Hi guys Nick here from Intuitive Tennis. In today's video we're going to cover
the ATP modern forehand.
No other shot in Tennis is as complex
as the modern forehand that's hit on the ATP Tour and it starts off with the grip.
The ATP forehand can be performed with a wide variety of grips. All the way from
an Eastern forehand grip at to a Hawaiian forehand grip. The Hawaiian
forehand grip is very seldomly used. The most famous player to use the Hawaiian
grip was Alberto Berasategui. However the three other grips, the
eastern forehand grip the semi-western and the western grip are well
represented on today's tour. The classic forehand was mostly performed in
a continental forehand grip and the father of the modern forehand Bjorn
Borg who back in the 70s had many of the characteristics that the players
have today on his forehand was one of the first players to slide his hand over
towards the eastern side and this was considered wrong and many of his coaches
have told Bjorn that he was using the wrong grip. He however didn't care and
continued playing with back in the day was considered a very extreme grip so
Bjorn Borg was the first player to change his hand over towards an eastern
grip on the forehand I have a very strange grip a use a Western grip
usually when you play your forehand a lot of people they have a continental grip
but I take my hand all the way over to the right side because that way I can
get a lot of topspin with my forehand and I remember in the beginning that a lot
of people that said to me that I had to change this stroke because this was not
good for me to play but I didn't listen so I still continued to play the way you
felt good for me
The take back on the modern forehand is very different from the take back on the
classic forehand. On the classic forehand we had and somewhat of a straight take
back and some players would even from here go maybe a little bit higher in the
preparation phase and then drop the racket back down and then go into the
contact point. On the modern forehand however, there is always a loop involved
and so the racket will first go up before it goes down and this adds
tremendous amount of rhythm and momentum into the stroke and the father
of the modern forehand Bjorn Borg was the first player to have a loop in his
forehand. Bjorn Borg would go up with his racket like this and then down
into the racket drop like that and this was considered very wrong and coaches
were telling him that he has a major flaw in his forehand but Bjorn Borg
didn't care and continued doing this looping action on the forehand and he is
truly the first player to ever do this. And usually you take your racket
straight back with the forehand with a swing straight back but I didn't do that
either when I hit my forehand I had kind of loop on my forehand I started low I
got high up finish down hit my stroke and then
finish up again
Another characteristic of the modern forehand is the racket drop and the
modern forehand will be performed with the racket drop being on the outside of
the body and so when we take the racket in a loop
backwards and ATP players will drop it on the hitting side of the body like
this and most of the players will close the racket face as the racquet drops and
then as they initiate the forward phase of the swing the racket will end up going
like this. There's a few exceptions on the ATP tour of players who don't do this
closing of the racket face. One big champion that doesn't close his racquet
is Juan Martin Del Potro and it has to do with the way he takes his racquet back in
the loop. So if you look at his grip he's got an eastern forehand grip and as
Juan Martin takes his racquet back the strings are kind of pointing towards the
opponents and then as he drops it the racket it doesn't close but it goes like
this where most players and this is my recommendation for
recreational players is that the strings actually point towards the
side fence as we go into the loop. So the racquet strings will go here and as the
strings are pointing towards the side fence now it's very natural to just
continue closing the strings like this. See this so we take it into the loop
here the strings are pointing towards the side fence and then we can very
naturally close the strings up on the racket drop
One characteristic of the modern forehand is the fact that this stroke
can be performed in a bent arm structure. Back in the old-school forehand days
where players were mostly using a continental grip you couldn't really use
a bent arm because with the continental grip we cannot hit the ball too far in
front like this with the arm forward because it would open the racquet face
too much it's very difficult to close it. So players will hit it a kind of next to
the body like this with a straight arm. So in this grip if I bend my arm like
this it would put my elbow too far behind the
body, it would put the racket even further behind this is a very
disadvantageous position to be in. As the players started shifting their grips
over towards the eastern forehand, the semi-western and the western side,
the contact on the forehand changed and now players were able to hit the ball
with a bent arm structure and which is today at the most commonly used arm
structure on the modern forehand and the reason why is related directly to the
grip. So if I am here in a semi-western grip which is the most commonly used
grip worldwide I can hit the forehand in a bent arm position and I can also hit
it in a straight arm position. The reason why is my hand is underneath the racquet
and this doesn't influence the angle of my racket face it doesn't close or
open the racket face and therefore it doesn't matter whether I hit it in a
bent arm or straight arm I can have a stable a racquet head because my hand is
underneath the racket if you compare this to a continent grip forehand the
more in front I go like this the more the racket face opens up and I have a
lot more flexibility if my hand is underneath the racket like this
The point at which players make contact on the modern forehand is a huge
characteristic of the shot and this has to do with the grip and the upper body
rotation. So the contact point on the modern forehand this goes for all
players whether it's a bent on forehand or a straight on for and it's gonna be
with the dominant shoulder in front and let's just take a straight arm forehand
as an example here. So this is gonna be the contact and this has to do with the
rotation. The modern forehand has a lot more upper body rotation compared to the
classic forehand and this also has to do with the grip. The classic forehand was
performed also with a good amount of upper body rotation but not as much as
the modern forehand. So the classic forehand would go from here and to here
and the contact was made with the shoulders kind of square. Both
shoulders parallel to the net. On the modern forehand and there's a lot more
rotation involved and the timing on the rotation is also a little bit different
where the initiation of the rotation happens with the left side of the body
and it's a little bit prior to the forward phase of the swing and
so when the rotation starts a little bit early the modern forehand ends up having
a contact point that has the dominant shoulder in front of the non dominant shoulder.
And the biggest characteristics of the ATP style modern forehand is what
happens right after the contact point. So if we take some of the classic
four hands as an example what players used to do is take the racket back
straight like this and make contact and if you just follow the tip of my racket
and see what happens next players used to hit a rotational across the body type
shot but the tip of the racket would at some point point towards the opponent
like this and then it would finish across this way and what this indicates
it's a more flater stroke. It is still possible to put topspin on this type of
stroke if we go underneath the ball and then lift it like this, but this
indicates generally a more flatter stroke. What the modern forehand has
it's something that's completely opposite of that. After the player
makes contact the tip of the racket will go to the side first and then up and
then back like this. And what this swing path creates this tremendous amount of
topspin. This is one characteristic that makes the ATP forehand so consistent
and gives the players so much power potential. It is not that this movement
creates more power. It doesn't, it might actually take some power away from the
ball, but since it gives the player so much more control the player is then
able to completely unload on every forehand without sacrificing control.
The father of the modern forehand Bjorn Borg was the first player to have this type
of swing path this very vertical swing path and if you look at Bjorn Borg's
tip of the racket, it didn't go this way like all other players it would go up
like this. Same way the players hit it today, so Bjorn Borg was the first player
to ever have this type of swing path. I also want to give credit to Vilas who
had a very similar swing path he was a lefty and he had tremendous topspin on the
forehand and his swing path was exactly the same as Borg's. It would go up, across and back like this.
I got high up finish down hit my stroke and then
finish up again
This swing path is ubiquitous on the ATP Tour and one can
argue that you must have this swing path to have any success any chance of
breaking it to the top of the game. There's two players that have a little
variation in the swing path and often mistaken for having a flat stroke and
these players are Juan Martin Del Potro and Roberto Bautista Agut. If you look at
Del Potro's racquet path he doesn't have quite as vertical of a racquet path like
players such as Kyrgios, Zverev, Nadal Federer, Djokovic, or Murray. All these
players have the racquet go this way after they make contact. Del
Porto also has a vertical swing path but the tip of the racquet has a slight
forward movement like this. So it's still a topspin forehand like this. It's
however not quite as heavy of a topspin forehand and it's a little bit more of a
flat trajectory and Roberto Bautista Agut hits the forehand in a very similar
fashion. The tip of the racket will not go forward like this something you see
on the WTA Tour very frequently. The tip of the racquet on Agut and Del Potro
it goes slightly forward and then up so this is still a topspin forehand
however the trajectory of the ball is lower.
The classic forehand was generally a much shorter swing and with players usually
stopping their racquet somewhere around here. On the modern forehand the
finish that was much longer and the stroke also had a lot more rotation and
the players on the modern forehand will finish with the tip of the racquet
usually pointing towards the back fence or even further on forehands that are
struck very aggressively and the stroke has a lot more rotation with players
usually finishing with their chest towards the side fence.
Each player will utilize different finishes according to his tactical intention or situation he
finds himself in during the point and the four basic finishes on the modern
forehand are around the head, around the shoulder, around the elbow, or around the
waist and the first player that had these different type of finishes was
Bjorn Borg. Borg would sometimes finish around his
head like Rafa does and on most other forehands he would finish around his
elbow very similar to Federer.
The open stance forehand is not a
characteristic of a modern forehand since players even in the wooden racket
era used to hit the forehand open stance. It is however performed differently than
the classic open stance forehand and this is due to the longer finish. So what will
happen on a modern forehand the players will usually find themselves in a semi
open stance position and setting up with their a dominant leg on a right-hander
would be the right leg behind the ball and this is very much true in match
situations where the penetration of the ball is the highest and so from this
position the first thing that will happen is the left leg will lift off the
ground prior to the contact point and this was set in place a series of events.
So now when the left leg lifts off the ground in the forward phase of the swing
the player will actually pull back with the non-dominant side of his body to
create the necessary space to finish the shot. It looks something like this.
The left leg will lift off the ground and as the player hits his
rotational across the body stroke the left leg will actually pull back and
give the player enough space to finish the stroke with his chest pointing
towards the side fence. The classic open stance forehand had a much shorter
finish, so players back in those days would not pull as far back as the modern
players would, but since the finish is so long if the player did not pull back
with non-dominant side and this finish would be cut off short see I can't
really turn my body all the way and the stroke abruptly stops. So on balls with
a lot of penetration, by lifting and pulling this way it allows me to
necessary space to hit an aggressive shot even in defensive situations.
I'm going to demonstrate a few modern forehands. We're going to take a look at all
the characteristics. I'm gonna take a look at the modern way the players
perform the open stance forehand where you know they're stepping behind the
ball with their outside leg and then they're kind of pulling back like this
and this is performed in match situations where
the penetration of the incoming ball is the greatest. In practice matches these
players will often do a variation of that where they're standing like this
and hitting a forehand or they even will do a closed stance forehand and you got
to remember that if you're playing at the recreational level and the
penetration of the incoming ball is obviously not as great as it is on the
pro level so the closed stance forehand will be something that you will have to
use very frequently and this closed stance forehand is a part of the modern
forehand as well. All you have to do is when you're stepping up to the ball like
this you just have to allow the body to rotate the same way as it would on open
stance forehand and you have to make sure that you come around all the way like this at
the end and you end up in the exact same position as you would on the open stance
forehand.
This concludes the modern forehand video. One topic I have left out is the wrist
lag on the modern forehand and this is a hot topic online and I definitely
want to cover this in a separate video. As for now I want to thank you for
watching this video please hit that like button, subscribe if you haven't already
and I'll see you next time.