TennisOne

Before we talk about building the modern forehand we should probably ask the question: is there even such a thing as “the” modern forehand?

When players and coaches who grew up with classic strokes look at professional tennis they see chaos and confusion. Grips range from the old fashion eastern of Tim Henman to the extreme semi-western of Gustavo Kuerten or Andy Roddick, and everything in between.

The backswings vary drastically in size and shape. The range of followthroughs is equally extreme. The racquet can finish wrapped around the player’s neck, all the way across the body at waist level, or behind the head on the right side of the body.

The open stance is dominant, even for players with classic grip styles. But there are several open stance variations. The vast majority of balls are hit open, but at times even players with the most extreme grips hit closed. In fact some extreme players hit more closed stance forehands than Pete Sampras.

Ball contact height ranges from knee level to shoulder level and above. On the vast majority of balls, players make contact with one or both feet in the air, and typically, they begin the recovery step before the completion of the swing.

What does it all really mean? What if anything do modern players share in common on the forehand? How do their forehands really differ across the grip styles? What, if anything, can the average player model from the top pros? Should they even try?

In this new series of articles, we’ll try to understand what is really happening and what players at all levels can learn. We’ll work through the similarities and the differences across grip styles.

We’ll go into a lot of detail and try to sort out the many confusing issues that are widely debated by players and coaches. Then we’ll try to boil it all down to a simple teaching approach you can use to build or improve your own forehand.

Thanks to the advent of resources such as our ProStrokes Gallery, as well as the high speed video developed by Advanced Tennis Research, it is now possible to get a clear look at the sequence of technical elements in the strokes of great players.

Using these resources, it is possible to develop accurate bio-mechanical information in the form of visual stroke models. These models allow players to absorb technical information more directly, by developing the image and the feeling of the shot patterns, rather than having to “translate” it from verbal descriptions.

This approach helps to overcome two major limitations in traditional teaching. The first is the imprecision and inaccuracy of much teaching information, which is based on the personal experience of coaches, and observations of the game made with the naked eye (We’ve explored this problem extensively in our series on Common Tennis Myths).

The second limitation is the reliance on the verbal approach, which conveys teaching information in words through tennis tips. Research shows that most players learn best in the language of imagery and kinesthetics, and this matches reports of elite players about how they learned (See the Myth of the Tennis Tip).

Although we are going to analyze the modern forehand in detail, and then construct models for learning several variations, one thing we won’t do is make any absolute pronouncements about which grip style and/or stroke variation is ultimately preferable.

As any coach working with junior players knows very well, the more extreme, westernized grips are here to stay. One of the challenges many coaches face is knowing how to work with players with these radical grips, when their own playing and coaching backgrounds are from a different technical era.

In my personal opinion, it is probably crazy for a 4.0 club player to try to copy Gustavo Kuerten’s or Andy Roddick’s forehand? Yes. Would the vast majority of all players—including junior players—be better off in the long run with something closer to the classical grip structure and swing style of Pete Sampras? Again, yes in my opinion.

Should we sometimes try to get recreational players and inexperienced junior players off the more extreme grips? Yes at times. But does that mean we should reject the extreme technical swing patterns completely or refuse to work with players who use them in the hope they will somehow just disappear from the game?

In competitive junior tennis the more extreme topspin styles are usually the fastest way to early competitive success. For that reason alone, we are going to see more and more young players committed to underneath grip styles. So it’s important to try to understand what is actually happening with these grips, what is not happening, and also, the sequence of what happens when.

As Robert Lansdorp has noted, it is virtually impossible (and therefore counterproductive) to retool a successful competitive junior’s forehand grip after the age of 12 or 13. With these players, the right coaching path is usually to work with them within the grip structures they have already developed. This is precisely what Rick Macci did in working with the young Andy Roddick.

So even if you believe in classic grips, it’s essential to understand the extreme forehands, and to know how to teach them. Obviously, this is even more critical for coaches who are starting their players from scratch with semi-western or even more extreme grips.

So that’s what we’ll try to do in these articles—understand the forehand variations and how to teach and/or learn them, the start of a new series that will eventually address all the strokes in the same way.

Surprisingly, as we dig into the basic bio-mechanics, we’ll see that the new extreme forehands actually share many core technical elements with the classical style. Or, put another way, so-called classical technique may be more “modern” than it actually appears.

We’ll also see critical technical differences between the classic and extreme grips. These are vital for both players and coaches to understand. It is possible for a coach to give technical input that is absolutely correct for one grip style, but incorrect and potentially detrimental for the grip the player is actually using.

The current article will deal with the surprising commonalities in the basic swings. Upcoming articles will look at the very real technical differences. After that we’ll explore the mysteries of the stances, contact heights, footwork and recovery steps.

In a final article, we’ll show you how to construct your own stroke models, both physically, through the use of specific checkpoints, and visually, through the use of mental imagery. We’ll also show you the radical power this imagery can have in building your mental game, and executing your forehand under pressure. So let’s dig in, beginning with forehand preparation.

Preparation

When most club players think of preparation, they think of the so-called “backswing.” But if we look at the pros, virtually no two players have backswings with the same shape or size. Some players with extreme grips have big loops and others are quite compact. The same is true for the more classical players (in the next article, we will do a detailed comparison of the differences in size and shape).

One of my fellow members at the San Francisco Tennis Club watched Andre Agassi practicing there and tried to study his incredible forehand firsthand. He sought me out in the locker room to tell me what he’d learned—that Agassi “hooded” his backswing on his forehand (Whatever that meant).

Now this guy had one of the stiffest forehands you’ve ever seen, with a continental grip and a horrendous lack of preparation. But he was sure he’d found the magic bullet that was going to fix his forehand. Like many other players and even coaches, he didn’t understand the real key to preparation has virtually nothing to do with the shape of the backswing.

High speed video shows that, no matter what the backswing, virtually every pro player initiates the forehand with a body turn, and that this turn has two parts.

The Start of the Turn

The first part we can call the Start of the Turn. Sometimes this is also called the first move, or the unit turn. The move is initiated with the feet and torso. There is very little or no independent movement of the arms and racquet.

The body starts to turn sideways as a unit. Sometimes this is accomplished with a step to the side with the outside foot (the right foot for a right-hander), or sometimes with a drop step as my fellow TennisONE Editor Jim McLennan was among the first to recognize.

In this first move, the player creates almost half of his total shoulder turn, with the upper torso rotated so that it is at about a 45 degree angle to the net. As the body turns, the arms and racquet turn automatically as well. This actually completes a substantial part of the racquet preparation, but without any real movement in the form of a backswing.

In some players, you see a slight raise in the elbow or some small movement of the hands, but this is minor. In all cases, the hands stay together, with the left hand cradling or touching the racquet through the completion of the first move.

The old idea of preparing by “getting the racquet back early” is a myth, as we have examined (Myth of the Backswsing).

The other key point to realize here is that the Start of the Turn happens virtually instantaneously. On average, it takes only about 2/10s of a second. Players start the turn as soon as they recognize which side the ball is coming to. It definitely precedes any significant movement to the ball, even if they are in for a long run.

This first move is universal across the grip styles. Compare the players below and see how they are all in virtually the same position at this point in the motion.

The Full Turn

The second position, what I call the Full Turn, or the completion of the turn, is the natural continuation of the initial move. Usually, the two movements are completely seamless—that is, the player flows from one to the other continuously and without pause. This is true even if the player has also started moving to the ball after the start of the turn.

In developing the feel for the preparation of the basic stroke, the movements should be taught together as two continuous parts. The only time there is a discernable pause after the initial move is when the player has a long run across the court, or sometimes when he takes several steps to get around the ball to hit inside out or inside in. But this pause should develop naturally as the player progresses.

To reach the Full Turn, the player continues to rotate his shoulders until, typically, he or she is turned slightly more than 90 degrees or perpendicular to the net. The head remains forward, tracking the ball, with the chin almost touching the front shoulder.

As the shoulders continue to turn, the opposite arm extends across the body, pointing toward the sideline. The arm can be completely straight, or it can be slightly bent at the elbow. It can be a little higher or lower, pointing at an angle slightly upward or downward, depending on the player. But these are individual differences.

Want to study high speed video of the modern forehand for yourself (as well as all the other strokes)?
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Building the Modern Forehand

Preparation

The Start of the Turn

The Full Turn