nervous forehand

[patrick922]

in the past my forehand was my best stroke but nowadays my backhand has surpassed my forehand as my best wing. i feel like i am not hitting with a lot of confidence. any tips on how to get my forehand back?? in other words what should i focus on? hitting through the ball, staying down......

[Bagumbawalla]

I believe what you should concentrate on is regaining the lost FEEL of hitting a clean/solid shot.

Because good stroke production is a mixture of all those things you mention, and more, you kind of need to work on them all at the same time.

I suggest that you get back to basics, even pre-basics. Find an old wood racket at a thrift store or garage sale. Practice hitting your forehand against a wall. If you don't hit the ball with really good mechanics, the racket will let you know. It will feel very bad, unlike modern rackets that are very forgiving.

Concentrate on finding that particular feel where the ball virtually pops off the racket with a satisfying whop.

When this happens, you will know it has all come toghther, footwork, forward motion, clean swing and follow-through.

Good luck,

B

[skuludo]

I gained all my confidence when I bought a radar gun. It told me no matter what I played with I generate about the same speed on clean shots. Only slightly different speeds on mishits.

A more reasonable tip aside from shelling out money to buy a radar gun is to play through your nervous forehand. Believe that when you hit it it will always land in.

What works for me is I know I can control how high I want the ball to clear the net no matter what the circumstances are. This will forces me to keep my head still and watch the ball fly over the net to hit clean shots.

If I am really nervous and hit shanks I disregard it and just continue on in the next rally. The main belief is I know I can control the height of the ball, thus will force me to "watch the ball" by controlling how steep I swing my racket to produce the necessary lift and punch to clear the net and get the ball deep.

Do you think this is of any help to you?

[naturalgut]

You could try spending a few days hitting hundreds of forehand against a wall, focussing heavily on technique, to 're-groove' your forehand. When you play competitively, you shouldn't have to think too much about technique but rather where you are going to place the ball.

[AlpineCadet]

Maybe you can take the time to play/practice against a wall. If the speed is too fast for you, try backing up farther away, or even using an old tennis ball. With a wall, you won't get any surprises or nasty spins, or even wrong footing yourself. With a few of those factors eliminated you can focus on what you've seem to have lost. Good luck and have fun.