Left leg off the ground during forehand ground strokes?

[tanventure]

Recently I noticed that my left leg somehow off the ground, moving towards left side of my body while I was hitting forehand groundstroke ball in a hurry. Not sure why and how this happened, seems to me these were happen automatically to maintain body balance. I thought during a forehand ground stroke, body weight transfer should be from right leg to left leg.

So two questions here:
1. for forehand ground stroke, is the body weight transfer always from right leg to left leg?
2. under what situations the left leg would be off the ground in order to keep body balance during FH ground stroke?

Thanks for sharing

ps. am right hand player

 

[10isMaestro]

When you see players do something of the sort, usually also ending up actually moving their non-hitting side leg behind their hitting side leg on a forehand stroke, that means they have been pressured enough to be caught late. They didn't have the time to move back to have the space required to hit a good shot or forward to take the ball earlier. That gesture of getting your left leg to fall back allows you to still involve your legs and hips into your stroke while also moving your ideal contact point several inches further back. In other words, it is acceptable if you were creating space for yourself to hit. It is also often in those circumstances that you will see many players reverse their follow-through like Nadal does all too often.

What is less acceptable is if you just pick up your left leg when you had plenty of space and time to prepare properly. You can hit very hard while falling back, with proper technique -- but never as hard as you would standing your ground or moving a tad forward. So, if you just concede a contrived forehand to your opponent without requiring him to force it out of your hand, you're underplaying your hand and enabling them to do more than they should be allowed to do -- and, this, without really reducing the risk of making an UE.

And, yes, on a proper forehand for a right handed player, your weight shoulder shift leftward. In fact, this is true even when you fall back -- so much so that good players almost always end up with their weight on their left foot entirely after hitting powerfully.

 

[fuzz nation]

Well, the more modern style of forehand includes the "loading" of the outside/back leg, which for us right-handers is our right leg. That more or less means that our weight loads onto that leg as we coil up in preparation to swing at the ball. Pushing off that leg as we swing drives a lot of the rotation used in that modern forehand to swing through the ball, but it's not just a horizontal push. That unloading can also be very much an upward push.

It's easiest to hit that forehand with our left leg off the ground when we get to the hitting zone only just in time to plant the outside (right) foot and swing. If the body's momentum is still moving sideways - away from the left leg - as we plant and push with the right to swing, our weight is mostly moving into our right side after the final stride with the left leg during that stroke. With the left leg both extended and unloaded while the right leg is driving forward and upward, that's when we can hit a "one-footed" forehand.

Also keep in mind that this is a forehand with at least a mildly open stance typical of the more modern style. If I hit a forehand on a dead run to my right and my only shot is a sort of stretch-and-flick at the ball, I might do that as I land my left foot. In this case though, there's no planting and loading to drive the stroke.

I'd say that if we have time to get to the hitting zone and properly set up for a decent forehand, our weight will be more centered between our feet instead of "hung out" over the right foot when on the move. When I hit a more centered forehand, I hit with both feet on the ground - the balls of my feet, not my heels - and my weight moves onto my left side as I follow through.

 

[Bender]

Usually for falling backwards while hitting late. For me, it's usually a reverse forehand whenever that sort of footwork happens.

1. Load on right leg with racquet takeback (if you were unable to move yourself wide enough to remain balanced at this point, you may literally be balancing on your right leg only, with your left in the air--ideally however, your legs should be bent enough such that this wouldn't be happening often)
2. Explosively push up with right leg whist simultaneously uncoiling anti-clockwise using hips
3. During #2, right arm is uncoiling with a slight delay compared to the hips ("racquet lag" would be the initial part of this), but swinging more vertically than you would with a normal FH
4. At some point, your racquet will reach right over your head height and barely over your left shoulder
5. Hips should still be turning, but because of this explosive movement, both legs will be in the air, turning with your hips and shoulders
6. Land on left leg
7. For a split second, appreciate the monster topspin fearhand that you have just unleashed onto your opponent
8. Keep calm and split step
9. BAMOS!!!11!1!

 

[tanventure]

Thank you all for your helps, looks this is mainly caused by being late so has no time to do a good split step for power FH strokes;
also the following youtube video shows it may be caused by my stance.

I found the following youtube video, at 2:48min it shows the exact left leg off
ground like I did many times.

I will see if it's better to use the closed stance to avoid the left leg off the ground. Let me know if
you have more suggestions.

 

[Easy Rider]

If the left leg remains infront or on line with right leg, you use "oposite force" to hit Fh. Nothing wrong ( could be done better)

If it goes behind right leg line (line being parakel wuth baseline), then everything writen in above posts

 

[tanventure]

https://www.dropbox.com/s/uk1z3edr6onunqm/Screen Shot 2016-06-18 at 8.54.41 PM.jpg?dl=0

 

[Crocodile]

Recently I noticed that my left leg somehow off the ground, moving towards left side of my body while I was hitting forehand groundstroke ball in a hurry. Not sure why and how this happened, seems to me these were happen automatically to maintain body balance. I thought during a forehand ground stroke, body weight transfer should be from right leg to left leg.

So two questions here:
1. for forehand ground stroke, is the body weight transfer always from right leg to left leg?
2. under what situations the left leg would be off the ground in order to keep body balance during FH ground stroke?

Thanks for sharing

ps. am right hand player

I don't have a problem of you hitting a forehand off your right leg, as it is your loading foot. In the modern day we hit forehand using both linear and angular momentum and as long as you are balanced and your weight is going forward with either leg then that is OK particularly with open stance methods. Id be more worried if you couldn't load on your right leg at all and had no elastic energy in your shots.