Is it harder for an extreme-gripper to hit a powerful outside-in forehand in rallies?

[Clay lover]

I was going to call it the cross court forehand, but an inside-out forehand is technically also a crosscourt forehand, so I will resort to using the term "outside-in" forehand, which is hitting a forehand from your forehand side of the court crosscourt.

A player with an extreme forehand grip tend to have a more open stance:

View from top
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arm body

To hit an outside-in forehand in the same stance, he needs to contact the ball further in front:

View from top
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arm body (this is too steep but you get the idea)

However, this seems to allow the player little power as the contact point is further away from the body and his stance is even more open, allowing little "rotation into the ball".

Of course, a player can always adjust by doing the split-step even more towards the location he wants to hit the ball to and execute the stroke as if he is hitting in a straightline, but that requires more time and is hard to execute when the player is moving laterally from side to side during a rally.

Players with extreme grips like Nadal, Djokovic and Andreev all have spinnier outside-in forehands and more powerful inside-out forehands. I don't think it is a conincidence.

I play with an extreme grip too and I feel that I hit the ball harder down the line than hitting it outside-in.

Is my analysis right? Please correct me if I am wrong.

 

[LeeD]

I think your analysis is wrong.
Face those extreme grippers, and both sides hit the ball hard, lots of spin, and good angles.
When they go for EXTREME angles, then they add more spin and less pace.
When they go for depth, not much difference between inside out and CC shots.
Consider one thing also. When they go inside out, they are more out of position and NEED to hit a more forcing shot than a rally ball. That makes a huge difference in your perception of the spin and pace of the ball.

 

[Clay lover]

I think your analysis is wrong.
Face those extreme grippers, and both sides hit the ball hard, lots of spin, and good angles.
When they go for EXTREME angles, then they add more spin and less pace.
When they go for depth, not much difference between inside out and CC shots.
Consider one thing also. When they go inside out, they are more out of position and NEED to hit a more forcing shot than a rally ball. That makes a huge difference in your perception of the spin and pace of the ball.

thanks for your analysis.

 

[Frank Silbermann]

I think your analysis is wrong.
Face those extreme grippers, and both sides hit the ball hard, lots of spin, and good angles.
When they go for EXTREME angles, then they add more spin and less pace.
When they go for depth, not much difference between inside out and CC shots.
Consider one thing also. When they go inside out, they are more out of position and NEED to hit a more forcing shot than a rally ball. That makes a huge difference in your perception of the spin and pace of the ball.

His hypothesis might be correct at lower levels of play. I've watched college students with extreme grips who hit massive inside-out shots, but only much weaker cross courts. When one especially extreme example tried to hit cross court (e.g. when he was pulled to his forehand corner -- he normally camped about midway between the middle of the court and the backhand doubles alley), it looked painful the way he had to curl his wrist around to move that racket head forward of his wrist.

 

[LeeD]

er...
Seems Nadal can hit an inside out or a CC with the same ferociousness, as can almost every other extreme gripper or non extreme gripper in levels up to 7.0.
Nothing to do with your grip, everything to do with your skill and practice levels.
Lendl could hit a decent inside out, but can hit an OK CC forehand also.
Amount of spin is not dependant on grip used, but rather on what the player is trying to do and where he's hitting it and WHEN he's hitting it.

 

[CallOfBooty]

I don't mean to pick on you but I think you might have the terms confused. A down the line shot is the same thing as an outside-in one. Outside or inside means where you hit the ball from. Outside is your normal cross court shot, and inside is when you run around your normal shot to hit your favored shot, for example how Federer runs around his backhand to hit an inside forehand. Then an out shot would be a cross court, and an in shot would be down the line. Hence "inside-out" would usually be when you run around your backhand to hit your forehand from the inside position out cross court. I was kind of confused by what you meant, but if you are talking about a normal cross court rally ball, that is most likely an outside-out shot.

 

[paulfreda]

I think the OP is wondering if hitting a CC forehand from the deuce court with an extreme grip is difficult.
I do not see why.
The extreme grip requires a contact point out front [to allow the face to get square from its normally closed position] and an open stance favors a CC shot.
I would think the DTL ball would be much harder to execute.

 

[KiNG]

For some resaons I have a hard time hitting cross court forehand with my extreme grip unless I "reverse finish" it...well thats more like a slap shot than a usual topspin crosscourt drive.

BTW I do have more success hitting DTL. Inside out is the easiest to hit with extreme grip IMO....

 

[LeeD]

Of course, you have to modify SOMETHING in order to change the direction and swingpath of shot you don't normally hit.
If just changing a followthru direction/location is the key, that's a simple fix.
Nothing happens unless you make it happen, and if you do everything exactly the same, you hit exactly the same... :shock::shock: