critique her forehand

[ertorque]

My daughter turns 13 in August and has taken 20 hrs of lessons beginning last September until March this year She is beginning to develop what seems to me the windshield wiper forehand given that her racket head ends below her shoulder pointing somewhat downwards instead of the old-school over the shoulder with racket head still pointing upwards.

Is there anything in her motion/swing that needs addressing? I play a bit of tennis myself and wonders if she should be taught the classic forehand swing. I feel that with her style, she tends to slap her wrist resulting in ball not clearing the net.

Any comments are most appreciated.

 

[Tennisanity]

Looks like she's making contact with a slightly open face on some of the FHs.

 

[Checkmate]

Looks similar to Gasquet.

 

[Gazelle]

Typical WTA forehand, with the wrist laid back very early on in the swing.

Nothing wrong with that I guess, most women hit like that.

 

[Sysyphus]

For what it's worth, to me it looks like a really nice shot considering her age. Fairly fluid loop on the swing, low to high swing pattern, weight transfer from back to front foot seems to be there, and I personally like that the arm stays relaxed through the swing culminating in that end position below the shoulder that you describe.

I suppose one of the next steps could be to make slightly more use of rotation (i.e., hips and torso). Coiling and uncoiling. There's definitely some of it in the first video (but room for more), whereas in the second one there's not that much rotation going on, so the shot maybe ends up a little 'armed'. I think more rotation would help with clearing the net more consistently as well.

Just my cents of course, I'm sure some of the more seasoned eyes in here will have more comprehensive remarks

 

[ReopeningWed]

I write this with the assumption that you aspire for her to develop into a top ranked junior. If not, and you just want her to learn the game and have fun, then literally anything will work.

I think you need to forget about any preconception you have of a "classic forehand" or what might be better suited for her "style". Until she has solid, perfect fundamentals, style doesn't really exist. There's just good technique, and sub-optimal technique.

Maybe later she'll enjoy hitting a lot of heavy topspin and loopy balls, or maybe she'll be a more penetrating, consistent ball striker, but those options don't really exist until her technique is down and she owns those shots and can hit them in every situation. I'd refer to that (aggressive baseliner, net rusher, etc) as style.

At my tennis academy, there's an emphasis placed on aggressively moving the feet, and making sure the moments leading up to the contact are just right. Take back, loop, follow through, those mechanics are all secondary to how she sets up for the ball and what the racket is doing through the contact zone.

I'll tell ya right now that she doesn't look relaxed, doesn't look loose, she's got to figure out how to take the involvement in her arms and shoulder out of her forehand and let it go from her leg drive and hip turn and upper body rotation. That'll let her hit shots that are repeatable since now all she has to worry about is getting into position, racket goes under the ball, loading from the legs, and you can further build technique from there.

 

[Limpinhitter]

My daughter turns 13 in August and has taken 20 hrs of lessons beginning last September until March this year She is beginning to develop what seems to me the windshield wiper forehand given that her racket head ends below her shoulder pointing somewhat downwards instead of the old-school over the shoulder with racket head still pointing upwards.

Is there anything in her motion/swing that needs addressing? I play a bit of tennis myself and wonders if she should be taught the classic forehand swing. I feel that with her style, she tends to slap her wrist resulting in ball not clearing the net.

Any comments are most appreciated.

She's arming the ball, swinging mostly with her arm, hinging from the shoulder, and she is purposely manufacturing a windshield wiper finish rather than it being the natural result of a modern forehand.

Rather, a modern forehand swing is generated with upper body rotation and arm rotation. I'd like to see her set up in a wider, lower, open, stance and then initiate her forward swing with hip rotation - rotating her right hip forward. The hip rotation initiates a chain of events (the kinetic chain), in which the rotation of the hip pulls the torso, which pulls the shoulders, which pulls the arm and racquet (causing the racquet head to fall back and down below the ball), to contact. The arm and grip should remain loose and relaxed through the entire swing. At contact, the upper body has rotated so that the chest is facing the target. After contact, rotation of the arm causes the elbow to come up and points to the target, causing the racquet head to drop down toward the left hip. The momentum of upper body rotation, and rotation of a relaxed arm is what generates the windshield wiper finish.

 

[PittsburghDad]

That's an open racket face that's scooping the ball to get it up over the net. Fix that like yesterday. I wouldn't get too involved in modern vs classic or windshield wiper finish or any of that. The action at contact is fundamentally flawed. She's creating height with an open racket face. When she gets more pace there is zero chance she can keep that ball in the court or generate topspin.

Just get her with a level racket head at impact. It's huge.

 

[Dartagnan64]

I think we're focusing on the wrong things here. Playing tennis has nothing to do with WW finishes. It has to do with footwork and a still head first and foremost. Those things need to be in place before any shadow swung trained groundstroke has any hope of being effective.

What I saw is two loopy forehands from static position followed by poor setups for second shots leading to a whiff and a framer respectively. Judging the ball better and getting into the right spot for the shot needs work. Keeping the head still needs work.

 

[dgold44]

My daughter turns 13 in August and has taken 20 hrs of lessons beginning last September until March this year She is beginning to develop what seems to me the windshield wiper forehand given that her racket head ends below her shoulder pointing somewhat downwards instead of the old-school over the shoulder with racket head still pointing upwards.

Is there anything in her motion/swing that needs addressing? I play a bit of tennis myself and wonders if she should be taught the classic forehand swing. I feel that with her style, she tends to slap her wrist resulting in ball not clearing the net.

Any comments are most appreciated.

Looks good

Looks like she is slowing down the racket through the motion a little

 

[dgold44]

Your daughter is pretty damn good for a few lessons

Talk about a natural

 

[PittsburghDad]

Your daughter is pretty damn good for a few lessons

Talk about a natural

No such thing as a "natural." Just fundamentals and hard work. Incredibly hard work and sacrifice. Height is "natural." To a degree. Tennis strokes are built/

 

[TennisCJC]

If you want your daughter to be a pretty good tennis player, get her involved in a local youth tennis program. Somewhere with pretty good coaches that allow her take lessons 1 or more times per week. If you can afford, also try to get some private lessons with a good coach maybe 1 a week or once every other week.

Her technique looks like she is in the ball park of having a good stroke. Hard to say only seeing 2 strokes. Get her involved with a good coaching and playing against good competition and that's how she'll improve.

 

[lwto]

what @Limpinhitter said.

You can easily tell because she's not hitting through the ball.. what does look good is she's getting her racquet back in plenty of time to get into hitting position, but then.. shunts it down with the arm stroke. Fire that hip out and hit through the ball.

 

[mcs1970]

I don't know how anyone can pass definite judgement on anyone else's strokes/games by one or two static clips. As I wrote in another thread, aesthetics are not the be-all/end-all. Even technique. A lot of great pros have had weird hitches/ungainly strokes that if you didn't know anything about them and were just asked to comment on a couple of their strokes, you'd find a lot of things to be critical about.

 

[PittsburghDad]

I don't know how anyone can pass definite judgement on anyone else's strokes/games by one or two static clips. As I wrote in another thread, aesthetics are not the be-all/end-all. Even technique. A lot of great pros have had weird hitches/ungainly strokes that if you didn't know anything about them and were just asked to comment on a couple of their strokes, you'd find a lot of things to be critical about.

You can absolutely tell that she has an open racket at contact, scooping the ball for lift over the net. That's a fatal flaw that needs fixed.

 

[mcs1970]

You can absolutely tell that she has an open racket at contact, scooping the ball for lift over the net. That's a fatal flaw that needs fixed.

I don't know what she was doing there. Was she rallying gently? Was she playing a match? There are so many variables there. It's not as if every stroke in every rally even in an actual match needs to be hit with a more closed face, let alone in a practice. Again,there are greats, not even just top pros, who have had very ungainly strokes...that too in actual matches....who have done very well. You're definitely much more equipped than I am to comment on someone's game if we both have access to actual matches, but 2 clips which none of us know the context about is not going to help anyone pass much judgement on someone's game.

 

[PittsburghDad]

I don't know what she was doing there. Was she rallying gently? Was she playing a match? There are so many variables there. It's not as if every stroke in every rally even in an actual match needs to be hit with a more closed face, let alone in a practice. Again,there are greats, not even just top pros, who have had very ungainly strokes...that too in actual matches....who have done very well. You're definitely much more equipped than I am to comment on someone's game if we both have access to actual matches, but 2 clips which none of us know the context about is not going to help anyone pass much judgement on someone's game.

I in no way meant to sound like I was passing judgement on her game at all. Apologies if that's what it sounded like.

I'm just specifically referencing what I see as a VERY fixable, but very definite flaw at contact. Having a vertical racket face moving through the ball is a must. Not one pro hits a ball with that scooping motion. I have had to fix that before. Not on the forehand but on my daughter's OHBH. We spent weeks going slow motion with a penny balanced on the frame to keep it level. At impact.

I'm only commenting on that one specific factor. Because it jumps out. It's absolutely fundamental.

 

[mcs1970]

I in no way meant to sound like I was passing judgement on her game at all. Apologies if that's what it sounded like.

I'm just specifically referencing what I see as a VERY fixable, but very definite flaw at contact. Having a vertical racket face moving through the ball is a must. Not one pro hits a ball with that scooping motion. I have had to fix that before. Not on the forehand but on my daughter's OHBH. We spent weeks going slow motion with a penny balanced on the frame to keep it level. At impact.

I'm only commenting on that one specific factor. Because it jumps out. It's absolutely fundamental.

PDad..As I said, I have great respect for you. If you do feel that it's something that jumps out, I'll defer to you.

 

[ertorque]

Thanks everyone who chimed in. Your inputs will most definitely be looked at.
Actually the video is taken when my daughter is in a leisurely rally.

To PDad, appreciate your constructive feedback and in no instant have I taken them to be judgement passing. A frame by frame analysis shows that just upon contact her racket is square or even slightly close but the next couple of frame sees her racket opening up (too soon IMO). So yeah thanks for bringing that up.

I don't know what she was doing there. Was she rallying gently? Was she playing a match? There are so many variables there. It's not as if every stroke in every rally even in an actual match needs to be hit with a more closed face, let alone in a practice.

Thanks mcs for bringing up the need to consider the above questions to set the proper context.

What a great place TW is!!