need help on forehand technique (video included)

TBobLP

Rookie
try to keep the racquet moving throughout your swing. that's probably the only thing i personally could say knowing it would probably help. when i started getting better and my hitting partners started REALLY hitting them to me, i lost all consistency with my forehand until i started to really develop a more sound backswing. let your racquet head drop a little too...notice it stays angled up as you begin your swing to contact. i would imagine working on those two things would greatly increase your ability for spin and power.
 

Majik

Rookie
I would appreciate any advice on my forehand technique (how can i hit a cleaner , more powerful ball). Is my forehand modern or classical? Also, does my lower back look funny? Sorry about the akward camera angle. I will try posting clearer videos soon. Thanks

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4cTIUrDtd64

You have a good start there, young man. But I'm not seeing much coiling up and unloading on the ball. The key is to get a stretch in the muscles before firing them in a swing. We use the kinetic chain to get this stretch and release on the ball. Try jumping into the swing, a small hop before jumping will get tension in your calf muscles before you start to jump; you get better performance out of muscles that are under tension. Let this jump start your waist turning, that then gets your shoulder turning. You're not storing much energy in your shoulder muscles before you move the racquet forward. Let that shoulder turn put tension in your shoulder before the racquet starts to come forward. You should be looking to feel a bit of a stretch in your shoulder before the racquet comes forward. The hard part will be to learn how to time all this. It might take you a few days to get the hang of it.

Good luck.
 
try to keep the racquet moving throughout your swing. that's probably the only thing i personally could say knowing it would probably help. when i started getting better and my hitting partners started REALLY hitting them to me, i lost all consistency with my forehand until i started to really develop a more sound backswing. let your racquet head drop a little too...notice it stays angled up as you begin your swing to contact. i would imagine working on those two things would greatly increase your ability for spin and power.

hmm.. i think you are right, i think there is a super short moment in which my racket stops moving or it must be moving very very slow, i will try to keep it moving throughout the motion and see if it helps. i can also see how my racket really doesnt seem to be dropping much at all in the backswing, it seems to be going from the peak of the backswing straight to the ball instead of dropping and raising back to the contact point after the peak. Thanks a lot
 

dafobbishon3

New User
you do have good racket head preparation, but i don't see your wrists being loose at all. i think you need more snap with the wrist. it looks like your just pushing the racket up rather than swinging it. you need to bend your knees, break your wrists, and swing up. try and work around there
 
You have a good start there, young man. But I'm not seeing much coiling up and unloading on the ball. The key is to get a stretch in the muscles before firing them in a swing. We use the kinetic chain to get this stretch and release on the ball. Try jumping into the swing, a small hop before jumping will get tension in your calf muscles before you start to jump; you get better performance out of muscles that are under tension. Let this jump start your waist turning, that then gets your shoulder turning. You're not storing much energy in your shoulder muscles before you move the racquet forward. Let that shoulder turn put tension in your shoulder before the racquet starts to come forward. You should be looking to feel a bit of a stretch in your shoulder before the racquet comes forward. The hard part will be to learn how to time all this. It might take you a few days to get the hang of it.

Good luck.


I was just air swinging trying to implement dropping the racket lower in the backswing like the first guy told me and feeling that tension in my shoulders before my racket comes forward and what i sort of felt was that when my racket was on the lowest point in the backswing was when i had felt a stretch in my shoulders. this felt right, does this sound correct? In fact, i felt a stretch/tension in my shoulders and biceps. Is this tension supposed to release by the time i get to contact or am i supposed to hold this tension up until i make contact? I am pretty sure i release it and I will probably know when i go out there and hit anyways. Also, i did not really understand the part i bolded in your post. Could u maybe give an example in a video or possibly explain it clearer? Thanks for the informative post.
 

ramseszerg

Professional
You have a good start there, young man. But I'm not seeing much coiling up and unloading on the ball. The key is to get a stretch in the muscles before firing them in a swing. We use the kinetic chain to get this stretch and release on the ball. Try jumping into the swing, a small hop before jumping will get tension in your calf muscles before you start to jump; you get better performance out of muscles that are under tension. Let this jump start your waist turning, that then gets your shoulder turning. You're not storing much energy in your shoulder muscles before you move the racquet forward. Let that shoulder turn put tension in your shoulder before the racquet starts to come forward. You should be looking to feel a bit of a stretch in your shoulder before the racquet comes forward. The hard part will be to learn how to time all this. It might take you a few days to get the hang of it.

Good luck.

He's already hitting the majority of the balls into the net. What do you think will happen. Is he really good enough to implement all that?
 

ramseszerg

Professional
To the OP: the main thing you're doing wrong is that your racquet does not drop before swinging forward. You go straight from the relatively high takeback to the ball, resulting in a somewhat downward swing, thus the balls go to the net. You don't have to be 100% in control of the racquet with your muscles the way you are. Let gravity take your racquet down at the end of your takeback and then swing forward. This will give you a low to high swing with more topspin and a bigger margin of error, as well as some rhythm.
 

snr

Semi-Pro
You seem to be a bit... tight. Loosen up. It'll help make your swing more fluid.

I'm by no means an expert but that too was my first thought.

Theres obviously a few things that can be worked in your forehand to improve it for sure but I think the first thing is loosening up, before you should think too hard about changing technique.

Try to make a conscious effort to be smooth, don't "stop" your swing as it seems like you're doing. Back swing, swing to contact, finish through, without stopping in the steps.

Maybe even try a couple of forehands where you just kind of swing at the ball without thinking just to see how it feels. IMO the key to a forehand is first to be loose in the right places, thats how later on you can implement the "snap" as someone mentioned.
 

Nellie

Hall of Fame
You are out of balance and struggle not to fall over. Your feet are too close and not in an athletic stance.


More importantly, you are shifting your weight forward too early. For example, if I freeze at 9 sec, all of your weight has moved forward to the left leg (right foot is slightly off the ground) and you have not yet hit the ball, so you end up arming the ball and pulling through ackwardly, trying not to fall over.

If you are hitting an open stance, you need to weight the right foot and shift through during contact to power the stroke (pulling the racquet from right to left with the body motion and shoulder rotation) for power.

If you are hitting with a closed stance, you need to step into the shot with the big step (just after contact) to get a good shoulder rotation (start with left shoulder pointed at the ball and end with right shoulder, elbow pointed to where you want the ball to go).

I like to think of the stroke motion to be similar to throwing a very heavy bag - You shift weight back to load the motion, accelerate forward, hit the ball, continue to move through the contact point, and when you are way forward and arm full extended (and feel like you are going to fall forward) step through with the right leg and follow through around the left side.

A good practice is to hop with your weight only on the right foot, swing at the ball, and to shift your weight during the stroke so that you are only on your left foot after contact.
 

MNPlayer

Semi-Pro
You seem to be a bit... tight. Loosen up. It'll help make your swing more fluid.

I agree with this. I went to a mini tennis camp this weekend and and the pro told me to "just use the arm", don't worry about the body. This is kind of the opposite of the advice you normally hear - but for some reason this clicked with me. This only makes sense in the context though - I already had a decent unit turn and preparation for the shot, I was just "muscling" the swing too much, trying to get the whole body into the swing. This really hampers my recovery, takes a lot of energy, and actually makes the swing slower.

Having your whole arm fairly loose from the shoulder down will result in a whip-like swing with lots of power (and spin if you use a sufficiently vertical swing), assuming you have the good preparation, which it looks like the OP does. You can initiate the swing with the body/hip, but it seems like the body actually needs to move very little to generate a very fast/powerful swing.

Just my latest observations... Maybe I'll change my mind tomorrow :)
 

sh@de

Hall of Fame
I agree with this. I went to a mini tennis camp this weekend and and the pro told me to "just use the arm", don't worry about the body. This is kind of the opposite of the advice you normally hear - but for some reason this clicked with me. This only makes sense in the context though - I already had a decent unit turn and preparation for the shot, I was just "muscling" the swing too much, trying to get the whole body into the swing. This really hampers my recovery, takes a lot of energy, and actually makes the swing slower.

Having your whole arm fairly loose from the shoulder down will result in a whip-like swing with lots of power (and spin if you use a sufficiently vertical swing), assuming you have the good preparation, which it looks like the OP does. You can initiate the swing with the body/hip, but it seems like the body actually needs to move very little to generate a very fast/powerful swing.

Just my latest observations... Maybe I'll change my mind tomorrow :)

Don't change your mind. What you're doing sounds right. If you have the unit turn down, then the next thing is to have a loose arm. I found out much to my delight around 8 months ago that if I was loose on the court, I could start beating many more opponents. It's the right way to go.
 

delphi17

Rookie
I agree with this. I went to a mini tennis camp this weekend and and the pro told me to "just use the arm", don't worry about the body. This is kind of the opposite of the advice you normally hear - but for some reason this clicked with me. This only makes sense in the context though - I already had a decent unit turn and preparation for the shot, I was just "muscling" the swing too much, trying to get the whole body into the swing. This really hampers my recovery, takes a lot of energy, and actually makes the swing slower.

Having your whole arm fairly loose from the shoulder down will result in a whip-like swing with lots of power (and spin if you use a sufficiently vertical swing), assuming you have the good preparation, which it looks like the OP does. You can initiate the swing with the body/hip, but it seems like the body actually needs to move very little to generate a very fast/powerful swing.

Just my latest observations... Maybe I'll change my mind tomorrow :)

just using your arm will cause your arm to tense up, and wont actually be a swing, but more like a smack by your arms,
you need to swing, that means, knees, core, shoulder, and arms...
 

sh@de

Hall of Fame
just using your arm will cause your arm to tense up, and wont actually be a swing, but more like a smack by your arms,
you need to swing, that means, knees, core, shoulder, and arms...

I don't think he menas literally just use his arms. It was just a way to get him to loosen up. He says he has the core turn down, so as long as he keeps that, and he has a loose arm, he'll be fine.
 

calvinchang

Rookie
you do have good racket head preparation, but i don't see your wrists being loose at all. i think you need more snap with the wrist. it looks like your just pushing the racket up rather than swinging it. you need to bend your knees, break your wrists, and swing up. try and work around there

Ehh... I say keep your wrist cocked back until you're following through the ball. Try adding more spin by getting more under the ball, use your body more (twist your torso, bend your knees), and... hm, I dunno. Good stuff!
 
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