JohnYandell
Hall of Fame
At the request of a poster in another thread, here is a summary of a forehand teaching progression, based on the study of high level players, adapted for players at lower levels. With a more advanced player looking to improve you might video first and compare before deciding where to intervene.
Bu let's go through it as if this person was a beginner, amd often players come with so many problems that the solution is to teach them a unified model as well.
1. Ready Position--feet shoulder width, knees flexed, torso upright, hands in front roughly waist height. If the player has a reasonable grip, somewhere between modern eastern and mild semi western that's the best. But if they have an extreme grip I usually follow the progression below first to see what happens. If they have no grip then I usually start with the modern eastern and see what happens.
2. Unit Turn--simple step out with right foot, hips and shoulders turn about 45 degrees, hands stay on the racket with no independent movement. Body visualized as a cylinder turning with no moving parts.
3. Full Turn--continuation of the first move. Hands start to come up then separate. Shoulders turn 90 degrees to net or a little more. Chin turns over the left shoulder. Left arm stretches across perpendicular to sideline and parallel to baseline. Racket hand moves up and back but stays compact--hopefully no higher than shoulder level or even a little below. Players need to reach this position at the bounce of the ball on their side at the latest, and for development purposes even earlier.
4. Outside Leg--weight loads at the same time as completion of turn on the right outside leg with natural knee bend and torso still upright. VERY important here that the left leg comes up and around as well as the left hip. Left foot on toes--this is a semi-open stance step up. In the center of the court turn and leg coil go together but are really independent and happen at different times when players start to move more than a couple of steps.
5. Backswing Drop and Hitting Arm. Racket hand drops staying hopefully on the right side and falls into the hitting position with the racket butt pointed toward the opposite side.
Almost always best to teach the double bend hitting arm position here and let the rare elite straight elbow evolve if it does.
6. Stance Options--Often players who struggle with the turn and especially lower level players and not great athletes will feel the turn position better and make it all the way there if they take a step forward into a simple neutral stance as the backswing is coming down. Eventually they should hit many or most semi-open but often players taught only open never get a full turn. Individual thing here.
7. Forward Swing--the contact point is obviously the magic moment. Usually by teaching an extended finish position, and the forward swing as a whole, the player will find the contact as a part of a smooth continuum. This finish point (different from wrap, see below) can vary tremendously in live play at high levels. But for a basic moderate topspin drive these checkpoints are key: wrist is at eye level, racket hand has come across to the edge of the left shoulder. The upper arm is about parallel to the court, and the forearm is about 30 to 45 degrees and still flexed in the double bend.
One thing to look at for sure is what is happening to the head around contact. Needs to be relatively still at least for a brief duration. Good players don't all turn as far with the head as Roger, but have some version of this still position.
8. Wrap--if the player makes the extended position with a nice relaxed swing the racket will accelerate naturally, and then naturally decelerate in a wrap over the shoulder. This should happen naturally though and efforts to force a mechanical wrap with alter and shorten the path of the swing.
9. Left Arm--after the stretch at the turn, the left arm relaxes and comes back across the body and tucks around the waist on the left side. Again this usually happens on it's own.
10. Now the hands come back together on the racket in front and the player can take the appropriate recovery steps, usually starting with simple side shuffles.
NOTE: Obviously there are many factors that can go wrong or be off at any or many of these points. I tend not to teach an exact backswing shape because no two players ever have this exactly the same. Hopefully the player finds one that is smooth natural and compact. This may (usually does) but may not also include some version of the dog pat on the way down, but I don't try to create this mechanically as my experience with players who do is that they are very late getting to the hitting arm position.
Obviously there are also many variations in the forward swing and the stances as well as the timing of the turn and the leg set up. These can gradually be added.
One key in the whole process is the use of video, showing players images of themselves and great examples of key postions, and the creation of their own mental images and internal feelings corresponding to the parts of the motion.
Bu let's go through it as if this person was a beginner, amd often players come with so many problems that the solution is to teach them a unified model as well.
1. Ready Position--feet shoulder width, knees flexed, torso upright, hands in front roughly waist height. If the player has a reasonable grip, somewhere between modern eastern and mild semi western that's the best. But if they have an extreme grip I usually follow the progression below first to see what happens. If they have no grip then I usually start with the modern eastern and see what happens.
2. Unit Turn--simple step out with right foot, hips and shoulders turn about 45 degrees, hands stay on the racket with no independent movement. Body visualized as a cylinder turning with no moving parts.
3. Full Turn--continuation of the first move. Hands start to come up then separate. Shoulders turn 90 degrees to net or a little more. Chin turns over the left shoulder. Left arm stretches across perpendicular to sideline and parallel to baseline. Racket hand moves up and back but stays compact--hopefully no higher than shoulder level or even a little below. Players need to reach this position at the bounce of the ball on their side at the latest, and for development purposes even earlier.
4. Outside Leg--weight loads at the same time as completion of turn on the right outside leg with natural knee bend and torso still upright. VERY important here that the left leg comes up and around as well as the left hip. Left foot on toes--this is a semi-open stance step up. In the center of the court turn and leg coil go together but are really independent and happen at different times when players start to move more than a couple of steps.
5. Backswing Drop and Hitting Arm. Racket hand drops staying hopefully on the right side and falls into the hitting position with the racket butt pointed toward the opposite side.
Almost always best to teach the double bend hitting arm position here and let the rare elite straight elbow evolve if it does.
6. Stance Options--Often players who struggle with the turn and especially lower level players and not great athletes will feel the turn position better and make it all the way there if they take a step forward into a simple neutral stance as the backswing is coming down. Eventually they should hit many or most semi-open but often players taught only open never get a full turn. Individual thing here.
7. Forward Swing--the contact point is obviously the magic moment. Usually by teaching an extended finish position, and the forward swing as a whole, the player will find the contact as a part of a smooth continuum. This finish point (different from wrap, see below) can vary tremendously in live play at high levels. But for a basic moderate topspin drive these checkpoints are key: wrist is at eye level, racket hand has come across to the edge of the left shoulder. The upper arm is about parallel to the court, and the forearm is about 30 to 45 degrees and still flexed in the double bend.
One thing to look at for sure is what is happening to the head around contact. Needs to be relatively still at least for a brief duration. Good players don't all turn as far with the head as Roger, but have some version of this still position.
8. Wrap--if the player makes the extended position with a nice relaxed swing the racket will accelerate naturally, and then naturally decelerate in a wrap over the shoulder. This should happen naturally though and efforts to force a mechanical wrap with alter and shorten the path of the swing.
9. Left Arm--after the stretch at the turn, the left arm relaxes and comes back across the body and tucks around the waist on the left side. Again this usually happens on it's own.
10. Now the hands come back together on the racket in front and the player can take the appropriate recovery steps, usually starting with simple side shuffles.
NOTE: Obviously there are many factors that can go wrong or be off at any or many of these points. I tend not to teach an exact backswing shape because no two players ever have this exactly the same. Hopefully the player finds one that is smooth natural and compact. This may (usually does) but may not also include some version of the dog pat on the way down, but I don't try to create this mechanically as my experience with players who do is that they are very late getting to the hitting arm position.
Obviously there are also many variations in the forward swing and the stances as well as the timing of the turn and the leg set up. These can gradually be added.
One key in the whole process is the use of video, showing players images of themselves and great examples of key postions, and the creation of their own mental images and internal feelings corresponding to the parts of the motion.
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