What's wrong with my forehand?

Brandwun

New User
While playing, it feels like I'm unit turning and prepping early, getting coil, dropping the racquet and then initiating forward swing.

But on video review everything looks wrong. I look tense through takeback, doesn't look like there's a lot of coil, racquet drop continues to look tense, and I see no wrist lag.

Here's a video. Don't forget to change quality to 1080p if it doesn't load like that, and feel free to change playback speed to .25x if you think it's helps analysis.

Any suggestions??

 

golden chicken

Hall of Fame
A couple of things stick out to me. Your left arm drops a little early. Your contact on some of those shots was a little late. And I would try to avoid the open stance pick up one leg forehand if you have time.
 

Brandwun

New User
A couple of things stick out to me. Your left arm drops a little early. Your contact on some of those shots was a little late. And I would try to avoid the open stance pick up one leg forehand if you have time.
Thanks for the advice. Never noticed I'm only using off-hand for initial balance, and then it's not helping rotation. Keep the off hand up and rotating? I'm guessing catching the racquet will help with that.

And yes I absolutely know I need to cut out the open stance one leg. I especially notice how off balance and weak my forehands are when pulled wide on that wing. What should my loading and unloading of my legs be when pulled wide like that?
 

Jonesy

Legend
Hit using the movement of your body to hit through the ball. Looked too much arm and too little body rotation. Easier said than done. Maybe turning intentionally the wrist back may help to get the notion of the wrist lag until it becomes more natural. Some vid from behind to see where your ball is going could help too.
 
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golden chicken

Hall of Fame
I would like to see you pull your left arm into your body more as a part of your swing.
Image 3 and 4
Tennis-forehand-groundstroke-technique-swing-Andy-Murray.jpg


And I would try to use your legs to twist your core more rather than push up to get rid of the left foot thing. On one of your forehands you end up falling back. Don't let yourself do that.
 

pencilcheck

Hall of Fame
While playing, it feels like I'm unit turning and prepping early, getting coil, dropping the racquet and then initiating forward swing.

But on video review everything looks wrong. I look tense through takeback, doesn't look like there's a lot of coil, racquet drop continues to look tense, and I see no wrist lag.

Here's a video. Don't forget to change quality to 1080p if it doesn't load like that, and feel free to change playback speed to .25x if you think it's helps analysis.

Any suggestions??

You arm a lot and your weight is completely falling backwards. Try to stay neutral as much as you can
 

Chas Tennis

G.O.A.T.
1) Your hips and shoulders seem to rotate together. You then are not using a significant source of racket head speed from stretching spine/trunk muscles. This involves spine/trunk twisting. You should consider if any stresses from this motion will bother you, especially regarding your back.

2) Your off arm should speed up before your forward swing and be pulled into your body for a boost to uppermost body turn speed. It should not end up out from your body or be pulled in near impact. This was just discussed in detail in another by Curiousity. Look at high speed videos of ATP forehands and only watch the off arm and its timing. Demo - practice with a can of soup or 1 lb dumbbell to feel how the off arm speeds up the turn of your uppermost body.

The separation and uppermost body turn and off arm timing are illustrated by this Djokovic forehand.

Compare these two videos frame-by-frame using this process.

See also the post before and some other posts in that thread.
 
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jered

Rookie
Style of hitting aside, you have a lot of the same fundamental issues I have. You're hitting off your back foot, you look tight because you're late, and you're not looking at the contact point. I struggle with the same 3 things.

Here's the things I've been trying in practices to correct this:
  • Practice hitting earlier than you think you should. Uncomfortably earlier.
  • Give yourself the gift of time. Stay further back and recover further back so you can always move forward to the ball. I recommend starting 4-5 ft. behind the baseline.
  • Practice looking down at the contact point and count, "one, one-thousand" before you allow yourself to look up. All the other advice on how to look at the ball applies, too.

Your brain is one of the hardest things to overcome. Good luck!
 

Brandwun

New User
Thanks for the advice everyone, going to work on everyone’s suggestions. Such a hard sport to learn as an adult

1) Your hips and shoulders seem to rotate together. You then are not using a significant source of racket head speed from stretching spine/trunk muscles. This involves spine/trunk twisting. You should consider if any stresses from this motion will bother you, especially regarding your back.

2) Your off arm should speed up before your forward swing and be pulled into your body for a boost to uppermost body turn speed. It should not end up out from your body or be pulled in near impact. This was just discussed in detail in another by Curious. Look at high speed videos of ATP forehand and only watch the off arm and its timing. Demo - practice with a can of soup or 1 lb dumbbell to feel how the off arm speed the turn of your uppermost body.

The separation and uppermost body turn and off arm timing are illustrated by this Djokovic forehand.

Compare these two videos frame-by-frame using this process.

See also the post before and some other posts in that thread.
 

5263

G.O.A.T.
The big C takeback tends to challenge a players ability to achieve great timing. You are sort of forced to release the off hand from the throat early, which affects the timing of that left arm. The sweeping action of the big C makes it hard to achieve a proper slot with nice lag....without good lag, you are not in a position to drag from the slot with a stable racket. This also likely hurts your ability to use the "hip-shoulder-hand" firing sequence effectively. It could even lead you not to get any hip to shoulder separation or proper hip flex loading. I think you have to ditch the big C to level up on your Fh.
 

Jin An

New User
There's such a stark contrast between the shots where you are waiting for the ball to come and where you are moving forward towards the ball. In the first case, when your swing is done, your front foot is up, which means you didn't transfer any weight forward - basically what everyone else is saying, but just pointing out the evidence. When the ball is short and you're moving forward and you finish with your front foot down.
 

TheIntrovert

Hall of Fame
Contacting the call pretty late and are on the back foot. Need to try and take it earlier and get your body behind the swing and use core rotation more. You have a pretty conventional grip
 

Chas Tennis

G.O.A.T.
While playing, it feels like I'm unit turning and prepping early
..........................................

The term "unit turn" is misleading. The line between the two shoulders and the line between the two hips turn independently not as a unit. (What is "the unit" anyway?) A barn door is a "unit" the trunk/spine does not move as a unit.

The term upper body is defined as the body above the waist. I use the term uppermost body turn to refer to the line and body at the two shoulders.
 
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