Forehand

[AngleMaster]

Do most of you 'hold' the neck of your racquet when taking it back for the forehand?

I would like to know what the majority of players do. I read that holding it by the neck on the takeback facilitates a good shoulder turn. The way I do it is if I have time to wind up I hold it by the neck, and if I am on the run I usually swing freely without holding the neck to facilitate shoulder turn. I think this is what I see most pros doing.

[theace21]

In teaching tennis, you have the players in the ready position and if they hit a one handed backhand the opposite hand is on the racket. This does help promote shoulder turn...After you play a while, and have learned to get your racket back and turn your shoulder you drop that learned behavior. So many people hit with an open stance now, I am surprised that method is still taught (little kids maybe)...

[AngleMaster]

In teaching tennis, you have the players in the ready position and if they hit a one handed backhand the opposite hand is on the racket. This does help promote shoulder turn...After you play a while, and have learned to get your racket back and turn your shoulder you drop that learned behavior. So many people hit with an open stance now, I am surprised that method is still taught (little kids maybe)...

You can still do this with an open stance, and I never knew there were any that still hit with a closed stance nowadays. For an example, you can notice both the pros in the Cincy final on CBS at the moment both have the opposite hand on the racquet when going for a forehand, and Roddick seems to do it more extremely. Could it be the more a player muscles a ball, the more he needs to use that opposite hand to facilitate a good shoulder turn?