Tennis Forehand - Next Gen vs Modern vs Classic.

Hey guys Simon and Alex here from Top Tennis Training and in this video we're going to take a look at the differences between the modern tennis forehand and the next generation tennis forehand. Now first of all let's take a look at a classic forehand. This is a forehand that players like John McEnroe used to hit. Let's look at the specifics of it first and then we can move on to the other forehands. So the main differences for me, number one the grip. The grip is more eastern forehand or it's even a continental which is the chopper grip and the racket path is a lot more upwards because they want to finish high over their shoulder in this classic style. Okay so if Simon now demonstrates as he hits this classic forehand you can see that actually his wrist is quite locked together with his arm so he's swinging from the shoulder and therefore he has to finish up because the wrist is not rotating in order for the racket head to go below the ball and over the ball so he actually has to go in a low to high motion he needs to achieve that from his shoulder because the arm is quite straight you're not able to actually move the wrist around as much in that chopper or continental grip so that's the reason that the the shot actually finishes really high with the whole arm whereas something like the modern forehand or the next generation forehand it can be a little bit more wristy. So here I'm using the continental grip to hit these forehands. As you can see there one of the big disadvantages of using that style of play and that style of forehand is dealing with the high balls. Now there all the balls are coming really flat so it's very difficult to generate topspin even with that low to high motion because the wrist in itself can travel a lot faster than your arm that's being attached to the shoulder so this segment is quite long so it's very difficult to swing it fast so actually the shot is quite controlled it's a heavy ball but actually the arm is traveling quite slow therefore it's very difficult to generate topspin with that classic forehand. It's specifically useful for fast surfaces so surfaces like a grass court is going to be useful because you can keep the ball quite low you don't need to generate as much topspin because you want the ball to slide through the court a little bit more you're hitting a flatter contact flatter shot and therefore it's more effective on those fast surfaces. However it does become a lot more difficult if you are playing on clay because the ball can come up a lot higher and with that grip now it's actually very difficult to close off that racket head in order to generate topspin therefore the high balls become difficult and that's something that those players struggle with therefore they're not going to do as well on the higher bouncing clay courts. Now as we continue developing the forehand into the modern game a lot of the court surfaces are actually higher bouncing there's a lot of clay court tournaments so now the players have started to adapt their forehand and actually turn it into more of a modern forehand. Now Simon what is the modern forehand? So the modern forehand for me I would look at Roger Federer's the greatest example so he's got the tip of the racket top of the racket he's pointing it up in the back swing so the racket is staying in this position throughout the swing until he gets to that back position but the start of the swing he's lifting the racket like so he's keeping the racket on the right side of his body and he also has extra lag right before the contact point so the racket is up it's coming forward and then that big wrist lag right before the contact point and the contact point is also much more in front than on the classic forehand. Now we can achieve this wrist lag and contact more in front because of the grip now the grip is more of a semi-western it could be a little bit more eastern but it's more towards the semi-western side so when it's semi-western you're able to actually make contact a lot more in front and still show that racket face to the ball now if we change that into an eastern or a chopper now to be in front you're actually going to point the racket up so you actually have to make the contact a little bit later and that actually causes you to hit the ball a little bit different and it becomes more jammed up so in order to generate topspin we need to be more in front we need to be able to rotate that wrist and that wrist rotation is key for generating topspin that's exactly what the modern forehand allows players to do. Now there you can see Simon using a lot more the open stance or the semi-open stance and actually less of the neutral stance even closed stance that you would expect more with that classic forehand. Now the key difference of why we hit more neutral in the eastern forehand in the classic forehand is because of the grip so this grip will not allow you to put your shoulder forward quite as much because you're not able to release this wrist the maximum that Simon can do is actually point the strings into that direction so you're always going to struggle to really release the shoulder forward so you see a lot more late contact so you're letting the ball come through so you can show the strings to the court and then carry on so in order to achieve that you're going to need to do a neutral stance now with a modern forehand you can be a lot more open can be either open or semi-open you can throw that that shoulder forward a lot more you can have the racket a lot more in front where the rotation of the wrist can happen and therefore those forehands are a lot more effective from those stance. Now let's talk about the next generation tennis forehand this is players like Nick Kyrgios, Jack Sock, Kocanakis as well and also Dominic Thiem. So here the grip actually rotates even more around so it becomes you know even more than the the semi-western it becomes more of a western or the extreme semi-western grip now in this position the racket can generate the most topspin because the strings are pointing down the most now that they're able to rotate that wrist as much as possible they're also able to go up on the ball a lot more so that the more that you have this grip the more upward motion I can do it becomes a lot easier high balls become a lot easier and the whole swing becomes a lot snappier with this grip. Now at the start of the stroke you'll notice that a lot of the players lead with the elbow so the elbow is leading the tip of the racket unlike in Federer's forehand is now pointing towards the oncoming ball or the opponent so the racket is like this and that creates extra space for that extra lag at the very last moment that extra whip like Alex has said so you're going from this position tip of the racket is pointing to the opponent from here now the butt cap is almost pointing behind me yeah sometimes it even points up on some of the players like we see Jack Sock even point the racket up so as he takes the racket back he then creates this kind of looping effect like this slingshot effect and that's what generates that power it's that slingshot fast out of the swing is what gives it that snap and that fast hit now another big difference is the finish on this forehand so because of the grip you don't want to stop the racket out here somewhere you want it to carry on and to carry on the easiest path will be then from here across my body so you see the finish with the arm wrapping around the chest or even going down to my left oblique if you're a right-handed player and you'll see actually the butt cap almost point up at the end where the racket actually dropped all the way so it's completed its move all the way around and it's pointing up now and that's because of that the racket actually traveling up during contact is not as much through where with the modern we have like a little bit more closer to the classic where we're going through and up and rotate whereas with the next generation forehand it becomes a lot more up we're getting the through motion from this whip from this elbow shooting forward but we're getting that the wrist is just moving up so you're getting that super super big top spin and that causes the racket the racket butt cap to point up at the end because if you were to slow it down the ball will not go anywhere you really need to let it go and the only way to let it go is to finish the move all the way down so you see a lot of players like Kyrgios he finishes there Jack Sock he finishes there and that because they finish that actually becomes like a very continuous shot you know you let it go until it it's exhausted you go all the way through to the contact and it's a it's a very effective shot to generate power they get a lot of power coupled with the spin so it's extreme spin extreme power and that's what the modern game I guess is all about now Alex when you were hitting those did you feel extra stress on your wrist on your shoulder on your elbow yeah so the the least stress I found for myself was the modern forehand yeah I think it allowed me the full range of motion that I needed it didn't restrict me like I felt with the classic forehand I felt a little bit restricted like I always had to keep my my wrist straight and I didn't like that too much now with the next generation forehand I felt like there was a lot of stress on my wrist there was a lot of stress on my elbow my shoulder felt like it was coming out the socket because the racket actually gets a lot of acceleration on it so the racket actually starts flying forward and it almost like my arm has to keep it there from flying off and I feel a little bit in my shoulder I feel my wrist because it's traveling at such high speeds I feel like I really need to get used to it and train it and I think you would risk getting injured if you were to do it on you know repetitively so I'd say the the best one is the modern forehand I think it gives you the biggest range of shots without risk of that injury but again if you are one of those you know extreme players that wants to get a little bit more out of your game then do try the ultra modern forehand the next generation forehand and see if that's the one for you so Alex in your opinion which one do you prefer the modern tennis forehand or the next generation one well you didn't mention the classic oh the classic sorry yeah so that I don't like the classic so much because I'm simply not used to playing with that chopper grip or the eastern grip I find it very difficult to get top spin I like to be a little bit more whippy I like to get the ball going high over the net and I prefer playing with a modern forehand so for me I don't have the the wrist snap again it's something that I haven't learned when I was when I was growing up so I haven't you know really I haven't got this extreme grip I haven't got the technique in order to whip it as much so when I do start trying to do it I actually find it very difficult to get good timing you know so I lose control I get sometimes a lot of power because I'll snap out of it and I can whip it and the ball can fly but I feel like I lose control because I'm not able to time that whip because everything's happening very quickly in this forehand so from here to here this happens very quickly during the shot I actually find it very tough to time the ball and hit it with the correct contact point in order to hit a good shot whereas players that have been doing it for a long time they might be a little bit more used to it and it will actually maybe help them achieve more power and more spin at the same time what do you think Simon? I agree 100% so for me modern tennis forehand the more outwards motion more for me I use in between the semi-western and the eastern so if I was to move around to the western I think I'd really struggle with those low balls especially against someone who's slicing especially on a court like this faster surfaces would become a nightmare for me so I prefer the kind of in between the hybrid forehand where you have a bit of the extreme whip at the end but you could also hit a little bit flatter if you want to go through the ball do you think it's the court surfaces that are breeding this next generation forehand players because the courts are a lot bouncier than maybe they're a little bit slower even courts of Wimbledon they're playing a lot slower the rackets are a little bit different I think it's the rackets mainly in the strings okay so do you think it's because the racket's actually giving the players a lot of power that they're now having to okay we need to generate even more topspin to control this power and when we let go with this maximum topspin we can actually hit like a super forehand yes if you can manage to control it if you can manage to do it and you know the really good players they can but actually you tend to find that although they have those big forehands they're not always as consistent as you know as the other players who have more modern forehand for me I would take a Roger Federer forehand over a Jack Sock or a Nick Kyrgios any day of the week and I think well exactly one of the reasons uh that actually the the modern forehand breaks down so much is because uh on those big points when you're you know you're you're depending on making that ball in when you get a little bit tighter that tightness in your arm you won't be able to swing through the ball as much because the the whole forehand depends on being super loose and letting that arm go the moment you stiffen up a little bit it actually doesn't quite fly as much exactly a modern forehand which has a more of a kind of a linear path compared to the uh to the ultra modern one so um I'd take that one over you know the Kyrgios one for sure what do you guys think have you tried all three types of forehands which one do you use and which one do you prefer when you're out there on the court trying them out do you think the next generation forehand is uh the way to go do you think that this is the way the game is going to develop and we're going to see a lot more players using it or do you think that the the classic forehand or the modern forehand is going to make more of a comeback or is going to be there to stay because it's the most effective way of winning now in video number two we're going to teach you both the modern tennis forehand so the Federer Nadal style forehand and we're also going to teach you the next generation style forehand so to watch those two videos just click the link under this video and we'll see you right there