On Forehand is it important the strings face the ground at the botttom of backswing?

[millenium]

Please need some help how the strings must face on the Forehand when the racket has dropped down and the butt of the racket is pointing at the ball or net. I see many pros at this point there racket is very closed and strings are facing the ground. Is this absolutely essential or is it a matter of preference to get more topspin, or to help the racket face to be square at contact point.. There are pros like Ivanovic who does not do this at all, and her strings are facing the side fence and has a great Forehand.

 

[millenium]

Anyone know, if this is important ?

 

[tennis_eel]

Nah. Depends on your grip whether they'll face the ground or not.

 

[quicken]

Nope, completetly up to you.

 

[pelusi]

any suggestions more

 

[aimr75]

Please need some help how the strings must face on the Forehand when the racket has dropped down and the butt of the racket is pointing at the ball or net. I see many pros at this point there racket is very closed and strings are facing the ground. Is this absolutely essential or is it a matter of preference to get more topspin, or to help the racket face to be square at contact point.. There are pros like Ivanovic who does not do this at all, and her strings are facing the side fence and has a great Forehand.

theres alot of info on this if you search the term "pat the dog". However, as someone mentioned, its not essential, look at del potro

 

[LeeD]

Don't matter how you get there, what's important is that when you are there, the contact point, the racket is slightly closed (for topspin forehands), you are stable, you can repeat it over and over again, and you're swinging to your maximum capabilities, and the ball goes in over and over again.

 

[5263]

theres alot of info on this if you search the term "pat the dog". However, as someone mentioned, its not essential, look at del potro

I was thinking del Potro didn't use it, but he is a big, strong guy. I do think it helps to pat the dog, for a faster swing with less effort for more normal sized players.

 

[mike53]

I'm wondering if there may be some dependency on the particular grip being used with the more extreme grips bringing the racquet face more parallel to the ground?

 

[jb193]

Don't matter how you get there, what's important is that when you are there, the contact point, the racket is slightly closed (for topspin forehands), you are stable, you can repeat it over and over again, and you're swinging to your maximum capabilities, and the ball goes in over and over again.

^^ There is your answer right there.....

What you might want to do is shadow swing a good bit and really analyze the position of your racquet face upon contact and reconcile that to whatever backswing/initial forward swing you have that feels the most comfortable and generates the most headspeed and as mentioned, allows the racquet face to meet the ball appropiately..

What helped me was realizing that there really isn't a conscious forward swing in a sense. Yes, your arm goes forward but in my SW grip FH, the forward motion is very passive especially in terms of consciously swinging my arm. This realization helped me loosen up my arm and quit arming it. Once my racquet is in that "slot" position (my strings face the side fence FWIW, not the ground), I just torque my body where it spring loads and throws my arm forward a little and up....

Good luck...

 

[FiveO]

Anyone know, if this is important ?

As others have said it's actually irrelevant.

Further, IMO it's a bad idea to concern oneself with that as it will have your mind on two things at once, or very nearly at once.

If OTOH you want to reassure yourself about what your racquet is doing pre-contact go in front of a full length mirror, find YOUR ideal contact point and without manipulating your hand or wrist, close your eyes put YOUR ideal swing path in reverse at what you think is "the bottom" of YOUR swing path.

However, this will only be an approximation of what it will look like, as YOUR swing, in action, at speed will still be slightly different, because YOUR flexiibility of muscle and tendons will passively stretch differently than another player's.

Be careful with this "swing thought". Having instructed for many moons, I've seen a significant number of students overly complicate the concept, getting stuck, deathgrips on the racquet handle, unnaturally locked wrists and/or engaging in pro-active, intentional inputs/manual adjustments of greater or lesser degree, during this phase of the swing and develop hitches back there that can take exponentially longer periods of time to remove than to develop, as the mind interprets what "should be happening".

Like others have said: contact point, orientation of the racquet face, the angle of attack to and path through the contact zone are what's of tatamount importance and I would encourage you to focus on. Allow everything else prior, regarding racquet face, wrist, hand and arm to passively occur.

5

 

[LeeD]

I think Mike53 is on to something there....
With Western forehands, YES, somepoint behind you, the strings face the ground.
Opposite, with pure Continental forehands, somepoint behind you, the strings FACE THE SKY!
Assuming you have a grip between those extremes, your strings should face somewhere between the sky and the ground ...:shock:

 

[paulfreda]

If a player wants to swing low to high to get topspin, a closed racquet face will make it less likely that the ball will fly way long.

Of course you can swing low to high with a square face, but it is much harder to keep it in court that way.

With an open face swinging low to high, the only way to keep the ball from hitting the back fence is to come over the ball closing the face as you hit the ball. Rarely seen much now a days.

Try it and see for yourself with a backboard.

 

[paulfreda]

If a player wants to swing low to high to get topspin, a closed racquet face will make it less likely that the ball will fly way long.

Of course you can swing low to high with a square face, but it is much harder to keep it in court that way.

With an open face swinging low to high, the only way to keep the ball from hitting the back fence is to come over the ball closing the face as you hit the ball. Rarely seen much now a days.

Try it and see for yourself with a backboard.

I would like to refine my 2nd sentence here.
Swinging low to high with a square face; it is NOT hard to keep the ball in court. You will just get a very little pace with a pure low to high swing.

With a closed face you will have to swing thru the ball to the target much more and thus you get BOTH topspin and pace. That is why you see so many pros hit this way. Blake, Ferrer, Oudin, Petrova, are good examples that come to mind.

 

[phoenicks]

fundamentally speaking, it's not necessary to have this, you can still have a pretty good forehand without it.

BUT, if you're looking to take your forehand to the next level, this technique can enable you to create much more spin and pace, HOWEVER, you should make sure you have solid fundamentals and technique before attempting this.