Tennis technique sharing: Forehand shot 

I am very happy to share my understanding of the basic forehand stroke in tennis technique with the help of the platform of “Tennis Home”. Now is the era of information bombardment of short videos, and naturally all kinds of teaching videos and manuscripts are flying on the Internet. The author is also a half-tennis education practitioner. In view of the mixed phenomenon on the Internet, my own idea is: from my current technical level, I will share some tips on how to improve the forehand action of novices, or players below 2.5, as well as solutions to common problems.

Of course, there is no fixed standard to discuss who is right or wrong in tennis techniques, whether forehand, backhand, serve, or volley. Some people say that Federer’s God forehand is good, while others think that Kyriakos and Sock’s ultra-modern forehand is good. For many beginners, it may feel like a few irrelevant action templates. In fact, from the essence, the reason why their actions are so different is just the difference in the visual “paddle” posture. In fact, the “core” of the second half of the entire forehand action is the same. We will only discuss the common issues.

From my current level, the difference in forehand movements is only before the start of the stroke, that is, the racket lead phase. The common and core part is the control and direction of the racket face during and after the stroke.

Forehand hitting

Forehand hitting is nothing more than the following key points: positioning, power chain, hitting point, racket face control, racket lead and follow-through after hitting the ball. There is also one item that is most easily overlooked, which is the timing of the right leg (for example, holding the racket with the right hand) to follow after the shot is completed.

Stance: In modern forehand teaching, I personally think that the stance is more inclined to the semi-open stance. Compared with the closed stance, the semi-open stance effectively improves the disadvantages of the closed stance that beginners cannot experience the ground push and hip rotation, and can only rely on the arm to play. The semi-open stance has some requirements for body control, and it is also easier to find the problems of beginners’ technical movements. The closed stance is not applicable in actual combat, and most of the stalemates use the semi-open stance.

Kinetic chain: I would call it a nightmare for beginners. The coach often tells you to relax your body like a whip. It is difficult for beginners, especially adults with poor physical coordination, to feel the whipping feeling. Let’s simply disassemble the kinetic chain in order for analysis. First is the order of force generation, which is to push the ground with the right foot to the upper left while the knee joint is slightly inward, and the force is transmitted to the hip joint.

Hip joint

The next step is to rotate the hip joint (about 90° from the side to the net), use the waist and abdomen to drive the shoulder rotation, and finally use the upper arm to drive the forearm to swing the racket and hit the ball. Beginners do not have a good grasp of the ball’s feel, which can easily lead to excessive attention to the ball when playing, and all the attention is focused on the arm, making the hitting action stiff and ugly.

Improvement method: First, stand in a semi-open position, but raise your arms to the side without holding the racket. Then, let your legs take the lead in doing a relaxed turn, starting from the same point as the starting point of the shot. Note that you should lift your heel when your right foot is pushed into position, and your upper body must not be raised when turning (raising the upper body is a very important reason for hitting the ball out of bounds). Slowly, you can feel your arms relax, hold the racket and do the turn, and finally transition to a normal swing to hit the ball.

Hitting point

The hitting point is easier to understand than the power chain. As the name implies, it is the position of hitting the ball. Because we usually start from spot shots, we will not explain the hitting position in detail. We will only share the approximate range of hitting positions for advanced players. First of all, in terms of height, the optimal range is above the knee joint and below the waist. The lowest baseline of the front-to-back range is on the central axis of the body. If you hit the ball from the back and across the central axis, it is likely to go into the net (what we often call being squeezed is the hitting point being backward)

Racket face control: The angle of the racket face is the key to determining the trajectory of your shot. When hitting the ball at a normal height, the racket face should be vertical to the ground or slightly inward. The most difficult problem for beginners is the problem of the racket face turning up when hitting the ball. Opening the racket face too early will cause great damage to the wrist, and will cause the forearm to exert force in advance to “fish for the ball”, and the entire hitting action will collapse.

Improvement method: Place the ball on the wall and hold it with the racket. The position of the ball should be similar to the normal position when hitting the ball (the relative position to the body is also the normal hitting position) and do the up and down movement of the ball, similar to practicing topspin. After you can correctly understand the hand movement, do the practice again.

Backswing

Backswing and follow-through: I feel that the backswing and follow-through are the two most mythical points. In fact, it doesn’t matter which direction you lead the backswing. Whether you have straight arms or bent arms. Which direction the racket head points, or whether your hands are clenched or open. The purpose of the backswing is to place the racket in a position. That is conducive to your power to prepare for the sho. So it doesn’t matter whether it is Kyrgios style, Sock style, Federer style, or Rune style.

The most misunderstood part of the follow-through is that the racket must be received on the opposite shoulder… In fact, the position of the backswing is related to the height of the incoming ball. The landing point and rotation of the ball you want to hit. If you want to hit a small diagonal shot that needs a shallow landing point. You need to backswing the racket short, flat and fast, and quickly pull it up at the moment of hitting the ball. The backswing position is probably a little above the waist. If you want to hit a deep and spinning topspin ball, the follow-through trajectory will be much larger and the backswing position will also be much higher.

Problem of right leg

Finally, let’s talk about the problem of right leg (right hand holding the racket) following the ball after hitting the ball. Which is the most easily overlook by beginners. The timing of following the leg must be graspe well. Most beginners will follow the leg too early, which will lead to no stability in hitting the ball. The center of gravity fluctuates, the hands and feet are the same. The upper body rises, and the ball only flies upwards and does not move forward. Most of these are cause by following the leg too early.

The correct time to follow the leg is after the shot is completed. When the swing is complete, the right leg moves forward with the center. After landing, the legs are split and stepped to prepare for the next shot.

Due to space constraints, there are too many details about the swing trajectory that I haven’t shared yet. I’ll talk about it in detail next time. I’ll make more animated pictures to help you understand.