Hit The Perfect Forehand in 5 Steps - Tennis Forehand Masterclass #tennis#TennisTutorial The forehand in tennis is the most important shot after the serve and return. That's why it's very important to work on, and master, the forehand. In this tennis lesson, Coach Simon Konov of Top Tennis Training will show you how to hit the perfect forehand in five steps, a true tennis forehand masterclass.
Tennis Forehand Grips The foundation of any player's forehand is the way they hold the racket, the grip. We have three main forehand grips in tennis, the eastern forehand grip, the semi-western forehand grip, and the western forehand grip. Most ATP and WTA tennis pros use the semi-western forehand grip. Roger Federer and Juan Martin Del Potro use an eastern forehand grip. Jack Sock and Nick Kyrgios use a Western forehand grip. We recommend using the semi-western grip as it allows you to produce topspin and also flatten out the forehand. It also makes dealing with low, medium, and high balls easy.
The Ready Position on your Forehand The ready position is how you wait with your racket when doing a split step. Try to hold the racket with your forehand grip, as you'll want to cover 60-70% of the court with your forehand. The racket head should be above the grip of the racket and the non-hitting hand should be either on the throat of the racket or the top of the grip.
Coiling The Upper Body As early as possible, try to coil the upper body. Coiling the upper body means that you turn your left shoulder towards the oncoming ball, storing energy in the core muscles. This unit turn also ensures the racket starts its swing toward the power position. The quicker you coil, the more time you'll create on the shot.
Reaching A Perfect Power Position Once you've coiled the upper body and moved towards the ball, you'll want to reach an ideal power position. Typically, a good power position will include the racket head being above the grip level, the arm away from the body, the non-hitting arm stretched across the body, helping to track the oncoming ball, and the legs loaded, ready to drive into the shot.
Forehand Lag From the power position, the legs and trunk will then initiate the forward phase of the forehand swing. With a loose arm and wrist, this unloading of the legs and uncoiling of the upper body will result in the racket head lagging behind the arm and grip of the racket. This lag phase will give you additional leverage or force over the ball.
Contact Point Try to make contact out in front of your body. When you make contact in front, the entire body can support the racket during the strike zone and both eyes can track the ball onto the strings.
Follow Through and Finish After the contact point, it's all about finishing your forehand in an arm-friendly way. There are different finishes you can use and each one serves a purpose, but in general, the across-the-chest finish is the one you'll want to master and use the most often. Have the elbow bend and come across the chest with the racket finishing wrapped around your body.
In the forehand masterclass, Coach Simon will cover all of these forehand topics: 1. Tennis forehand grips 2. Forehand ready position 3. Coil and uncoil on the forehand 4 The unit turn on the forehand 5. The poser position on the forehand 6. Forehand stances 7. The load and explode on the forehand 8. How to use your legs properly on the forehand 9. Forehand lag and how to achieve this 10. The contact point on the forehand 11. The windsheild wiper motion on the forehand 12. Follow through and forehand finishes
Video Timeline: 00:00 - Lesson Intro 00:26 - Tennis Forehand Grips 01:30 - The Ready Position 02:52 - Coiling on the Forehand 05:09 - Power Position 06:40 - Loading the Legs 06:57 - Forehand Stances 08:08 - Forehand Lag 10:10 - Contact Point on the Forehand 10:40 - Follow Through and Finish
Hey everyone, Coach Simon here with Top Tennis Training and in this video we're going to break
down the forehand. We're going to show you some of the most common problems that players will face,
how to fix them and how to make your forehand more powerful, more consistent and more accurate.
So the foundation of the forehand, this is for every single player in the world,
is the way you hold the racket, the grip. So we have the three main grips. We have the eastern
forehand grip, which is the grip that Federer uses. Then we have the semi-western grip,
which is the grip that most ATP and WTA pros will use. And we have the full western,
which is a grip used by Kyrgios and Jack Sock. Now we recommend using the semi-western forehand grip
and this is because it allows you to produce aggressive topspin, but it also allows you to
hit that flatter shot. You can also handle high balls, medium high balls and low balls all using
that semi-western. So now that you have the ideal grip, it's all about waiting for that forehand
and looking to hit your forehand as often as possible. We should be aiming to cover around 60
to 70% of the court with that forehand. So when I'm waiting in the ready position, I want to be
holding my forehand grip and I want to be looking for my forehand as often as possible.
Anything that comes to the right side of my body is going to be a forehand. Anything in the middle
of the court is a forehand. And even slightly to my backhand side, I can run around and hit my inside
in or inside out forehand. I have to make sure I'm holding the forehand grip and I'm holding either
the throat of the racket like this. If you're a two-handed backhand player, you might want to
hold the grip of the racket. Either way, you want the rack ahead to be higher than the grip level
because this will create leverage or force in the arm and the racket.
We also wait in this position because it makes it much easier to prepare for the forehand,
produce power, have the space that we need to accelerate and just hit that better quality stroke.
So now that we have the ready position, it's all about the coiling of the upper body and making
sure that we get that racket back as early as possible. Time is the most valuable commodity
on a tennis court and the earlier we prepare for the forehand, the more options we'll have.
But also we won't feel rushed, so we'll be much more relaxed and loose with the arm. There's
nothing worse than feeling rushed and being late on the stroke because you've either had late
preparation or you've taken too big of a swing. So early preparation is key. So as soon as we
recognize we're going to hit the forehand, that first step is making sure we get from this 12
o'clock position to this 2 or 3 o'clock position as quickly as possible. So I'm turning the upper
body, my left shoulder is now turning towards that oncoming ball and I'm imagining that I've
got a rubber band around my waist and I'm pulling the rubber band back. I'm coiling the upper body
and this is storing energy, explosive energy in the trunk muscles, mainly the side obliques. Now
what happens is as we coil and then uncoil, this produces a lot of explosive power in our stroke.
So the more we can coil at the beginning of the stroke, the more energy is stored in the trunk
and then as we uncoil, that energy is released into the ball. A good way to imagine this is
you have a rubber band and as you pull the band back, that's storing that explosive energy in the
band. Then when we release, the band fires off. So from this front on position, if I'm imagining the
net is now where the camera is, from this 12 o'clock position, if I do nothing with my arms
but I simply coil the upper body now, you can see where my racket goes. From 12 o'clock to 1 o'clock
to 2 o'clock to 3 o'clock and I've done nothing with the arm independently. So from the back it's
going to look like this. 12, 1, 2, 3. My arm has stayed in the same position but what's happened
is I've coiled the upper body and it's helped me prepare the racket. I'm already in a very good
position to generate power. So now that we've reached that side on position, we can now think
about separating the arms and reaching the power position. Now the power position is basically
that last phase of the backswing on your forehand. So it's the furthest point back before you start
the swing towards that point of contact. So an ideal power position, you'll have your racket
head higher than the grip level which will give you space to accelerate the racket and also creates
that leverage in the arm and the racket head. We have the non-hitting arm across the body which
will help us track the ball but also acts as a balancer. It allows us to balance out the upper
body. So we don't want the left arm dead, we want it engaged in the swing. I also have my racket away
from the body. I don't want to be tucked in with my elbow. I want to have the space that I need to
accelerate and build that momentum. So an arm that's away from the body will be ideal for me
actually producing racket head speed. Anything that gives me more racket head speed will give
me more power and in this position I also want to be thinking about the legs. I want to be loading
the legs and making sure that I'm engaging with the lower half of my body. Now it doesn't matter
the stance. We can use the open stance, we can use the semi-open stance or we can use the neutral stance
but in all three cases we want to make sure that we're loading the legs.
We're creating that ground force as we then drive into the shot. So I'm coiling the body, I'm storing
the energy in the major muscles of the trunk but I'm also storing energy in my leg muscles.
And the legs will be the best way for you to increase your power
straight away just by loading, unloading, loading, unloading.
The legs can take the most amount of work in the body and they're also the strongest muscle group
so why not have them involved on your forehand. From the power position the next phase is the lag
towards that point of contact. So the racket head will start to drop, you might have the racket on
edge like this and you might have your strings closing to the ground like this. Play around with
both see which one suits your forehand more. If you like to hit the ball flatter having the racket
on edge like this will help you. If you want to produce more spin closing the strings to the
ground will help you. Either way from this position we now start to uncoil the legs have
started to drive into the shot. We're opening up the trunk so imagine the rubber band being released.
We're now releasing the power into the ball but then we have this racket lag phase and this is
where the racket head will be lagging behind the grip and the hand. Now it's important that we
don't try to force this racket lag position. We want it to occur naturally, we want it to occur by
us using the correct muscle groups and generating that swing in a relaxed way. If my arm is relaxed
and I go from this position and I keep my especially the wrist if I keep it relaxed and
then I uncoil the racket will lag naturally. Now you have some players will have the arm more
extended like Federer, Nadal and Vodasko and other players will have the arm closer to the body
like Djokovic. Either way you still want to produce that racket lag because that lag is basically
force or leverage over that ball. If you imagine a hammer hitting a nail the bottom of the racket
is leading that way like a hammer and at the very last second that's when the racket head comes
through and we make contact. Now the contact point ideally we're going to be making contact
in front of the body regardless if we use the extended arm or the bent elbow forehand.
With both methods it's important that we're reaching towards that ball as if we're going
to catch it with our hand. If we're going to catch a ball we wouldn't be catching it on side of us
we'd be catching in front and this is because both eyes can see that point of contact. Now from the
contact point it's all about the follow through and finish and the follow through will change
depending on the type of shot you're going for. If you're going for more of a topspin shot the
racket head would have started below that point of contact so the racket will be like this.
We're brushing the back of the ball to produce that aggressive topspin and then we end up with
the racket going from racket down position to the racket being up so the tip of the racket
will be pointing towards the sky as I brush the ball. This creates that low to high swing
which is crucial in producing that high net clearance for then the ball to dip with the
topspin. So I'm producing that low to high swing I reach this position and then I finish that
windshield wiper motion so this action here and eventually I end up with my racket coming
around my chest so I cross the chest finish with the elbow. If I want to hit the ball flatter
I can extend much more towards my target and then finish the swing. Either way I want to make sure
that the elbow has bent and has come across the body when I finish that stroke. Some players will
also finish over the shoulder even a Medvedev likes to finish here quite often. Other players
will finish slightly lower. With all three methods try to ensure that the elbow is bending which will
take the strain off the shoulder muscles and allow you to relax that racket head speed that
you've accumulated during that stroke. Now if you want more help with the forehand we have a free
forehand pdf that you can download right away. This will be the five steps to the perfect tennis
forehand. This is our free forehand guide. I'll leave the link beneath this video. All you have
to do is click on the link that will take you to our website, enter your email address and we'll
send you that pdf right away. So there you have it some of the most important elements to master
for a powerful consistent and accurate forehand. Now if you've enjoyed this lesson smash the like
button, subscribe to the channel of course and make sure you turn on that notification bell.
Signing off, Coach Simon from TTT. All the best and see you soon. Smash those forehands now!
