Forehand take back query

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?
 

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

G.O.A.T.
There are many variations on the takeback and they all work fine.
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

Hall of Fame
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.
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

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.
 
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user92626

G.O.A.T.
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.
Ok.

Do you think Nadals takeback n backswing ez and effective?

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

ballmachineguy

Hall of Fame
Ok.

Do you think Nadals takeback n backswing ez and effective?

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

 
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nyta2

Hall of Fame
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.
"pat the dog" straightens the arm (if e/sw), and closes the face (hitting side facing 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
when i was learning, i had to be very deliberate about it
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?
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

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.


 

nyta2

Hall of Fame
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.
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

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.



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

G.O.A.T.
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.
Cool.

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

johnmccabe

Hall of Fame
@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?
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.
 

Bambooman

Hall of Fame
"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...
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.
 

nyta2

Hall of Fame
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.
op: my (drive) fh goes into net
ttw: hit a proper "topspin" fh
noone: oh that's useful, thx.
 

ChaelAZ

G.O.A.T.
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?


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.
 
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