Creating Maria Sharapova- What setup/coach?

[gorankolasinac]

She needs to have like a 40 on serve. Her serve is absolutely awful.

You know why her serve is awfull??? she´s had 2 back cirguries, you think serving ay 170-180 km is hard normally? imagine if you had 2 cirguries on your back.

This is completely irrelevant.

Yeah, she used to have a good serve, and yes, it's awful now because of injuries -- but the fact remains that it's awful now. It's by FAR the biggest reason she can't play at the level she used to.

I'm not attacking Sharapova, just stating a fact.

It's completely relevant... It is the main and probably only reason that her serve is not as good. The fact of the matter is, it doesn't have to be. She can have over 10 DF's in a game and still win. She is queen.

How is it relevant?

The fact is that her serve is not good right now. The reason doesn't really matter in terms of rating something for the purposes of a video game. So if you're making up a Sharapova character and want her to be the same as current Sharapova, then she shouldn't have a good serve rating. Of course you could also just be creating the pre-injury Sharapova, and then it wouldn't be an issue.

Calm down; no one is saying Sharapova isn't good. Just stating an obvious fact about the current state of her serve.

It is relevant because it centers on the same topic at hand. Her serve is very inconsistent. She can play some games that it seems to deteriorate with every point, while others it is very good and powerful throughout the entire game. I am not going to base a character in this game off of a bad day. Giving her a low serve rating would be stupid. Perhaps I do consider it more of a "bad day" because of the past and how wonderful her serve used to be. However, It still shines though in MANY games, just with less frequency.

[LokiSharpShootr]

Most pointless discussion ever.

[elsteepo]

so as a major wta follower, im going to break down this whole argument as simply as i can.

Her first serve is fine, though sometimes lacking direction.

Her second serve is the issue. It comes from the surgery she had, she said when she came back on the tour she felt pain when trying to produce kick serves and serving in general. If you've watched a Sharapova match almost every second serve if kick. Now shes said that the pain is now almost all gone if not gone completely, but there are two problems. One technical, and one mental.

Think of it like this: if you're in a plane crash, you're going to have some fear about flying again, if not never wanting to fly again. When she began playing again, she was prone to double faults due to the pain, and how she tried to avoid the pain by producing less\if any kick. So she lost confidence in it, and now the double faults occur because she refuses to compromise with her second serves and the confidence isn't quite there yet. This will be fixed soon though, as she's getting better every day.

The technical issue, however, is something which effects her whole serve. Her toss. She throws the ball so far forward, that she literally has to dive into the court just to hit it, and while it creates speed, her margin to get it over the net is narrowed and almost gone. Look at her matches, and you'll see it. Almost all her double faults are right into the net.

So now thats done with, I'd like to mention that her volleys aren't that bad, she just doesn't position herself well at the net to play them. Mind you, she doesnt really need to have that good a net game as she plays from the baseline.

Moving back to this topic, i find it really hard to model the women characters faces.

[gorankolasinac]

so as a major wta follower, im going to break down this whole argument as simply as i can.

Her first serve is fine, though sometimes lacking direction.

Her second serve is the issue. It comes from the surgery she had, she said when she came back on the tour she felt pain when trying to produce kick serves and serving in general. If you've watched a Sharapova match almost every second serve if kick. Now shes said that the pain is now almost all gone if not gone completely, but there are two problems. One technical, and one mental.

Think of it like this: if you're in a plane crash, you're going to have some fear about flying again, if not never wanting to fly again. When she began playing again, she was prone to double faults due to the pain, and how she tried to avoid the pain by producing less\if any kick. So she lost confidence in it, and now the double faults occur because she refuses to compromise with her second serves and the confidence isn't quite there yet. This will be fixed soon though, as she's getting better every day.

The technical issue, however, is something which effects her whole serve. Her toss. She throws the ball so far forward, that she literally has to dive into the court just to hit it, and while it creates speed, her margin to get it over the net is narrowed and almost gone. Look at her matches, and you'll see it. Almost all her double faults are right into the net.

So now thats done with, I'd like to mention that her volleys aren't that bad, she just doesn't position herself well at the net to play them. Mind you, she doesnt really need to have that good a net game as she plays from the baseline.

Moving back to this topic, i find it really hard to model the women characters faces.

Yes, I agree with this. I'm not sure why her toss is so bad. She tosses it very high so I know the wind is a factor many times but even when its not windy she def. does throw it so far ahead. I have a very similar serve to hers (probably because I subconsciously molded it to hers after watching her win 04 Wimbledon) and I too have issues with the serve. I have a bit more patience, however and can usually get it right. I find that the higher I toss the ball, the better of a serve I have. When her tosses are high and actually go up and not too far ahead, her serves are great. I don't know how much she works on that with her coach Thomas but I hope its quite a bit.

Her second serve speed average is very close, and in many cases, faster than peoples first serve speed average. I think she needs to take some speed off of it.

Also, modeling the faces is annoying. I stared at a pic of her and tried to do it and it just doesn't work. I saw someone make a Kvitova character, though, and it was PERFECT. Looked exactly like her so its possible!