Hey everyone, Simon and Alex here with Top Tennis Training and welcome to the ultimate
forehand analysis video. In this video, we're going to break down the backswing
of some of the top players like Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer
we're going to look at the hit phase and the contact point as well as the finish and the
follow-through and we're going to look at how you can incorporate them into your own game
now we can analyze a lot of the top players you can look at Wawrinka's forehand Djokovic's Federer
they all have different swings but one thing that they all share is that initial unit turn so at the
very start of the swing that upper body coil and that's storing energy in the trunk muscles
now turning and getting your left shoulder to point towards the ball
is vital because you don't want to swing with just your arm now when we talk about back swings
we don't want to have a big back swing with your arm because then it will lead to a shot
that is just involving your arm you want to synchronize your body and get that unit turn
so that you store the energy ready to unleash into the oncoming ball
and actually when you think about it if my ready position is like this i'm waiting for my forehand
i'm hoping that i'm hitting a forehand so i already have my forehand grip now from this
position facing forwards i'd be looking at 12 o'clock if we imagine a clock around me from
this position as i coil my upper body i'm already reaching 1 o'clock two o'clock and now i'm at
three o'clock i've done nothing with my arm my arm has stayed in the same position but i've already
made half of my swing just with that initial unit turn now notice how when simon turns
he gets that left arm to come across his body and this is very important
on the turn part so by pointing that left arm away from you into the direction that you're turning
actually will help you turn your body so make sure that you're holding on to the racket
getting that racket to the side and this will actually naturally turn your body now
some players will hold the throat off the racquet like this in fact most of the players will hold
the throat of the racket federer you can look at nadal walrinka they're holding the throat
some will have a few of their fingers on the strings
and other players like thomas bergich he'll have his hand on the grip
whichever one you choose just make sure that you're holding on
as you get to that three o'clock position
in that unit turn phase you can have your racket in different positions
i can have my strings facing the ground so i can be in that position this is something that agassi
used to do this is something that we see with fabio fognini this is more of a compact swing
so you're keeping the racket down here but they're still getting that initial unit turn you can also
have your strings facing towards the net someone like fedor an adult or walrinka will have their
strings in that position back ahead is above the grip and this creates that leverage in the
racket and the hand now it's important at this point you're actually not tucking in your elbow
now you don't want to be doing this with your elbow tucked in you want to have a little bit of
space between the elbow and your body so that this allows you then on the next phase when the racquet
goes around your wrist and the elbow will come forward it'll give you that snap that you'll
need so you don't want to be tucked in and even though you're being compact even with a compact
swing the elbow is still away from your body so it's an important part of the swing and actually
if you look at agassi's forehand when he's doing that preparation his elbow is lifting up to around
shoulder level and this will give him that space which is crucial for that snap in the like phase
now if you think about keeping the racket face down it's very difficult to keep it down and
take the racket back it's a lot easier if you have the elbow up to keep that it almost helps you to
put the racket face down to lift the elbow the more the elbow is tucked in the more the
rackets open and we see a lot of players kind of getting that kind of forehand and then struggling
to control the ball struggling to get top spin because they haven't got the elbow but however
you do it that elbow is still away from your body now during this phase you could also play around
and experiment with what works better with you some players will prefer having their wrist in
that neutral position so it's not flexed in either direction it's in that neutral phase and then
they'll snap the wrist or they'll have that racket lag and that's where the wrist will then lock back
other players will prefer having the wrist locked back from the beginning
so that's creating that lag position that same position you want to have
prior to contact from the very start of the swing so in my actual forehand i start with
my wrist lock back slightly and this allows me to have that lag in a much easier way
if you can time it and you can keep that wrist in a neutral position in the start of your swing
then you can carry on doing that main thing is that you achieve that lag prior to contact
and sometimes this is easier when you bring the wrist back right from the start of the swing
now just because you bring the wrist back it doesn't mean that it's tense or tight you can
do this simply by lifting the rack ahead and by holding the throat with that left hand now if
i take my left hand off now i have to hold that position now the forearm muscles become tight but
by holding this left hand it's completely relaxed my wrist is locked back but i haven't forced it
i'm very loose in that position there's no tension in the forearm muscles and this is exactly what we
want on our forehand if you tense that muscle if you tense that arm here you you're gonna struggle
to generate power the players that generate a lot of power the ones that have a lot of snap at the
at the ball so however you get the snap even if you hold this racket back i'm still not tensing
here because this tense arm it becomes a slow arm i want to have a relaxed arm that even though the
racket's back it's still got the snap ability to add the ball so that i could generate easy power
easy top spin and hit a big forehand now we're going to cover the size of the swing and where
you actually get your racket into that back position now different players have different
sizes of swing so someone like a del potro would be like an extreme example of a very big swing
then we have the fagnini that has a slightly smaller swing
their benefits bolster disadvantages to both of those swings now the bigger the
swing obviously the more time you need to have on the ball if you're playing on fast quartz
becomes very difficult if your game is based on running and chasing balls down you're going to
struggle with a big swing because you're going to be constantly late on the ball
if you have a big game like a big serve where you can get the first hit on the ball every time
the ball is coming at you a little bit slower when you have time you can afford to have a slightly
bigger swing but the best swings are obviously somewhere in between someone like ephedra
so when you see federer he's getting into a position similar to this if we go back to
that clock imagine he's getting to around four o'clock or five o'clock in that backswing now
at the same time it isn't too high so he's not lifting his racket above his head level
like a del potro but it isn't very small like someone like fognini so he has enough space to
accelerate the racket but he doesn't lose time in having that massive loop now a lot also depends on
where you position yourself on the court if you're someone who likes to play close to the baseline
or inside the court then a more compact swing someone like fognini or even a federer
that's a swing that will suit your game much more if you're someone who likes to play very far back
in the court six or eight feet behind the baseline if you play on slower chords like slow clay courts
or on those higher bouncing harcourts you have time to then have a bigger loop someone like a
del potro now playing on clay courts the ball will bounce higher so if you're having a low swing and
handling high balls it becomes very difficult so players that play on clay usually have
slightly bigger swings slightly higher swings they also have more time because clay chords are
a little bit slower if you're a player that's constantly playing on grass fast hard courts
indoors you may not want to have a big swing because you simply won't have the time the
chords are going to rush you too much and a lot of players have actually adapted their swings
like someone like a dominic team who used to have a very big swing here has now adapted to
be a little bit more in between uh to so that he can handle those faster balls and he can play on
different surfaces and it's actually shown in his results this year already