one phrase that often gets thrown around by coaches as one of the worst things that you
can do in a tennis court which is to have T-Rex arms and what coaches mean by T-Rex
arms is to have a bent arm to hit the forehand for example like this or a backhand like this and I'm
here to tell you that there's absolutely nothing wrong with hitting various shots with T-Rex arms
And how do I know this to be true? Because I did a tremendous amount of research studying the greatest players in
the history of the game of tennis I'm gonna go through various strokes and explain to you why
it's perfectly okay to play certain shots with a bent arm in other words a T-Rex arm and let's
start off with the volley in actuality if you extend your arm on the volley you're going to have
several disadvantages you want to have the elbow as close to your body as possible now you don't
want the elbow to be behind your body this is not a good thing because your contact is going to be
further back but the closer the elbow is to your torso the more strength you're going to have and
actually the more feel you're going to have the more extended your arm is on the volley the less
feel and the less stability or strength you're going to possess on a volley so it is to your
advantage to have the arm bent now there's going to be emergency situations on the volley where you
will have to stretch out and this is perfectly fine but when you are not in an emergency
situation you should actually try to have the arm more bent on the forehand volley on the backhand
Volley as well while here it is probably going to be a little bit more natural to keep the arm
straighter but not a complete really straight position like this but as more of a slight Bend
while on the forehand it can be a little more of a severe Bend well keeping in mind that the elbow at
all times has to be in front of the body I made a video a long time ago three years ago where I used
a stick that I put underneath my elbows and this stick helps players keep the elbows away from the
Torso but this is independent from the T-Rex arm so you can have a correct position of the elbow
while still having a bent arm the right angle of the wrist and when you do this you are going
to have more stability in other words you're going to be able to maintain the angle of the
racket face throughout the volley stroke and most importantly you're going to have a lot more feel
now the two shots where you don't want to have a T-Rex arm is going to be the overhead and
the serve obviously on these shots because of the trajectory of the ball where we are
hitting the ball on a downward trajectory your advantage is going to be to hit the
ball as high as possible and obviously here you want the arm to be fully extended so the
overhead and the serve are going to be two shots where you don't want to have a T-Rex
arm and you want to hit both of these shots with a full extension of the arm
now let's go on to Specialty shots such as Drop shots squash shots little short angled
topspin shots maybe topspin lobs and all the other specialty shots that are utilized in tennis
here just like the volley the closer the elbows to the body the more feel you're gonna have and
you're going to see this on the professional tour that the vast majority of players when
they attempt a drop shot the arm is bent why because players have a lot more feel when the
hand is closer to the body the further we extend the arm the less feel we're gonna have and the
specialty shots are all about feel so it makes a lot of sense to play those with a T-Rex arm
now let's go on to the Baseline I'm going to leave the two most controversial shots the
forehand and the two-handed backhand for the end so make sure you stay with this video but the next
shots I'm going to discuss is the one-handed backhand and the one handed backhand slice
and you are going to have an advantage to be more extended on these two shots the reason
is that we are using the weak side when we're hitting the one handed backhand and when we
are in a bent position several disadvantages take place number one we reduce our range of
motion because we want to be working with a longer lever we have to utilize the natural
ways of gaining momentum when we're striking the ball with the weak side of the arm so it
doesn't make any sense to hit the one-handed backhand with a bent arm it's less range of
motion or shorter lever less natural momentum the same goes for the slice backhand even though
here if you're hitting a feel slice or a touch slice it might be okay but if you want to hit
your slice with more penetration more Pace here you want to be as extended as you can
so when it comes to the one-handed backhand whether you're hitting it with Top Spin driving
it or slicing it it is to your advantage to be as extended as possible now some players
will have a mini Bend even Federer at times you used to have his arm slightly bent and
I don't have a problem with that at all you should find your own Comfort level
but by no means should you have a T-Rex arm on your one-handed backhand and only
very seldomly on your one-handed backhand slice keep in mind that anytime you strike
the ball with one hand on this side of the body to keep the arm as extended as you can
now while the two-handed backhand looks simple it is one of the most complex shots in tennis because
the structures of the arms will change throughout the stroke and you can have a player that hits the
two-handed backhand with several different arm structures I'm going to show you the most common
arm structure on the professional tour and that is one where both arms are actually bent the vast
majority of players that have a elite level two handed backhand have both arms bent at the moment
of contact if you take a look at the WTA tour where you'll see phenomenal backhands most WTA
players have better backhands than forehands just think of Serena Williams Venus Williams
Maria Sharapova Victoria Azarenka and the list goes on and on and on these are some of the most
spectacular two-handed backhands you'll ever see even compared to the men and all of these players
have a bent bent arm structure meaning that their non-dominant arm is bent and their dominant arm is
bent as well quick interruption and guys we'll get right back to the video but I want to show
you something that's quite frankly genius you see how the ball is going forward but yet the
tip of my racket is going up and then across this device called The Top Spin Pro see a lot
of people have this faulty mental image that we must hit forward in order to get the ball to go
to the other side and it's a completely false the topspin pro will teach you the correct swing path
and not only do I recommend this device for the recreational level this is something that I use
personally to improve my forehand and backhand topspin so go to the description click the link
and get yourself a topspin pro now the player with one of the greatest two-handed backhands on
tour right now is Alexander zverev and he hits the vast majority of his two-handed backhands
with a bent bent structure and in my opinion the greatest two-handed backhand in the history of the
game Novak Djokovic will not always but often hit the backhand with both arms bent as well
so it makes absolutely no sense to categorize a T-Rex two-handed backhand with both arms are
bent as wrong if Elite level tennis players with some of the greatest two-handed backhands we've
ever seen are using this combination on the backhand is absolutely nothing wrong with it
when we're talking about the recreational level it gets a little bit more complex because the
two-handed backhand is very difficult for recreational adult tennis players and there
are some mistakes that recreational tennis players commit on a two-handed backhand and one
of them is making contact too far behind so if the elbows indeed are behind the body if
that left elbow and right-handers are tucked in this way this is not a good contact so
you do want to make a proper contact that's independent of your T-Rex arms you want to
have the elbows in front of your body see on the two handed backhand the contact is
gonna occur with our torso still positioned to the side so if you imagine me hitting this way
my torso is still going to be positioned towards the side when I make contact however independent
of my arm structure whether I'm completely straight or bent with both sides my elbows
are going to be in front of my body how much it doesn't matter how much as long as they are
in front but you will see that WTA players for example will have the elbows a little
bit closer than ATP players for example that have the elbows a little bit further away from
the body and this is just a stylistic technical element that's based on genetic predispositions
now on the two handed backhand it's not wrong by any means to have both arms straight like
Marcos baghdatis or they have the non-dominant arm straight while the dominant arm is slightly bent
this is what Novak Djokovic does on the vast majority of his backhands this is what Andre Agassi used
to do as well this is not a wrong position by any means so when it comes to your two-handed
backhand you have to develop the proper contact that is absolutely crucial you have to have the
correct sequencing of the Torso rotation so that your contact is correct how your arms are going
to be positioned whether you're going to be in a T-Rex style or more of a straight style leave
that up to your genetic predisposition that's going to be your own personal style and there
is no right or wrong when it comes to the arm structures on the two-handed backhand
and you guys have been patiently waiting for the forehand and here it is it is absolutely
okay to have a T-Rex forehand Yes you heard correctly you can have a T-Rex forehand and
have an elite level forehand now think about this logically the player that's dominating
the WTA tour Iga Swiantek I hope I said her last name correctly any of my polish fans feel
free to correct me but in any case she hits her forehand with an extreme T-Rex position
meaning that the elbow is extremely close to her torso does this mean she has a bad forehand well
only someone with very limited mental capacity would make such a conclusion she has one of the
best forehands in the history of women's tennis now it's not only Swiantek you go through
the list of some of the greatest WTA players of all time players such as Serena Williams
Venus Williams Maria Sharapova Victoria zarenka Simona Halep and the list goes on and on you will
see very similar traits where many of these players have the elbow very close to the body
and not only does this not hurt their game but in my opinion it helps them because it
is genetically the style that suits them the most for whatever the reason may be nobody taught them
to hit the forehand like this nobody said to IGA hey IGA I want you to hit the forehand with your
elbow like this nobody teaches this it's just something that happens naturally you have to
understand that there's a natural position that's based on a player's genetic predispositions so
what would happen if you forced these players I just mentioned to straighten their arm
and have a non-t-rex forehand kind of like an Alcaraz forehand with a straight arm this could
quite possibly ruin their forehand because this position at the moment of content first of all
is not achievable because this part of the forehand where contact takes place happens
in milliseconds and players are actually not aware how their arm is positioned so even if you wanted
to teach someone this position they wouldn't be able to achieve it but let's say theoretically
that these players could change their forehand contact and straighten the arm completely and
have a full extension and get rid of their T-Rex position this wouldn't do anything to
their forehand it actually might make it worse why because naturally this is not a position of the
arm that's suited to their body type and their genetics again nobody taught them to play like
this this is something that happened naturally on these players now let's go over to the ATP I
made a video more than three year years ago it was one of the first videos that I made on the
intuitive tennis YouTube channel that was based on my research where I studied the amount of straight
arm forehands in the top hundred on the ATP and the top 100 WTA tour and it was only one or two
on the WTA tour that had a straight arm forehand out of the top hundred and on the ATP it was 15
and out of the 15 only six or seven had a true straight arm forehand a la alcaraz or Nadal or
Federer most of the other ones there had somewhat of a straight arm forehand like a cilic or del
potro where there was a slight Bend in the arm so in any case it was only 15 percent of players
that used a more extended style forehand even on the ATP Tour and I ran the numbers in today's game
and the numbers are still accurate it's a little bit higher than it was four years ago is around
20 percent but the vast majority of ATP players and almost all WTA players still use a bent arm
forehand in other words a T-Rex forehand think about what I'm saying the vast majority of elite
level tennis players uses a bent arm forehand you cannot make the statement that Novak Djokovic Jack
sock Nick Kyrgios Felix Alger Aliassimme or Danil medvedev have bad forehands because they have a
T-Rex forehand all these players I just mentioned have a bent arm forehand no it's not like Swiantek
where the elbow is close to the body so something that you really don't see on the ATP even players
that have a bent arm forehand have a little bit more distance between the elbow and the Torso
that's absolutely true but it's still a T-Rex forehead and here's the thing guys the forehand
is one of the most complex shots in tennis and it's absolutely true that a lot of players have
problems around the contact and yes there are some problems with the elbow position no doubt about it
you can have an elbows position that's incorrect you can make contact with the elbow tucked in and
now you're taking the ball too far back so don't confuse this video with thinking that you can hit
the forehand with any type of elbow position no like I said not only is the dominant shoulder in
front on a high level forehand something that I discuss in a lot of my forehand videos but also
the elbow has to be in front of the Torso you don't want to have it here or here this is going
to result in a contact that's too far behind you want to have that elbow in front of you but please
understand that there's no such thing as a T-Rex forehand there's absolutely nothing wrong with
having a bent arm forehand simple logic will tell you that if some of the greatest forehands in the
world such as Djokovic Kyrgios sock and the list goes on and on have a bent on forehand there's
absolutely nothing wrong with such a forehand if it comes natural to a player so understand this
if you are a player who has naturally more of an extended forehand and hits the ball a la alcaraz
Nadal or Federer nothing wrong with it there's nothing wrong with a straight arm forehand if
it comes natural to you but at the same time it's absolutely nothing wrong with the forehand
that's bent if it comes natural to you or you should never do is try to manufacture certain
arm positions around the contact this is going to turn into a disaster now the reason why this
is going to turn into a disaster is that you are going to be forced to slow down the area around
the contact and start manufacturing certain arm positions and your forehand is going to lose all
this continuity is going to lose all this fluidity and you're going to be stuck with a hacked up
forehand that has a lot of hitches in it so forget the idea of a T-Rex forehand or a T-Rex two-handed
backhand or a T-Rex volley it is absolute absolutely okay to have a bent arm on those shots