EASI Tennis System: The Forehand

By  Ray and Becky Brown

In part 1 of our series, we described fundamental challenges to teaching tennis, and concluded that teaching methods must be responsive to how students learn rather than being organized around how we like to teach.

In this article, we'll present our approach to providing accurate and factual information to the student in place of metaphors, templates, and rules.

We'll start by showing the stages of the EasiTennis forehand. These stages were built by a careful analysis of what top players actually do. This analysis was developed by extensive study of the forehands of many top players in high speed and other digital video.

Based on this work, we believe the forehand swing can be divided into five meaningful and distinct stages, each with a primary purpose that is easy to explain, easy to teach, and easy to learn.

The 5 stages can have one, or all, of the following purposes:

1. Provide stability to control the stroke.
2. Provide racquet speed.
3. Assure the racquet is moving in a straight line as it approaches the ball.
4. Bring the racquet into alignment with the path of the ball.

So what are the 5 Stages in our system?

1. The classical Takeback Stage which starts the swing from an efficient and stable position.
2. The Contraction Stage to stabilize the stroke and provides initial acceleration.
3. The Rotate Stage to create further (controlled) acceleration and bring the racquet into alignment with the path of the ball.
4. The Acceleration Stage which brings the racket to the maximum controllable speed.
5. The Strike Stage which directs the racket into a straight line just before it strikes the ball. 

These stages are not set forth as rules to be followed or templates to be duplicated. They are starting points for exploration and experimentation and provide an organizing structure around which to develop your strokes.

We have found that this division of the stroke provides a very effective infrastructure for rapid learning. In fact, we believe that this structure can even enable an individual, who may be considered as "untalented" in the current vernacular, to learn professional technique in as little as three years.

Our video analysis showed that of all the top pros, Andre Agassi, with his relatively mild semi-western grip, has the most efficient forehand and replicates the stages of our system most clearly.

But these stages are similar across the grip styles in tennis. Below, they are demonstrated for a player with more extreme western grip. With some variation, the same principles will apply to your forehand no matter which grip you use.

The Stages of the Western Forehand

For this article, we've developed a progressive graphics presentation that allows you to go back and forth and see the movement from one stage to the next for yourself. Just run your mouse over the image, and you'll see how the progression evolves.

Takeback

We will use a series of five figures as a basis for our discussions. The starting point is the takeback.

Contraction

This is the first major transition. The contraction stage is initiated by dropping the racquet head.  Next the racquet is pulled forward by the butt as if it were a rope, until it is in front of the body plane. This is done by contracting the arm from the shoulder (to bring the arm into closer proximity with the body), and by bending the elbow so that the racquet face becomes perpendicular to the ground.

The degree of elbow bend needed depends on your grip. For a western grip, the forearm and upper arm meet at about 90 degrees. For the eastern grip, they meet at about 120 degrees

The contraction stage should place the elbow about 9-12 inches from the body and in front of the body plane by about 9 inches or more. Some exploration is needed to get the most efficient placement for a given individual.

A major purpose of the contraction is to establish stability for the remainder of the stroke. It is also to Bolleterri's credit that he hit upon this notion intuitively with the idea of placing a ball under the student's arm to force it close to the body. By knowing we are trying to achieve stability this motion makes more sense. If the contract stage does not impose stability, the remainder of the stroke is in essence "out of control".

A further point about this movement, is that stability is most important when operating at high speeds. The contraction toward the body may be relaxed at lower execution speeds.

Rotation

Once stability has been established, the second transition is from contraction to rotation. This is the rotation stage. The rotation stage means rotating the hips, shoulders, or both, to bring the racquet face into alignment with the path of the oncoming ball. The effect of this rotational force on the racquet arm must be countered by other forces in the muscles of the waist, so that it does not destabilize the arm position.

Note that successful rotation (at high speeds) depends on the elbow being in front of the body plane. This must be achieved in the contraction stage. If this does not occur, the rotation can destabilize the motion with an attendant loss of control. The only remedy is to use physical force to maintain stability at the cost of efficiency.

Acceleration

Acceleration arises from the rotation of the upper arm. While some acceleration does occur in the previous two stages, the acceleration stage creates the final burst of speed that is to be delivered to the ball. At this point the player is in a position to alter or adapt the level of acceleration to fit the circumstances of the exchange. If the player is unbalanced for some reason, this final acceleration burst must be attenuated accordingly.

The acceleration is a separate stage from the rotation because it is a dynamical state change in the movement of the upper arm. In particular, the upper arm begins the acceleration by initiating a rotation that also brings the racquet into final alignment with the path of the oncoming ball.

The strike

This is another state change because the motion of the racquet is rectified (straightened out) and directed into the path of the oncoming ball. What does rectification provide?

Rectification provides accuracy in placing the racquet on the ball. The two stages previous stages also provide components of the rectification. But the strike stage completes the process, which is critical to efficient ball striking.

Some or all of these stages are usually absent in amateur play and our research shows that while they are easy to understand, most players do not have the ability to execute these stages initially.

Caution: These Are Not Rules!

The foregoing analysis is not a set of rules. Each stage has a dynamical purpose that contributes to the quality of a stroke. As mentioned above, there are four dynamical elements that may be considered. Stability, alignment, acceleration and rectification. The methods pros use to produce these qualities are not always efficient and effective. In fact, there are differences in how players produce them and how efficient and effective they are at doing this.

Each stage of the stroke contains some of these elements. But the stages are inseparable.  Therefore, there is no rule that governs them. Also, our stages are approximations, not absolutes. They are organized around meaningful objectives that make sense to the student, and thus can be remembered and practiced when they are on their own.

Formulating these fairly accurate approximations of the stages of the swing, greatly reduces learning and experimentation time. It is not uncommon for a player to develop good strokes in 1/10th the time as compared with traditional methods.

Another key point in our system is that the course of study usually starts by experimenting with the Strike Stage first. It can be shown mathematically, that if you start with the last stage and work backwards, the learning time will be further reduced.

By starting with the strike stage, one directs the student's attention to what is purposeful from the outset, and at each subsequent stage of development. Because the students are focused on purpose rather than rules, they learn faster. Also, because there are no rules, the student is liberated to use their own initiative to aid in the development their strokes. In this system the instructor transitions from being a director to being a facilitator.

Your comments are welcome. Let us know what you think about Ray and Becky Brown's article by emailing us here at TennisONE.  

Ray and Becky Brown are the founders of EASI Tennis^TM. The EASI Tennis^TM System is a new and revolutionary method of teaching stroke technique that can dramatically reduce the time needed to learn to play master, or any level, of tennis. To learn more about the EASI Tennis^TM System, click here.

Ray Brown, Ph.D.
Over the past ten years Ray Brown has been working in the area of neuroscience and brain dynamics. During this time, he has conducted extensive experiments in conjunction with his wife to determine whether neuroscience can be applied to dramatically accelerate tennis training. Dr. Brown received his Ph.D. in mathematics from the University of California, Berkeley in the area of nonlinear dynamics and has over 30 years of experience in the analysis of nonlinear systems. He has published over 20 articles on tennis coaching and player development and over 35 scientific papers on complexity, chaos, and nonlinear processes.

Becky Brown, M.S.
Using the new training methods developed in research with her husband, Becky Brown went from a USTA NTRP tennis rating of 3.5 to a professional world ranking of 1,069 in less than four years. Prior to the inception of this neuroscience research, Becky Brown had no previous high school, college or professional experience in tennis. Ms Brown received her M.S. in applied mathematics from Johns Hopkins University and has over eighteen years experience in the development of high technology defense systems. With her husband she has co-authored numerous articles on tennis training and coaching.