How To: Flat Forehand

[thebuffman]

i'm too lazy to search the forums on this one and the videos i've dug up really don't teach this. how do i hit flat? when i was taking pro lessons, i was drilled on topspin. my entire muscle memory and mechanic is with spin. my forehand finish is ALWAYS at or just below shoulder level and i hit with a sw sometimes extreme eastern grip. even when i call myself flattening out my stroke, i am not. i am essentially just hitting into the ball a bit more and lowering the trajectory but there is still a lot of spin. so my rendition of a flat ball is a short spinny ball that dives at the service line and kicks up to the baseline stationed opponent.

i did some hitting the other day with an older guy who had extremely consistent strokes and they were all flat. his shots always landed past the service line and were never higher than 2' above the net. the killer is how low his shot stayed. I WANT TO ADD THIS TO MY REPERTOIRE! i have no idea where to start.

all suggestions are welcome. if anyone is wondering why, it is because i am noticing how my strokes with hit arc and trajectory will often give my opponent time to get a racquet on it. a flatter stroke would definitely take time away and reward me with more winners. i would also love to be able to hit flat into the corners. should i change my grip to an eastern instead of sw? i use to hit with an eastern when i first started tennis so it wouldn't be hard to adapt. should i finish the stroke over the shoulder instead of my current finish?

thanks gang.

 

[soleil]

Maybe open up the racquet face a bit more with a classic follow through instead of a windshield wiper?

 

[salsainglesa]

If the ball is falling, flatten the trajectory, its easier to think, and the force you give your normal strokes will be sufficient.
If the ball is rising, do not swing low to high, no no no, you have to hit across your body, wait for the ball a tiny little bit more to reach you because your swingpath is shorter than a regular topspin shot, since you swing directly to the ball with a closed raquet face. Also, when this shot is made inside out, the effect is a little bit of side spin, that curves towards the fence. You can observe it carefully on the TV, with pros. The contact point also changes a bit, but leave it to your unconscious mind, it will come with practice.

 

[toly]

Flat stroke

Question: How can we hit flat shot?
From physics point of view, this is very simple question and hence, very simple answer.
Answer: If and only if the racquet’s velocity direction is the perpendicular to the string bed, the stroke is flat. Or, in other words, if the racquet is moved in the direction of the perpendicular to the string plane, the shot will be flat.
In all other cases, there would be the spin strokes. Since, it is practically impossible to maintain the velocity of the racquet perpendicular to the string plane, in reality, there are no pure flat strokes.

 

[Blake0]

You change the swing path of your shot. Make it more horizontal and hit through the ball. Stepping in and taking the ball on the rise will also help get some more penetration on the ball.

You may have trouble changing your swing path and still keeping the ball in. As you practice, hit more through the ball and don't take the racket as low underneath the ball.

Another way to look at it is, if you use the windshield wiper forehand, to pull the arm across the ball. To hit topspin you swing up and pull away a bit, the more you pull away the flatter your shot gets. I feel kind of silly saying this, look for posts by 5263 on this matter..

 

[mightyrick]

i did some hitting the other day with an older guy who had extremely consistent strokes and they were all flat. his shots always landed past the service line and were never higher than 2' above the net. the killer is how low his shot stayed. I WANT TO ADD THIS TO MY REPERTOIRE! i have no idea where to start.

If you hold semi-western, then I'd say make your racquet take back and swing less loopy. That requires no grip change. It should flatten your shot out a little, but nothing like an eastern.

If you want to regularly hit flat, then I think you're going to need to change to an extreme eastern grip. The flatness of shot is a defining characteristic of the eastern grip. Just like the topspinning moonball is a defining characteristic of the semi-western/western grip.

 

[Nellie]

I would not change grip or your basic stroke. To think about topspin, realize that it comes from swinging from below the ball and brushing up during contact - so if you can use the exact same grip and stroke but change the swing path so that the head of the racquet does not drop below the ball prior to contact, you will hit pretty flat (imagine you are hitting the ball at the bottom of the curved stroke and then finishing up after contact).

For me, I mentally accomplish this with my finish- when I end low (at the waist), I am hitting a lopping shorter ball (since I have taken a very vertical swing path come up really high and then finished back low) and when I end high (over the shoulder), I am hitting a deeper flatter ball (I have a pretty level swing path). Obviously, what you do after contact does not effect the path of the ball, but it is forcing you to change your swing path.

 

[Power Player]

Don't change anything but the swingpath, which should be more horizontal. Also, start out by just focusing on hitting the sweetspot and making flush contact on the ball..basically not swinging as hard as normal. You will really understand the concept of "letting the racquet do the work" when you do this. That old cliche really applies to the flat forehand.

 

[Sreeram]

I hit flat when I am leading in a game to go for the kill. I simply dont drop the racquet after take back below the height of the bouncing ball, with my swing towards the ball. If you watch Agasi and Delproto, they both dont drop the ball below the level of the ball. But they have high take back which I lack and am practicing to get. If i want to hit a topspin forehand i make sure i drop the racquet freely well bellow the line of the ball.

 

[thebuffman]

Necessity is truly the mother of invention!

i was in a match today and it went downhill very fast. was playing against a strong 3.5 / weak 4.0 player. i had just strung up my newly customized stick with big hitter blue rough in the main and sppp in the cross 60/60. even rubbed the strings down with some baby oil. racquet specs are 360sw 14oz and 9pts HL. because this configuration was new, my 1st serve percentage was a putrid 30% at best. if i had a dollar for every time i tagged that tape... double faults were runamuck and the only thing saving me was that he was struggling with his serve as well. so i knuckled down and conceded that this would simply be a war of attrition. with my spin friendly string poly hybrid, i was putting mad spin on the ball from both wings. i lost the first set 7-6. started the second set off and was quickly down 0-2. it was very unsettling. my normal stroke produces a high arching very spinny ball. with these strings, even when i tried to lower the arch in order to take time away from my opponent, the string setup still seemed to throw the ball at an arch. my opponent always had enough time to retreat back deep and get it back.

so down 0-2, i decided to go in the bag and pull out bruce almighty: 370sw 14oz 6pts HL strung up with SpinX at 62-60. i had no choice put to learn how to hit flat or else my night was headed for a disappointing end. every chance i had to flatten out the stroke i did. wow what a phenomenal difference between arching spinning shots and low arching penetrating ones! winner - winner - winner. at one point he was playing 15 feet behind the baseline running after my balls. he had no time to setup. if his ball rose up chest high, it was coming back hard and flat.

i climbed back into the match but was still in trouble down 4-5 with him serving for the match. i broke him, held and broke him again to take the set 7-5. i gave up on big pace serves at this point and decided to just place them in the corners. when i pulled him off court by serving out wide, i would flatten out his loopy return and keep him off balance. took the final set 6-2. necessity is truly the mother of invention. i'm glad to report that i now have a flat stroke in my repertoire.

thanks all for the instructions and advice. it was just as you all said, "don't drop the racquet too low under the ball but instead hit more horizontal. change nothing but the swing path."

 

[DeShaun]

Keep your elbow in, take the ball on your side. Your stance will be closed, you are facing perpendicular to the net. Take the ball on between your navel and chest (Lock your wrist and arm the ball) rather deflecting it flat than controlling it with spin. Aim for above the net.

 

[dominikk1985]

hitting flat is not about the follow through but the swing to the ball.

It has to be flat. so keep the racket head up and don't drop it below the ball.

 

[xRain]

As you start to swing after the take back, hit less from low to high and more into the court.

 

[dozu]

have a mental picture of slapping the ball instead of brushing the ball.

 

[fruitytennis1]

have a mental picture of slapping the ball instead of brushing the ball.

Also invision a more horizontal swing path-in other words high-high.
If that doesnt work think about hitting across the ball.

 

[junbug]

if you want to get a visual idea, go to youtube and look at some jimmy connors old footage. flat and simple.

 

[T1000]

hit through the ball more, I learned to hit flat so it's just natural to me, like topspin is to you

 

[papa]

Yeah, I like the last one but don't abandon the topspin - you really need it. With the racquet and strings we have today, its pretty hard to consistently hit flat strokes and keep them in.

 

[tricky]

Just vary the swing path. One way is to swing at the bottom of the ball, or "below" the center of the ball. Whether you actually do isn't important; but this will flatten your swing plane. Likewise, if you swing at the top of the ball, your swing plane will be steeper and generate more topspin.

 

[athiker]

Timely post, we have a few guys in our group that hit flat and when they are on I'm envious watching their forehands rifle by low and through the court. Of course when they are off it can be a bit ugly. I want to add this to my repertoire as well...has been surprisingly hard since I've worked so hard to program topspin into my strokes. I just want to do it occasionally for shorter balls above net to put them them away.

Thanks for the tips...racquet drop, or lack thereof, seems to be the easiest, less stroke harmful way to control the swingpath. Stopping that loop short partway down is easier said than done though so I might tinker with more of a straight take back along the lines of a service return stroke, when trying to be quick and efficient, and see how that works. I'm leery of changing my stroke too much though now that I've put so much effort into getting consistent!

 

[LeeD]

I think if you use a semi modern or modern forehand, there is no use to hittng dead flat. Instead, lessen the topspin, and add ball speed, by higher takeback and flatter lower followthru.
Think of your forehand being two basically same shots, one faster and less spinny, but topspin, for your forcing shots or winners, and the other rallyball, with lots of topspin, slow ball speed, tons of consistentcy.