We all love the feeling of hitting the perfect forehand when you are timing the shot and giving the ball just the right amount of power and spin in a relaxed way. In order to stay fully relaxed and produce effortless power and spin, we need to make sure we follow 3 simple steps to achieve this.
1. The take-back - making sure you have a deep swing but one that is generated by the body turn (unit turn) separating your shoulders from your hip and creating a nice coiling effect. The left-arm going across the body will help you do this and ensure you are not taking your racquet back too far. Make sure your racquet head does not bend behind the body for ATP Forehand so keep the racquet on your right. WTA Forehand players tend to let it go behind for more power and racquet momentum but less wrist snap and less ability to create top-spin.
2. The contact - this will ensure the direction of the ball so it is vital you have the racquet face pointing away from you slightly in front (somewhere around where you front toe is). The path of the racquet needs to continue going in a linear way as much as possible through contact (avoid the semi-circle) and don't pull your arm across your body.
3. The finish - ensuring a good follow-through is vital. Don't stop your arm, let it go through all the way to stay loose and smooth. having a high elbow finish helps get a nice low to high trajectory and also makes it easy to apply topspin as its easier to rotate your wrist. Even if you do not finish in a classic way over your shoulder still ensure to have a high elbow.
Hey guys, Alex and Alex here from Top Tennis Training.
As you can see Simon's not here so I've decided to clone myself.
So today for our video we're going to talk about the forehand
and specifically the three steps to the perfect forehand.
Now step number one, Alex number two is going to demonstrate.
We need to have the perfect swing. The swing is what starts off the shot.
It's what prepares you for the shot, it's what gives you the power that you need
to hit the shot. It's a very important part of the game
and it's something we're going to look at now.
Now as you can see Alex number two is taking the racket back.
He takes the racket back nice and far. He wants that racket to go
all the way back behind him before he starts the shot.
The further back he goes obviously the tougher it is to make contact.
So you need to have a compact swing yet a swing that goes all the way back.
You can achieve this by a body turn. As you can see
Alex number two is turning his body in order to show
that racket back. It's not just the arm that goes back it's the whole body that
turns. Now that he's fully back he's able to
generate the power from his body from that full body turn
to make contact with the ball. Now step number two is all about having the
correct contact point. The direction where the racket is facing
is going to ultimately decide where the ball flies off
and you need to keep that racket facing at contact to the target for as long as
possible. It's all about having that smooth
follow through through the shot through contact
at the target and then finishing off the shot. As you can see Alex here
demonstrating you're going to have the palm of the
racket and the racket face so the playing area of the racket
pointing away from him on the swing. It's still pointing away from him
at contact point and as he continues going through
all the way to the end if he takes this racket out of his hand
that palm is still pointing away from his body so at no time
does the racket come in to his body. At no time does the
playing face of the racket face his body. That ensures that he's able to release
his body let go into the shot and ensure the correct path of the racket
into contact and into the direction where he's hitting.
Now step number three is all about having the correct finish.
Now a lot of players don't finish all the way through the shot they end up
kind of having this jerky motion so what you
don't want to do is to finish nice and short next to your
body or finish too quickly. As you can see Alex showing here
finishing too quickly makes the shot too compact
and it becomes tough to let go. You want it to be a smooth
continuous motion finishing all the way through
over your shoulder. If some of you play golf it'll be very similar to
finishing a golf swing. As you can see the racket moves back
to contact point and through continuously.
At no point do you want to stop that racket and you don't want to tense
during contact. It's our body's natural response to tense at contact.
We do it all the time but we have to fight that urge and actually let go
release and allow the racket to take the load. Allow the racket to do the work for
you. Allow the rotation to do the work for you.
If you keep that racket face pointing away from you just like Alex is
demonstrating and finish all the way through you're
bound to have a shot that's going to be powerful
yet accurate and you're going to have a much better forehand to play matches
with. So thank you Alex number two for being
the perfect demonstrator and thank you guys for watching.
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