Then progress to normal balls. You are the best. And no, it’s doesn’t really make sense to change a grip at this stage. How To Be At Peace With Mistakes In Tennis, Tennis Illusions – Roger Federer’s Forehand Technique, The Modern Forehand Drop & Wrist Lag Techniques Comparison, Tennis Serve Technique – 7 Steps To Correct Serve. Now that the racket is accelerating forward, we need to steer it into the correct swing path that will help us control the ball well. That’s a ready position but not a ready state. Same thing in tennis. The reason we want the index finger there is that it helps us push the racket head up. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish. Finally, I went back to what I had noticed when I was 12yo hitting half volleys to start the practice rallies: SLAP THE BALL. I recommend that you work on catching the racket with your left hand somewhere above your shoulder in this position because, when you catch the racket, your left arm and your left shoulder will go out of the way. I am probably a 5.5 NTRP level, yet I don’t use that technique. After logging in you can close it and return to this page. Juan Martin Del Potro drops the racket “on the edge” which is a simpler yet still very effective technique, (Image credit: Both images from above have been taken from the videos of the Tennis Unleashed Youtube channel which I highly recommend if you’re into slow motion videos of the pros and expert advice of coach Jason Frausto.). I have a question concerning training against a wall. It happens because we have a relatively loose wrist and we are rotating our body towards the ball; therefore, the racket falls behind – it lags. Even if you mistime the ball slightly you’ll still hit a solid shot. Superb bio mechanical guide for executing the forehand stroke. Federer says when he is having problems he slows down. To be precise, you didn’t say anywhere that the arm should lag that much or that we should focus on the lag, but it occurred to me simply by completely relaxing my (upper) arm while turning my hips: the arm wouldn’t move until it would be “pulled” by the torso. I’m sure he means he approaches the hand more slowly to the ball before accelerating through. Dropping the racket with the face down doesn’t set the wrist in a laid back position, the wrist is somewhere in between. The secret to success is no secret to us, we've been teaching, Have you ever felt like there was something more you, should be doing with your life? Pro drivers can make turns on the road by drifting the car and still control it. Topic pages aggregate useful news, archival information, photos, graphics, audio and video published on the topic in The New York Times. 9. We are always moving. They started very young and spent thousands of hours working on their forehand technique under the supervision of an experienced coach. All that time with eastern grip. Coaches can make a mistake of trying to apply pro tennis technique to a recreational tennis player. Always learning! This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. You must focus on executing a plan rather than trying to win points. Thank you very much for your feedback, Bob. It teaches you how to engage your bigger muscles in the body for effortless power through drills based on biomechanics, and it teaches you all the major stances and footwork patterns that allow you to hit quality forehands from any situation. Standing like this does not make you “ready”. This article above is just a broad and simplified explanation of the forehand technique. I get your point regarding the amateurs, but shouldn’t be the kids taught like Rick Macci explains (as he frequently likes to mention – there is a better way..:))? Letting the racquet head drop on edge through gravity rather than through muscle effort makes all the difference in the world. One of them is gravity, and you can use it only if you let go. That’s because the racket head will flip close to 180 degrees in a very short time, just a few hundredths of a second before you make contact. Once you master this technique of dropping the racket on the edge and hitting consistent forehands, your forehand technique may simply evolve through repetition – and not through conscious mechanical teaching – into a flip technique that the pros use. It’s very important to understand that, when the racket head lags and the wrist is fully laid back, this happens by itself. I tried to teach him some things and it was very frustrating. What you don’t realize is the difference between teaching someone tennis technique and analyzing stroke technique to the minute detail. I have been religiously trying to keep this angle at 90 degrees like a total idiot until contact and releasing AFTER. The key to this technique is that you drop the racket in the direction of the back edge. I have explained in detail how to learn the compress & roll topspin technique of the forehand (but it also applies to the backhand), and I’ve shared some more advanced drills for developing topspin with this approach, so just click the links to learn more. Kellert et al., 2008 ; 20. van den Berg et al., 2007 ). Bakthan Savarirayan,M.D However, I do recommend that you become aware of the wrist lag. Eastern grip is a good grip, Roger Federer plays with it and also my friend Urban that you see in some of the videos (or in the Effortless Forehand course) and both of them can hit really good forehands from any situation. Having a clear and early intention of what exactly you want to do with the ball is extremely important for your ability to play consistently and accurately as it will directly affect your stroke technique. Different Tennis Techniques But Same Ball Trajectory? I can now relate, though, 120% with your simplified and clear bowling analogy because I was a high, near 200-average bowler for years – using a very natural, relaxed gravity drop style on the backward swing of the bowling ball; then letting the forward motion begin gradually to the bending and pushing up with the knees; finishing with a high, accelerated follow-through; combined with “steering” the arm swing at the spot I needed to hit to make a successful shot.