In this video we're going to take a closer look at the
Dominic Thiem forehand, in particular the changes that he's made
on his forehand in the past year or so. Let's take a
look at the older Dominic Thiem forehand and break it down. So what you're seeing
now is Dominic really lead with his elbow on the backswing so he's
creating space between his elbow and his torso
by lifting the elbow and starting off the racquet head
in that position so the tip of the racket is pointing down towards the net
or towards his opponent and this is kind of that next generation forehand
something that we'll see Kyrgios doing we'll see Jack Sock doing,
a lot of these next-generation players will lift the racket head
in that position.
So the elbows going away from the body now they've created a bit of space
between the racquet head and the torso but they're also pointing
the tip of the racket down towards the net now this is very
different to an older style of forehand players would
really get the racket head back quickly if you think about
the older generations players from the 60s 70s
and even players who are club level they were taught
to get the racket back early now that's a massive difference you can see
from this position starting your swing as opposed to getting the racket back
early a huge difference in the evolution of
that forehand now team was someone who used this
forehand so he's starting off in that position
and he'll start by having that elbow far away from the body
and also notice how high his loop is his loop is a
very big loop he has a very big circle with that
all the style forehand and this would work if he's playing on clay
and that's one of the reasons why he has such a good forehand when he is on clay
because he can then deal with those higher balls in that much more
aggressive style but when he's playing on the faster
courts especially surfaces like grass or indoors that bigger loop will
cost him time and he'll have to play really far back
behind the baseline in order to actually have the time to
execute that massive loop that massive swing so from that starting
position it's a tip forward team will then have that big loop and
he'll get into a position similar to this
and come forward with the bent elbow forehand and he's finishing
over the body now this is that kind of all the school finish
even though he has that next generation style going on
in this older forehand he's still catching the racket which is something
that you don't see a lot of pros doing these days the next
generation players they tend to just let it come across the body so what has
he changed in the last year or so now we were in indian wells last year
filming team and i noticed straight away that the
starting position has changed massively so instead of being in this
position which was his forehand a few years ago
he's now actually having the tip of the racket
pointing up to the sky which is more of that modern forehand someone like a
federer someone like a djokovic even nadal so
they're all starting in that position similar to this
and as you can see the tip of the racket is pointing up to the sky
and the rack ahead is much higher than the grip level
so they're in that position to start off their forehand
and now we see that team has actually incorporated this
into his own forehand
he's gone away from the tip being towards the court to now the tip being
up towards the sky much more
so he's creating that smaller loop right from the start of the swing
if i have to get my racket in this position every time it takes time
i need to then stand further back in the court but by having the racket head in
this position it allows me to create time i'm now
saving myself time and this will allow me to reduce that
backswing because i can have a more compact swing but still produce power
now from this position you can see that team is still pulling his elbow away
from his body but he's not leading the stroke anymore
like he used to he's not going like this and starting off his forehand in that
position he's simply creating space which is crucial but he isn't leading as
much as he would a couple of years ago and he's getting
into a position similar to this that power position that we often speak
about here at top tennis training
now the power position is crucial in generating power
on your forehand now when you're getting into that power position you want to be
looking for the racket head to be above the grip level which will
create that leverage basically force over that ball i want to
mention that we have a free forehand guide
the five steps to hitting the perfect tennis forehand you can download it
right away i'll leave the link below this video all
you have to do is click on that link that will take you to our website
you simply enter your email address and we'll send you the free pdf
right away so team's getting into a position similar to this
but also notice the swing is much more compact
so he hasn't got that big loop like he used to he shortened it
by around 20 or 30 on most of his
forehands
now this is crucial in having a more aggressive game
if you want to play closer to the baseline and you have a massive loop
it's very hard to actually hit that ball on the rise
take time away from your opponent by taking the ball early
now by having a more compact swing this will allow you to actually step inside
the court step inside the baseline and play in
that more aggressive position and this is exactly what team has done
he's gone away from the big circular loop
to a more compact circle and he's stepping in the court much more
and taking balls on and being more aggressive in the rallies
especially on the surfaces like hardcore or even on grass
now let's take a look at a video that we filmed last year in march
so march 2019 team is working with his coach nicholas
at a private club in indian wells he's doing forehand drills
and he's working on that quick preparation even in this video you can
see the team is starting with the tip of the racket
pointing more towards the net when he's starting that swing
but he's already started to make those slight adjustments on his forehand
is not as exaggerated as it was a few years ago
the swing is more compact as well and the drill is set
in a way in which he has to be quick with his racket preparation
or he won't have time to make contact so masu is feeding him
balls at a high tempo and very close to his body
so they're standing very close together and because of the way the drill is set
up it's forcing team to be quick with the
racket preparation and forcing him to shorten that
backswing and make it more compact
now masu knows that a bigger swing can impact
team's career and this will make him more for clay quarter
someone who's really good on clay really good on slower hard courts but struggles
on the faster courts and struggles to win those slams like
the u.s open or wimbledon so i think they've made these changes on
purpose to actually shorten the swing to make it more compact and allow him to
then step up into the court he's saving himself time right away from
being here to now being in a more upright position
he's got a more compact backswing a more compact
loop and this is allowing him to then step up and hit the ball
more on the rise now this shows you that even the pros
are constantly evolving their game they're not happy even at
being number three number four in the world they're not happy with where they
are they always feel like they can improve
and they always look at all these different details
on a particular stroke and this shows you that for the players out there
who are playing at a lower level we should all be analyzing our games
constantly and seeing what we can improve on i hope
you've enjoyed this video and i hope you've learned something new
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you're a tennis coach signing off simon from ttp all the best
and see you soon guys take care
you