How to hit fast forehand with low net clearance

[zdepth]

Hello...

I'm a singles player & I've been playing doubles a lot lately. I really hate
playing doubles especially against the opponent who is standing in front of the
net. He kept intercepting my topspin cross court forehand to his partner.
Can anyone help my with the proper techniques to execute a fast forehand
with low net clearance?
My forehand has to much net clearance & it is not fast enough. I have an
eastern forehand grip. Appreciate all tips & advice.

[beckham]

why would you want low net clearence?? Its going to give you less margin for error, and the shots you do make will be canceled out with the ones you will put into the net. Does the net opponent poach quite noticibly?? have you tried to pass him down his alley?? Or you could lob him, but trying to make it low over the net is only going to decrease your margin for error and cause you to make more unforced errors.

[Djokovicfan4life]

Aim just over the net.

Good luck.

[phoenicks]

straighten your swingpath, making it more horizontal when u start swinging forward, contact the ball and follow through, make sure u bend your knee, sit and lift while flattening ur shot to make sure u have the net clearance, otherwise net chord is gonna frustrate the hell outta you.

[phoenicks]

Of course, you need fast racquet head speed, clean contact and good timing as well.

[Sublime]

Welcome to doubles... in someways a completely different game than singles.

Based on what you've described, you're either returning serve or playing out of an equally disadvantaged position. I think most experienced doubles players will tell you to first try to stay out of this situation, but that's easier said than done.

So given what you've described you have a few options. You can lob to either side. The cross court lob can be lower, but you need to really get it cross court (ie aim for the singles lines and use the alley as error). The down the line lob needs to be higher to clear the net player.

The lower percentage plays are flatter and lower cross court and down the line shots you're asking about. Being that these are both low percentage shots, you want to do them sparingly. The down the line shot (given equal risk) has a better payoff. Because even if you miss, it helps keep the net guy honest and will loosen up the cross court rally ball (ie he's less likely to poach if he thinks he always has to cover the alley).

[Nellie]

Yes - aim lower, because you do not need the depth in doubles. the players tend to be coming to the net anyways, so yuo are not trying to pin people back.

[tfm1973]

Aim just over the net.

Good luck.

LOL. +1.

if you wanna hit hard and just barely over the net . . . you hit the ball as hard as you can and you aim just barely over the net.

now if you wanna know why this is not usually a good idea. that's another question entirely.

[manu7381]

all my forehands seem like this, what I do is hit the ball lower than normal, and swing more vertical and LESS horizontal... just saying what works for me.

[GPB]

I like to chop returns crosscourt in doubles... it works great until the other team starts to expect it, and then I come out with deeper aggressive returns. If the netman gets aggressive with poaching your topspin shots, make sure you aim some down the line or right at him, to keep him honest.

As an aggressive netman myself, I hate people going down the line on me! Sometimes I bait it, though... showing a poach early and then jumping back wide, expecting the dtl shot.

It's all about the mental game in doubles!

[LeeD]

Flatter stroke, NOT swung faster, keeps the ball low and crosscourt.
But as mentioned above, against a poaching net man, plan 1 out of 3 returns hit hard right into his alley, or into his hitting side hip pocket, hard and flat as you can to keep him honest. Tell partner, so he can defend playing slightly farther back on those once the serve is hit.
And lobs work, both crosscourt and DTL, to keep him, feeling useless and out of position.
So more shots needed for doubles, to expand your repetoire !!:twisted:

[user92626]

OP,

IMO, you shouldn't go this route (low net clr.) to solve this problem. What you need to learn to do is keep a good clearance (if you already have it) and increase pace. When my fh is in, I could hit just 6 ft away from the netman and he still couldn't poach. On rare occasion he could, my net partner could still volley or I could follow up with more shot.

That brings up another point: have your partner position a bit back and to the center, basically to cover the "alley" between you and your partner. You always need to be ready to follow up with more shots. Just visualize where the oppon netman could possibly volley back and you should be good.

[tennisdad65]

Move in closer if you can. When you do this, it is difficult to poach even with a slower and safer return. No point dumping half your returns into the net because the netman is poaching.

John mcenroe's service returns were basically blocks or chips from well in. They were not fast at all but he was rarely poached on. Also, his no pace 'dink' service returns to the servers feet worked well even at the pro level.

[Jackie T. Stephens]

As I have learned from playing some junior pro circuits.. dude you can't pound the ball as hard as you want all the time and maybe with your problem your not getting enough spin, if you want a killer forehand use proper technique and a more horizontal swing path and add little spin, enough to drive the ball but only do that to floaters or balls that you can take advantage of.

[Rickson]

I like the lob a lot for doubles. It's the most fun strategy and it's damned effective too.

[maverick66]

if hes standing in the middle go down the line. he will stop cheating over or lose. no way hes standing in the middle and covering the line.

[SourStraws]

Yes - aim lower, because you do not need the depth in doubles. the players tend to be coming to the net anyways, so yuo are not trying to pin people back.

Yes..... You do need depth in doubles... How are you going to prevent the player from coming into the net if you dont keep the ball deep?? The team who controls the net controls the game, so if you dont want the other team banging volleys on you and banging the short ball at your net man, you better keep that ball deep and away from the other net man!

To the OP.... I'd suggest flattening it out a bit to give it some extra pace.... But you still would ideally want to keep it fairly consistent. Like others have suggested.... Lobbing works extremely well at our/your level, so use that as well and dont forget to keep the strokes deep also to prevent the other guy from poaching


S.S.

[OhDear]

Now why you would want to do this, no one on this forum will ever know, or agree with for that matter.
Hitting a fast forehand is done by having a looser more relaxed swing, lots of flexibility and fast swing speed, look up Monfils.
Low net clearance? Just aim right above the net.

[Nellie]

Yes..... You do need depth in doubles... How are you going to prevent the player from coming into the net if you dont keep the ball deep?? The team who controls the net controls the game, so if you dont want the other team banging volleys on you and banging the short ball at your net man, you better keep that ball deep and away from the other net man!



Well, we can disagree than, because it does depend on your stype of play. In my doubles matches, my opponents and I am coming to the net on every point, on serves and on returns of serve (unless someone is just killing the return). With this in mind (expecting my opponent to be charging the net) I am hitting dippers at my opponents feet to get a defensive volley. If your opponent is coming in and you are trying to hit deep, your opponent will get an offensive volley to hit at your partner at the net.

[LeeD]

For me, low is the key to doubles.
Hitting low groundies, the opposition can come in, for sure, but since you just hit the last one low, you can hit another one low also, giving the netcharger another low ball to half or low volley, setting you up for another high shot that you can choose any option.
High just doesn't work, as anything much inside the doubles corner can be poached by a decent netman. And anything outside the doubles corner will go out sometimes just from the shorter court.
So low, FOR ME, is the best option when caught at the baseline.