TennisOne QuickTips

Take a Tip from the Birds and Hit the Flamingo Forehand

By Doug Atkinson

Two complaints I often I hear from my students are, "My forehand has no power behind it, I feel like I'm all arm and wrist." And, "When I get pulled out wide on the forehand side, I'm always late getting back for the next shot.

Often, both of these issues can be caused by improper positioning when setting up.

When moving wide for a forehand, improper positioning can cause the front foot to step across the body, locking up the hips and not allowing the hips and shoulder to rotate smoothly. This causes the arm to over compensate, which explains the loss power.

In addition, stepping across with the front foot into a traditional closed stance for a ball out wide forces the player to take an extra step setting up and an extra step getting out of the set up position once the ball is struck. These added steps rob a player of the valuable time needed to get to and set up for the next shot especially when running from corner to corner.

The Open Stance Forehand

Learn to hit an open stance forehand. This is very simple to do and takes only a little practice time to incorporate into your game. When learning the open stance, practice setting up with your out side foot close to the ball (right foot for right-handers). This way you do not need to step across on the follow-through. Rotate your hips and shoulders into the contact point. This results in a smoother hip rotation and a more efficient transfer of power from the body into the stroke.

Practice the flamingo forehand until you can hit it from a balance, comfortable position.

Practicing the Flamingo Forehand

Set up a ball machine so that it feeds balls to your forehand at a moderate pace. Practice hitting on one foot only (right foot for the right-handers) kind of like a flamingo. If you can do this while maintaining reasonable balance then you are well on your way to learning the correct placement of your right foot in relation to the ball to hit an open stance forehand.

Once you've mastered this first stage, set up the ball machine so you have to take a few steps to get to the ball, then hit off of that same flamingo stance.

Learn to do this in a balanced, comfortable position and you'll find you have a more efficient and powerful forehand and a lot more time to get to the next shot.