Reinvention of Djokovic

You've got to admire players who have a capacity for reinvention. The one who has drawn my attention this week is Novak Djokovic, and I heard overnight that he has just lost to an exciting newcomer, Tsitsipas from Greece, in Toronto. So Djokovic lost, but his reinvention is a work in progress.

Just to prove that Djokovic had to reinvent himself, you need to go back one year. He retired hurt from Wimbledon 2017. In fact, he didn't retire hurt, he completed his matches heroically, but he was clearly suffering physically, and his game had gone off. He wasn't able to run and bend and stretch as usual. He seemed to be in pain. There then reaches a point where this starts to affect you mentally, your willingness to compete, your willingness to take your body to the limits every time in order to win a Championship.

There were more distressing stories that Djokovic had also had problems in his private life, but I cannot comment on this. Only that whatever was happening at home, was quite probably connected with what was happening on court. It's difficult to say what came first, or what seems worse - the problems on, or the problems off the court. A player who is still able to win major titles with any sort of major problems like these is performing miracles.

Djokovic was the Number One player in the world for several years. He seemed to have the mesure of his rivals Federer and Nadal, even taking them on on their favourite surfaces, and beating them where they were most at home.

Todd Martin serve

So what about Djokovic technically. I believe that Djokovic learned his serve off Todd Martin.  I'm not sure on the exact details, but Todd Martin, the coach, only worked with Djokovic for a few months. When they split up, it was quite acrimonious, a feeling was given that the two minds were incompatible, and nothing had been improved. In that period however, Djokovic came back with a totally remodelled serve. Todd Martin had a beautiful service action himself, and he must have known it. He took Djokovic's service action, and threw it out. He told Djokovic to copy his own. Todd Martin saw no solution but complete reinvention. Whatever the circumstances of their splitting, Todd Martin made Djokovic into a No. 1 player. Without his serve he is nothing.

Djokovic is not a big server. But his serve has perfect repetition, he gets his hands in the right place above his head time after time, and his feet are perfectly stable. This serve will not crack under pressure, technically, nor physically.

During Djokovic's injury concerns of 2017, he complained of elbow problems. If this were classic tennis elbow, this most probably was caused by jarring off the forehand side. Djokovic has always been a great shaper of his forehand, and this means he wraps his whole arm round the ball more than nearly any other player. He doesn't explode his wrist much (like Federer), nor does he fly at the ball with his whole body weight. He prefers to create a full round shape that is simple, flexible, and has a low energy cost. The drawback, is that the joints, in particular the elbow, has to take up the correction as he creates say 10 different shapes on a ten shot forehand crosscourt rally.

Unfortunately, when you get tennis elbow, you feel it on other shots too, in particular the serve, and the single handed flat or topspin backhand. The slice backhand remains mostly unaffected.

I started describing Djokovic's technique with his serve, because, technically, this is his most important shot.   After his reinvention he came back with an elbow bandage (as many tennis elbow sufferers wear, and they are very effective), and a slightly remodelled action. So finally the work of Todd Martin has been modified. Djokovic now cuts off his takeback on his serve. He is now not so round going round the back on his racket hand, he pulls up sharper. He still gets his hands into an identical place to before, but he comforts his elbow, by not forcing it to pronate as it goes on a full circle behind his back. There have been other players , and are still many players, who use a racket hand that doesn't give a round shape.

Personally when I'm teaching beginners I always teach a round shape. It gives rhythm, and mostly automatically, gets the hands into the right place, at the right time, above the head. If you go straight up with the right hand, there are often time lapses, either a hand that is too early at the top, causing a loss of power, or a hand that is too late, causing a loss of timing and control. But there are too many players who prove me wrong on this, so if I see a player with a racket hand out of sync on the serve, I tend not to correct it, unless the serve is clearly a problem.

So what we have now is Djokovic come back with a new serve. Despite this less rhythmical, less aesthetically pleasing serve of two years ago, he still gets his hand into the same place as before at the top. So a big thank you again to Todd Martin for instilling the right hand hand position so strongly, that despite a major change to the racket hand takeback, the top is unaltered. So Djokovic's serve is as good as ever.

My guess though is that the injury stemmed from the forehand. I'm not even sure that the modification to the serve was essential, but that will never be put to the test. What we do know about tennis elbow, is that it is very painful ( I have had it myself), but there are cures. Mostly you need to give the joint a rest for a start  (Djokovic has been away from the game for almost a year), and then you need to get some bandages in place. Stiff tubing that covers the entire elbow works well and is comfortable. Less comfortable is an adjustable brace bandage positioned just below the elbow joint. These bandages help to reduce the shock of varying impacts and twists in the elbow joint. The muscles are held in place by bandages, preventing them from reverberating their shocks into the joint cavity areas. The muscles block the shock waves, and end up by taking the shock themselves. Sticker-tape bandages are also effective, as they are all over the body. They are just tapes with heavy adhesive, that affect on the muscles through the skin, and similarly, take out shock. For me all of these work well.

Reinvention complete

Two weeks ago Djokovic won Wimbledon. This was seemingly a perfect reinvention. He was nowhere even a few months ago. He had a nervous game, and his shot-making was basic at best. He was having to relearn his shot-making confidence. At Wimbledon he was as good as ever, and he had to play well in all of his rounds, which isn't always the case at Wimbledon.

What was the key to Djokovic's reinvention? How to use a tennis elbow bandage.