Switching to open forehand stance. Tips?

[ogruskie]

For the past 5 years that I've been playing tennis, I've ALWAYS been hitting my forehands from a closed stance. My form would be completely perpendicular to the baseline. For the most part, this stance has been good for me. I had decent control, and explosive power when I chose to take a rip at the ball. However, for the past few months, this stance has been sinking my game.

I started rotating my hips more, and a closed stance seems to really constrict a fluid rotating motion which held back a lot of potential power. It also felt very uncomfortable in my lower back. In addition, I started to develop a windshield wiper forehand, and just felt that I could attain more spin if I just had a longer range of rotation.

Today I tried to hit from an open stance, or at least a semi open one. I'm not sure which. Anyway, my form was parallel to the baseline, with my right foot just slightly more forward than my left foot (I now call this the back foot). I found that I was able to rotate more or less the same as with a closed stance, but I just FELT better about it. With a windshield wiper forehand, the spin that I produced was simply insane. I guess the power was the same, though. The spin that I achieved was definitely worth the switch. And for some reason, I was able to prepare for the next shot MUCH quicker than before. This was a major plus, because I was able to really improve my consistency and control.

So anyway, I'm glad I made the switch. I was wondering if you guys have any tips for the open stance forehand. The thing I'm concerned about is weight transfer. Do I transfer from my right foot to left? When I did this, all my shots traveled cross-court.

EDIT: According to http://www.revolutionarytennis.com/step3.html I'm using an open forward stance.

EDIT 2: I don't know what the **** I'm doing.

 

[user92626]

To me a full open stance is quite challenging in that you need to remember to twist your body, ie turn your shoulder, really well to produce a full range fh swing. If you dont', you'll be swinging with only arm.

Re weight shifting if you stay on the balls of your feets all the time and lean forward a little, you'll automatically feel your weight shift to the hitting side's foot as you turn/take back and then shift to the non-hitting side's foot as you swing forward. When you do it hard your hitting-side foot lifts off at the follow-thru.

A nice thing I notice about open stance is that it allows me to efficiently run forward and put short balls away. Can't do that with closed stance because not enough time.

 

[Fumoffu]

Big thing is to remember that although your stance is open, your weight should still be focused on your right leg. Shifting where your gravity is in relation to the incoming ball does a lot of things, but making sure the weight is on top of your right leg is as basic as it gets. I'll let someone else take care of the specifics.

 

[Djokovicfan4life]

First of all, you were hitting your forehands in a square stance, not a closed one. Closed would mean that your left foot is to the right of your right foot. This is not an advisable stance for hitting a forehand in most cases.

Secondly, you shouldn't really be looking to pick one stance for all your shots. Different balls will require you to use different stances, so you should get comfortable with the open, semi-open, and square stances.

 

[Bungalo Bill]

For the past 5 years that I've been playing tennis, I've ALWAYS been hitting my forehands from a closed stance. My form would be completely perpendicular to the baseline. For the most part, this stance has been good for me. I had decent control, and explosive power when I chose to take a rip at the ball. However, for the past few months, this stance has been sinking my game.

I started rotating my hips more, and a closed stance seems to really constrict a fluid rotating motion which held back a lot of potential power. It also felt very uncomfortable in my lower back. In addition, I started to develop a windshield wiper forehand, and just felt that I could attain more spin if I just had a longer range of rotation.

Today I tried to hit from an open stance, or at least a semi open one. I'm not sure which. Anyway, my form was parallel to the baseline, with my right foot just slightly more forward than my left foot (I now call this the back foot). I found that I was able to rotate more or less the same as with a closed stance, but I just FELT better about it. With a windshield wiper forehand, the spin that I produced was simply insane. I guess the power was the same, though. The spin that I achieved was definitely worth the switch. And for some reason, I was able to prepare for the next shot MUCH quicker than before. This was a major plus, because I was able to really improve my consistency and control.

So anyway, I'm glad I made the switch. I was wondering if you guys have any tips for the open stance forehand. The thing I'm concerned about is weight transfer. Do I transfer from my right foot to left? When I did this, all my shots traveled cross-court.

EDIT: According to http://www.revolutionarytennis.com/step3.html I'm using an open forward stance.

EDIT 2: I don't know what the **** I'm doing.

You need to develop three stances for your forehand.

1. Open stance.

2. Semi-open stance

3. Neutral stance/Forward stance (if we want to get picky, you can call it a forward stance when your foot barely cross over your back foot like the following clip) http://es.youtube.com/watch?v=nNm-Vo38Jeo&feature=related and steps into the direction of the ball.

A closed stance will be dictated on how you move to the ball, the direction of your momentum, etc...which you want to improve so you can reduce the number of times you hit from a closed stance.

Even if you are on the move, you should learn to hit from an open stance because a lot of your momentum will be going towards the side fence. The open stance will allow you to plant and redirect that momentum back into the ball and allow you to recover quicker.

Power in each of these stances is derived through different means so each is slightly different in how you swing and address the ball. Each stance above is used in different situations or is based on what kind of ball you are recieving, how quickly you can setup, and what you are trying to do with the ball.

You will see open, semi-open, and neutral stances in advanced levels of play.

If you want to use an open stance, refer to this article on how to do it.
http://www.tennis.com/yourgame/instructionarticles/forehand/forehand.aspx?id=413

On the neutral/forward stance in the 1st link and the link below, make sure that you learn how to bring your feet around using your angular momentum for a quick recovery. This is one of the biggest secrets in using the neutral/forward/semi-closed stance for recovery and quickness. The shifting in the feet should be part of the entire stroke. This is also true with the open stance, however, it is a bit more natural to do this with the open stance due to the main emphasis in rotational momentum.

http://es.youtube.com/watch?v=EaUH9Bevnew&feature=related

 

[SystemicAnomaly]

First of all, you were hitting your forehands in a square stance, not a closed one. Closed would mean that your left foot is to the right of your right foot. This is not an advisable stance for hitting a forehand in most cases.

Secondly, you shouldn't really be looking to pick one stance for all your shots. Different balls will require you to use different stances, so you should get comfortable with the open, semi-open, and square stances.

I agree pretty much with the last 2 posts above. The closed stance should be avoided as much as possible -- the neutral stance is more appropriate when stepping in with a weight transfer in those cases. Stepping across the body slightly, just past square, would probably be ok as well.

Different situations call for different stances as BB and DF4L have indicated. It is inadvisable to use the open stance for all situations. Do so could put undue stress on the right hip and right shoulder (assuming you are a righty). Guga [SIZE=-1]Kuerten and L Hewitt are prime examples of pros who have developed serious hip problems (in part, from overuse of extreme stances).[/SIZE]

 

[Totoro]

The closed stance should be avoided as much as possible -- the neutral stance is more appropriate when stepping in with a weight transfer in those cases.[/SIZE]

This I don't agree with. Being neutral on the approach only leaves you with with a down the line and crosscourt. Trying to go inside out in this stance forces your body to come across the inside of the ball not maximizing your weight going in that direction. Closing your stance on the approach adds disguise and maximizes your weight because the body is aligned for the inside-out, leaving the option to also go up the middle, and hooking the ball crosscourt.

 

[SystemicAnomaly]

^ ^ ^

I'm not following what you are saying here, Totoro. Perhaps you can provide us with video example of this. I suspect that what you are calling a closed stance on the inside-out shot is not really closed.

You may be using the net and the lines on the court as a reference for the relative position of your feet. Instead, you should use the orientation of your body (your hips & torso). For a standard FH, hit from the FH side of your own court, you would normally align (orient) your body to hit straight ahead (more or less) -- from that position, you can hit a strong shot DTL or rotate the body to hit the x-court shot.

However, for the (run-around) inside-out FH, you are hitting from the BH side of your court and your body turns more to align your body for a x-court shot rather than DTL. If you set yourself up to hit a severe x-court on the inside-out FH, the position of your feet might be such that you think it is a closed stance in some cases.

However, since your body orientation is no longer parallel to the sideline, the stance that you think is closed is really closer to neutral. Draw an imaginary line from the front of one foot to the front of the other -- this line for that "closed" stance is probably in the direction for that x-court shot you've lined up for -- this makes that stance, in reality, neutral.

BTW, pro players who employ the inside-out shot, will often do so with an open or semi-open stance even tho' they are lining the body up for the x-court shot.

 

[chico9166]

Provided a player turns and loads properly (and this is a big if for a typical club player) rotation tends to be a non issue in the open stance. The overwhelming problem at the club level, when players open up their stance line, is over-rotation. This over-rotating tends to destroy the integrity of the swing path and prevents said player from extending through the line of the shot well.

 

[Totoro]

^ ^ ^

I'm not following what you are saying here, Totoro. Perhaps you can provide us with video example of this. I suspect that what you are calling a closed stance on the inside-out shot is not really closed.

You may be using the net and the lines on the court as a reference for the relative position of your feet. Instead, you should use the orientation of your body (your hips & torso). For a standard FH, hit from the FH side of your own court, you would normally align (orient) your body to hit straight ahead (more or less) -- from that position, you can hit a strong shot DTL or rotate the body to hit the x-court shot.

However, for the (run-around) inside-out FH, you are hitting from the BH side of your court and your body turns more to align your body for a x-court shot rather than DTL. If you set yourself up to hit a severe x-court on the inside-out FH, the position of your feet might be such that you think it is a closed stance in some cases.

However, since your body orientation is no longer parallel to the sideline, the stance that you think is closed is really closer to neutral. Draw an imaginary line from the front of one foot to the front of the other -- this line for that "closed" stance is probably in the direction for that x-court shot you've lined up for -- this makes that stance, in reality, neutral.

BTW, pro players who employ the inside-out shot, will often do so with an open or semi-open stance even tho' they are lining the body up for the x-court shot.

I understand what your saying. It seems we see the game differently yet we are talking about the same thing. Kudos