forehand arm and body action

pham4313

Professional
Hi,
Just wondering the order and contribution of the leg drive, body and arm to the forehand. Is it that once the opponent hit the ball, you open shoulder turn with non-dominant arm on same side with racket arm, then the legs (either closed stance or open stance), then body turn, then arm rotation? Recently i ve been critiqued using too much arm (too much and too fast whipping without proper rotation and weight transfer). My friend, who is 4.5 or 5.0 who used to play in some small ITF circuit, said that i should slow my arm down while try to drive with my legs, rotate my shoulder and then the arms should follow. He said the whipping or follow through will come naturally. All i need to focus is the hitting zone out in front and again, legs, body then arm. Any one has comments on this order? Bungalo Bill, whats your take?
 

Mahboob Khan

Hall of Fame
With square stance: As you see the ball coming to your forehand, you use your left arm to push the racket back and up with this the upper body will also turn, then you step toward the ball with the left foot, contact the ball out in front of the left foot, and follow through.

With Open Stance: Feet are open. You use your left arm to push the racket back and up, with this the upper body will turn against the legs, you load on the right foot, you swing forward, contact in front of the right foot because of open stance, and natural follow through. Because of the racket-head speed, and the ground reaction force, your legs will drive automatically.

My only caution to you is this: Do not prematurely open your upper body. Let it open with the hit! Keep your eyes on the contact zone longer, and this will prevent premature opening of the upper body.
 

pham4313

Professional
so the body uncoils or rotates the same time with the arm, not one first or another. I used to swing with a lot of arm so my body is very still, while my arm whips through the ball very fast. Most of the time, i get the ball back in court but my friend said it is just pushing with a little topspin and he doesnt feel pressure or heavy topspin at all. But lately as i incorporate my body (throw the body into the ball with the arm) and focus more on hitting zone, i feel i have a lot more power and i can hit with heavy spin.
 

Rickson

G.O.A.T.
pham4313 said:
so the body uncoils or rotates the same time with the arm, not one first or another. I used to swing with a lot of arm so my body is very still, while my arm whips through the ball very fast. Most of the time, i get the ball back in court but my friend said it is just pushing with a little topspin and he doesnt feel pressure or heavy topspin at all. But lately as i incorporate my body (throw the body into the ball with the arm) and focus more on hitting zone, i feel i have a lot more power and i can hit with heavy spin.
Baseball players use a lot of trunk twist except they're not nearly in the open stance that modern day tennis players use because obviously, they're not gonna swing with the dominant arm only. Many baseball players release the dominant hand and follow through with the non dominant arm, but that would be more like a 2 handed backhander's release than a forehand. The unit turn and leg drive creates a much more powerful forehand than just arming the shot so get into the practice of doing it, but like Mahboob said, your timing has to be good.
 

pham4313

Professional
was watching the NBA all star shooting and i heard some comments about leg drive and body jump. Some guys used hands more than others while better results were observed with full leg, body coordination. I think it works the same way for the serve and forehand in tennis. If somehow i can coordinate all in one, my shots will have more juice and consistency. Just a thought. Also i am a small guy, 5'5 and my friend said that i need to "throw my body" into the shot, not just pushing the ball around. My level is 3.5 and i ve been learning a lot from this forum as well as DVDs, real matches as well as instructional books.
 
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