TennisOne Lessons

The Whip Forehand:

Weapon of Choice in the 1990s

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Jim McLennan, Senior Editor, TennisONE

To see the animation of the whip forehand, click here.

The big forehand rules the modern game of professional tennis. Sampras, Becker, Chang, Agassi, Courier, all are willing to run around their backhand to deliver wicked, furiously spinning topspin bullets to the corners of their opponent's court. In the 70's and early 80's Connors or McEnroe never ran around backhands, but rather countered the short ball to that side with penetrating two fisted drives or cunning backspin approaches.

Rod Laver was the first man to dominate the game with topspin power. Laver's trademark style was whippy racquet action with tremendous racquet head speed and offensive plays from all parts of the court. (As an aside, Sampras watched countless hours of Laver on video, studying and copying his attacking all court style). Borg parlayed the topspin style to five Wimbledon titles (in a row). Finally, Lendl took the topspin forehand up another notch with far more power than Laver or Borg on the forehand wing, and literally brought us into era of the really big forehands now seen throughout the modern game.

Preparation is standard with a good shoulder turn, and a pronounced take back of the left (non dominant arm). Note how the racquet initially "lags" (frame 1 and 2) similar to many in the modern game, Sampras included. The wrist appears loose, lazy.

The backswing is long, and well up.

The first element of the whip is the sudden unwinding of the left arm without much movement of the racquet. Notice the left arm has totally cleared before the racquet begins to swoop beneath the ball (refer to the dynamics of throwing in the TennisONE Lesson library). Loose, loose, loose -- the arm is relaxed, the forearm and wrist fluid, and even the grip appears loose.

As the racquet approaches the ball, note the buttcap pointing at the ball. I am pulling on the racquet much as you would pull on a whip.

Vertical strings at contact, and the racquet now rolls up and across the ball, racquet head acceleration from the forearm not the wrist. The kids call this the windshield wiper drill, (imagine you are wiping the windshield with the racquet to feel the forearm turn).

Follow through finishes well up and over the shoulder, and the final frame again resembles the modern forehand, with the arm bent and the elbow pointing to the target.

The Whip Summarized

Ok, let's put all the pieces back together.

You must take a big full looping backswing on the forehand, allowing the swinging arm to move up and out. Relax the grip, relax the arm, relax the wrist (as loose as a whip). Unwind with the left side first. Quickly pull the arm in as you swing forward . As you near the ball, slow the hand and snap/whip the racquet up and through the hit. Got it? No? Watch the animation of the whip forehand for a few minutes and then go out and try cracking the whip on one of your unsuspecting tennis buddies. Yes, sadism is part of the game.

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