hi everyone this is coach meike babel, former top 30 wta and 19 times grand slam competitor
and we're going to talk about the closed stance forehand today. this is probably
the forehand that you'll get introduced to when you're starting your tennis career. so
this is maybe a tutorial a little bit more for newer players or not quite as advanced players,
but the closed stance still has an application in the modern gam and pros hit it all the time.
so let's get started. just a quick explanation about the definition of closed stance because i
know a lot of coaches use this stance, if i were to be closed off with my hip from you,
if the net were behind you they call this the neutral and square stance so teaching terminology,
terminology, this is your closed stance. i'm still using closed stance for
all of these variations because i don't want to overload my clients with another definition. so
to me this is a closed stance and this is a closed stance so just to clarify that.
first things, first the grip. i still prefer to teach an eastern forehand grip when i
have juniors. a lot of times we're having higher performance juniors we go into a semi-western and
i'll explain both of those. but if i have a newer adult i do start them off with an eastern forehand
grip. and then when they naturally rotate a little bit further then they're in a semi-western,
that's perfectly fine. so let me show you what i'm talking about. all right so the way to find your
eastern forehand grip is this. so you use the underside of your index finger knuckle and your
meaty part of the palm of the heel pad and if you look at your racket here, you have edges and
bevels on your racket. so you have edge number one or bevel number one from the top and then
as a right-hander you go to the right two, three. as a left-hander, of course, you go the other way
around. so you go one, two, three and the way that i do this now is i'm putting both of these markers
on my hands on the number three bevel. so from the top it looks like this. if i'm now turning this
i have my hand fully behind the grip. and that helps me when i make contact to have my racket
face fully squared up to where i want to hit. because every time the racket looks in a certain
direction when i make contact that is where i'm sending my ball. so that is the eastern
forehand grip. i don't mind a semi-western forehand grip that is just going one bevel
more to your right or for your lefty um to the left. you will generate a little bit more topspin
and you get more net clearance. i do not like to teach a full western to be perfectly honest
because especially recreational players have a harder time then getting under balls when
somebody slices for instance. and i've also seen a lot of wrist issues with that extreme grip.
so the next step is your split step. each shot you're initiating with your
split step. so what is a split step? as your opponent is making contact you want to be
up in the air. actually sounds a little weird, but it's a ready hop. with kids,
we call it the ready hop, split step you want to be up in the air at the top of your split step as
your opponent is making contact because your brain computes where that shot is going and as you're
coming down onto the ground you can bound either way. and in this case we're going to our forehand.
from then on what you're doing is you're starting with your unit turn. and that is when you bring
your racket, your shoulder, and your hip back in one unit, hence the name unit turn. so i have my
split step and you see how my right hip sets out to where i'm going. so if i move laterally
here. so that i can then move into this direction or if it's a closed stance i'm most likely moving
forward to the ball because that is when you use your closed stance. so again i got my split step,
i turn and i'll go over that how you want to turn, how high you take your racket back and all those
things and then your left leg comes forward. on a shorter ball you can give it a slide step
or if the ball is close enough you just step forward with your left foot. that is your closed
stance here. so let's get a little bit more in detail. on the take back okay. so i have my split
step and i'm initiating my unit turn. so what i want to do with my off hand, with my left arm,
i want to help myself bring my right hip and my right shoulder back as i'm moving the racket back.
so my offhand really has an important role to play because it helps me to actually load. and we'll
get into that in a second. now the way that i want to take my racket back is the hand, my right hand
wants to be between my shoulder and my hip. now for instance ash barty takes it up a little
higher, there's players that take it back a little lower and that's their individual flavor right,
but i always like to teach between hip and shoulder. and what that does is
your racket head stays above your wrist and it's not necessarily going up as far over your head
um as you would when you have a really high take back. so again, i'm here. now what i'm doing is
as i'm starting to move forward, because again that's when i want to use my closed stance,
is i'm describing the letter c and i want to get behind me, i want to let the racket drop
and this is a really crucial point here. see if you can point the butt cap to the incoming ball.
because that is called your lock in position and that signifies the end of the preparation
and from here on out you step, drop even further under the ball and brush up to your contact point.
okay so let me do that one more time slower. here i'm coming up,
i got my lock in, i want my contact point to be well in front of me. ideally between
hip and shoulder. so a lot of things happen between hip and shoulder. and i want to have it
not too far out, i don't want to lean. and then i follow through. now on the follow-through there's
variations depending on what ball you're sending. so for instance, if i'm just hitting a rally ball,
i still finish over my left shoulder i still catch that racket. could be that i hit a little
bit more of an angle, i might finish across my hip or i finish across the biceps. so again
that really depends on what kind of ball i'm sending. but we're talking about a rally ball,
so you finish will be most likely between shoulder and your biceps, here. all right.
let's look at all the components from the side. so starting with my grip, of course,
i've got my eastern forehand grip, i got my split step. i'm setting my right hip out, turn it back,
bring my left arm back here. as i'm turning my right shoulder back with my racket back
and now you're gonna see how i'm describing a letter c. as i'm stepping into the ball
that's my letter c here. so i'm getting my letter c here. i got my contact point again ideally in
front of my hips here. in front of my center of gravity. and between hip and shoulder. now
at contact point your racket may be slightly closed, that's perfectly fine or squared up.
if you launch a ball for instance, your racket face is open. if you send it a little bit far
too far to your right you may hit it too late. if you send it a little too far to your left it
could be that you're just swinging too soon, you're opening up too soon. so one more time.
and the closed stance again. let's talk about what you're doing actually with your outside, with your
back leg. because that is where your power comes from. and i'm always going that's where your
control comes from, i'm always control over power. so what you're doing ism here i'm loading on my
outside legm on my back leg here, and then i'm driving forward. so as i'm starting my downswing
that is where my power comes from. i'm transferring my body weight from my
right to my left and i'm doing that so dynamically that my right foot
actually steps through. and this is a significant difference from when i was taught back in the day.
it was all down and back low to high. of course, you still swing low to high
alright, so you come back down and back here and low to high but if you really do a good job
loading and then stepping into the ball, naturally your right hip and your right foot
will come around so let that happen. it's exactly what you want to happen.
okay so now that we've mastered hopefully the fundamentals of this shot. when do you use it?
so to me when i have the chance to move up to the ball and i can get all of my body weight
into the shot meaning it's a shorter ball. and short may mean that it's just one step,
it's not necessarily ball that bounces on the service line, i'm going to use my
closed stance because it allows me to really transfer my body weight here from my back leg
to my front leg. again i let my right hip come through, but that is a very easy way to get my
body weight into the shot. i'm still hitting a closed stance if i'm a little further out
and maybe my shorter ball is when i was a little further back behind the baseline and i'm coming
forward again. all right, that's a great way to use your body weight, especially when you're not
the biggest, strongest player. use your entire body weight on those closed stance forehands.
so i have a few thoughts about the discussion of the wta forehand and the atp style forehand.
so here's my two cents about this, me being a former wta pro. but players like for instance
madison keys, simona halep, they take the racket back a little further and it breaks
the plane. this is what the plane here is. and if i keep the racket on the right side people have
started identifying that as the atp style forehand and if it breaks the plane coaches have started to
call it the wta forehand. to me that is style because if somebody for instance like madison
keys or simona halep or yes the majority of women on the wta tour have all the fundamentals,
proper grip, lock-in position, proper loading, proper follow-through, extension and finish,
i don't really care how far they take their racket back. if they consistently, efficiently
and effectively can make contact with the ball they can do a cartwheel if they want to. now
is this the right side of your body forehand more modern? yes potentially? but i'm not going
to change anybody's forehand swing again if they can make consistent contact with the ball if they
use a bigger swing. so if you are having a bigger swing and you're making contact in a great way in
a consistent and good way, keep that forehand. if you find that you're hitting the ball late
then by all means shorten up your take back. but to me that is style and not about fundamentals.
so what i taught you was just the fundamentals and then it's up to you to add your personal
and individual flavor. thank you for watching. if you enjoyed it, support my channel by subscribing
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