, the ideal is superb! Simple, easy to understand and without too much effort of using software animation to do it.

2 thumbs up for the idea!

Thumbs up on the whiteboard!
Are you interested in working towards a match momentum chart presentation? The IBM match tracker version debuted for the French is weak. The point detail sucks. And having each player on a separate line is mentally difficult.

I have a version that I do manually that graphically is very clear. The approach is yours if you want it. The cost would be a "Thank You".

Mestengo... we're always looking for new ways to improve and certainly don't mind "outside help," if you will :) Shoot us an email!

great explanation of how one can attack footwork and habitual tendencies. Great idea with the whiteboard.

Great! You get a better idea of movements and positions on the court. And i also like that you are making analysis of actual ATP tournaments because a few months ago there wasn't anythig about that.
Thanks
Matias from Argentina

I like it a lot. Glad to see you're constantly thinking of ways to make the site better and better. When the season slows down a bit (after wimbledon), I'd really like to see you diagram strategies on the marker board that us mere mortals can work on. ;-)

Thanks for the hard work.

Very nice whiteboard! I love the 3D feeling - especially when you draw the path of the ball.

I LOVE the whiteboard! The UPS guy has nothing on you.... It definitely enhances your analysis...

Great analysis as per usual! I think Federer's understanding of where exactly he should close up to the net is an example of his extraordinary vision of the game which is one of the things that saperates him from everybody else. I also think the reason why he's included that drop shot into his game for a year now is because he thought he would always have Nadal on the other side of the field on the finals. As Nadal is a fast runner who is posted absolutely away from the base line, it is hard to shake him from side to side so it is an efficient weapon to get him shaked back and forth as well. Last thing: i think he got the idea from the Astralian Open semi finals in 2008 when Tsonga overused that drop shot against Nadal, and rightly so since Tsonga won by 3 sets to love win an incredible number of drop shot winners!!
I would love to here about your analysis of the coming Wimbledon Championship, especially since Murray will be pretty much home and also one of the men to beat this year...
PS: The website is amazing, i'm learning tennis thanks to you... :)