Forehand take back query

5

5363Tom

New User
On my forehand should I face the racket to the ground do I take it back and then pull my wrist forward which will naturally pull my racket face to the ground.

I know my racket face should be pointing the ground at the back of the take back. I’m unsure if I should be focusing on this or it will happen naturally if I’m holding the racket loose enough and I ‘whip’ or ‘pull’ the racket with my wrist at the back of my take back.

Also, I hit the net quite a bit on my forehand, do you have any tips for this?
 
T

TennisCJC

Legend
Try taking a few lessons or picking a decent YouTube channel and modeling your FH after one coaches advice. The video above is decent and comes from a decent channel. At the end of your take back, the strings will face somewhat down depending on grip and swing path. I personally think anything from 45 degrees downward to fully facing downward is fine. Initially, you'll have to work on how to turn and prep the racket and then how to take a continuous take back and forward swing and slow shadow swings with conscious thought can be helpful. A good coach watching you and giving a few tips as you hit can also be helpful. Eventually, you'll do it without much thought. Total Tennis Domination and 2 Minute Tennis are decent sites on YouTube and you should be able to find a decent forehand fundamentals on these sites if you don't want to take lessons with a coach.
 
user92626

user92626

G.O.A.T.
eah123 said:
There are many variations on the takeback and they all work fine.
Click to expand...
I wonder if one would feel alot more comfortable with one style over others. Or, if it's just a matter of practice.

I have tried alot and understood alot too but i could never get that familiar feeling that I could swing all day n don't miss.
 
ballmachineguy

ballmachineguy

Hall of Fame
user92626 said:
I wonder if one would feel alot more comfortable with one style over others. Or, if it's just a matter of practice.

I have tried alot and understood alot too but i could never get that familiar feeling that I could swing all day n don't miss.
Click to expand...
The guy stuck his foot in his mouth before the ten second mark. There’s no loop. The student starts off with the wrong picture, right away. No wonder some people are still futzing with their stroke 10 or 20 years in.
 
socallefty

socallefty

G.O.A.T.
There is not only a single textbook method to do a FH takeback. You can see WTA pros mostly takeback in a different way than ATP pros and you will see this difference in college tennis also. The majority of rec players take back their racquet like WTA pros with the arm supinated and the racquet head going back behind their body during the backswing.

If a coach was teaching you to learn tennis from the beginning, he might teach you to takeback like most ATP pros with a pronated arm and racquet head outside the body during the backswing as it is now recognized as the most efficient way to generate heavy spin. However, if you’ve been playing for a while or you are learning tennis on your own, I suggest that you focus on other fundamentals which are absolutely necessary and don’t worry about the takeback style.
 
Last edited:
user92626

user92626

G.O.A.T.
ballmachineguy said:
The guy stuck his foot in his mouth before the ten second mark. There’s no loop. The student starts off with the wrong picture, right away. No wonder some people are still futzing with their stroke 10 or 20 years in.
Click to expand...
Ok.

Do you think Nadals takeback n backswing ez and effective?

His straight arm FORWARD swing is too hard though. Forget it.
 
ballmachineguy

ballmachineguy

Hall of Fame
user92626 said:
Ok.

Do you think Nadals takeback n backswing ez and effective?

His straight arm FORWARD swing is too hard though. Forget it.
Click to expand...
He doesn’t do anything different than what anybody else is doing. It just starts from a different take back position so it looks quite different.
Here’s Rafa’s and Zverev’s wildly different starting positions, if you will, for the forward swing.

https://imgur.com/a/DdLPM5d
 
Last edited:
N

nyta2

Hall of Fame
5363Tom said:
On my forehand should I face the racket to the ground do I take it back and then pull my wrist forward which will naturally pull my racket face to the ground.
Click to expand...
"pat the dog" straightens the arm (if e/sw), and closes the face (hitting side facing the ground)
5363Tom said:
I know my racket face should be pointing the ground at the back of the take back. I’m unsure if I should be focusing on this
Click to expand...
when i was learning, i had to be very deliberate about it
5363Tom said:
or it will happen naturally if I’m holding the racket loose enough and I ‘whip’ or ‘pull’ the racket with my wrist at the back of my take back.

Also, I hit the net quite a bit on my forehand, do you have any tips for this?
Click to expand...
for hitting the net... trying aiming to hit the backfence... depending on where i am on the court, i aim to hit over the fence.
 
Curious

Curious

G.O.A.T.
Instead of pronation-supination-pronation, doesn’t it make sense to simplify it as supination-pronation like Del Potro did? Closing the racket (pronation) before forward swing adds an extra variable.


 
N

nyta2

Hall of Fame
socallefty said:
There is not only a single textbook method to do a FH takeback. You can see WTA pros mostly takeback in a different way than ATP pros and you will see this difference in college tennis also. The majority of rec players take back their racquet like WTA pros with the elbow supinated and the racquet head going back behind their body during the backswing.

If a coach was teaching you to learn tennis from the beginning, he might teach you to takeback like most ATP pros with a pronated wrist and racquet head outside the body during the backswing as it is now recognized as the most efficient way to generate heavy spin. However, if you’ve been playing for a while or you are learning tennis on your own, I suggest that you focus on other fundamentals which are absolutely necessary and don’t worry about the takeback style.
Click to expand...
problem i've found, especially for me back in the day... is trying to figure out:
* what is fundamental (eg. how i swung when i was hitting almost hawaiian, is very different (bent elbow!) from how i swing now (straight arm) with more SW... and i imagine it's similarly different if i had experiemented with WTA style... which i never accidently adopted)
* which thing (tip i read on ttw or watched in a yt vid) do i need to fix my problem

but if i were to go the diy approach, one approach i found useful is start the contact first, then once i feel what the contact should feel like (how my body is positioned, distance from ball, etc...), then let me figure out how to get there on my own(at least that was my approach when teaching myself to hit lefty)
 
user92626

user92626

G.O.A.T.
Curious said:
Instead of pronation-supination-pronation, doesn’t it make sense to simplify it as supination-pronation like Del Potro did? Closing the racket (pronation) before forward swing adds an extra variable.


Click to expand...

all the pronation supination pronation, flippings really screws up my mind. I think this is why it's hard to copy Djokovic.

Del Potro seems much easier! His racket face never goes away from facing the ball.
 
user92626

user92626

G.O.A.T.
Curious said:
Exactly. Trying to close the racket face is a dangerous path. People say it opens up in the swing and squares up to the ball but it’s still a risky addition imo.
Click to expand...
Cool.

How's your FH today? With all these nice finds full of technical info, are you changing your groundstrokes or what?
 
J

johnmccabe

Hall of Fame
user92626 said:
@ballmachineguy and all...



For Swing path: do u swing [the racket head] toward the target (a spot in opponent court) or you just keep the circular swing path as is?
Click to expand...
Imagine squaring the racquet face towards the target, extend the swing linearly towards the target at least during the contact zone. The swing path has to be circular overall, but thinking that way didn't help me develop directional control.
 
B

Bambooman

Legend
nyta2 said:
"topspin makes the ball go down..." quoted from one of our beloved ttw posters...
not gonna help if his issue is hitting the the net...
Click to expand...
Naturally he meant topspin with a higher trajectory of the ball. Sure people do hit "flat" with topspin which will plough the ball right into the net.
 
N

nyta2

Hall of Fame
Bambooman said:
Naturally he meant topspin with a higher trajectory of the ball. Sure people do hit "flat" with topspin which will plough the ball right into the net.
Click to expand...
op: my (drive) fh goes into net
ttw: hit a proper "topspin" fh
noone: oh that's useful, thx.
 
ChaelAZ

ChaelAZ

G.O.A.T.
5363Tom said:
On my forehand should I face the racket to the ground do I take it back and then pull my wrist forward which will naturally pull my racket face to the ground.

I know my racket face should be pointing the ground at the back of the take back. I’m unsure if I should be focusing on this or it will happen naturally if I’m holding the racket loose enough and I ‘whip’ or ‘pull’ the racket with my wrist at the back of my take back.

Also, I hit the net quite a bit on my forehand, do you have any tips for this?
Click to expand...


If you can, post up a video from the back and side of several FH strokes in a row to see what you are currently doing. For me, if someone is ticking tape often it's usually not dropping below the ball or finishing more upward (usually a linear stroke), and then it can be the racquet face is too closed.

I think I saw it mentioned above though, there are TONS of ways to get to the few check points of the stroke mechanics, so don't get too caught up in it all. Here are just a few examples.







In almost all cases you can see the racquet face at contact is parallel or slightly closed, with a bunch of variation of what happens to get that racquet to that point.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

1HBHNation
Forehand swingpath mechanics
Replies
23
Views
1K
Pumpkin
P
B
Forehand Technical issues
Replies
22
Views
3K
SFrazeur
S
M
Problem Laying Wrist Back on FH
Replies
27
Views
5K
user92626
user92626
C
Forehand discovery?
Replies
2
Views
669
Ptrac
P
R
forehand take back
Replies
3
Views
1K
Bungalo Bill
Bungalo Bill
Top