there's a really good chance that your
forehand is not totally locked in and it
probably has something to do with how
you start the swing how you make contact
and how you finish it could be one of
those three areas or all of them where
your forehand is not quite as efficient
as it could be it in this video today I
want to show you three ways that you can
improve your forehead this lesson is all
about the elbow and what you need to
feel when you make your first move on
your forehand now what I want you to be
aware of is when you make your first
move right here in this position you
want your elbow to be away from your
body so a lot of players they make their
first move and they keep the elbow
pretty close to the body and what
happens when you do this is it forces
the racket to lay back like this so you
you lose that ability to create momentum
and acceleration that whip-like effect
and so when you're in this position now
you're just going to be swinging more
with your arm and having the racket drop
like this but if you lead with your
elbow with this first move you keep the
elbow away from the body notice the
racket position now the strings are down
and you're this and the racket is closed
and then when you go to make contact
that's when you can really accelerate to
the ball so practice making that first
move and having the elbow away from the
body
that's going to help with your spacing
it's going to help you load up your
racket so that you can accelerate into
the ball and it's a great focus for your
first move and the thing that I notice
is that a lot of players lift this
shoulder on the dominant arm like this
to just try to steer the ball in and
that's great if you want to make four
hands and you know how to do that
but you will be limited you won't be
able to go to the next level you'll at
some point you're gonna stop your
development you can swing like this till
you're blue in the face and think okay
now I'm gonna be at four oh and a four
or five and a five oh and play college
tennis whatever but if you're doing this
it's gonna be hard to keep improving
that forehand but the good news is I've
got a solution for you today are you
ready to hear it
awesome so Roger Federer what does he do
on his forehand well he does a number of
things amazingly well but in particular
what I want to talk about today is the
angle of the shoulders so when Roger
swings when he's making contact
especially when the ball is in the
strike zone it does change as the ball
rises up but when it's in the strike
zone or a little bit lower you're gonna
see that when he makes contact the Inc
the shoulders are tilted or angled like
this so the dominant shoulder is below
the non-dominant shoulder and a lot of
times what I see with committed
passionate adult players they're not
playing at the pro level yet when they
swing they lift this shoulder and so the
shoulders are probably about level at
contact but then starting with the
follow-through this shoulder lifts up
it's not what we want we want to copy
the best right we want to model the best
players in the world especially when it
comes to the shoulders and the body
alignment on the forehand and Roger is
amazing at swinging like this and
keeping the shoulders angled so you'll
notice that position right here watch
what happens if I raise up my shoulder
like this
okay the angle of the racket changes so
then more balls will go in the net
especially when I'm tight so if I keep
the shoulders angled in this direction
the dominant shoulder lower look at the
angle of the racket
it's down like this and then I can do
this to their racket kind of turn it
over to create the spin again it all has
to do with the angle of the shoulders
and body alignment I'm a big proponent
of getting the body alignment correct
and when you him get the body alignment
correct then the technique improves so
there's less manipulation with the
racket and more getting the body to work
naturally and he does it better than
anyone Roger does it better than anyone
in the world on that floor hand side
you'll see often these shoulders are
angled so I'm gonna grab a ball here and
I'm going to just show you what it looks
like when I swing I just want to
exaggerate having my dominant shoulder
lower then my non-dominant shoulder okay
and then when I finish the swing what
happens the shoulders should be about
level so we go from angled shoulders
angle shoulders at contact and then at
the finish the shoulders are pretty
level okay if this lifts up too much
again balls are going to go short we're
gonna lose pace even some balls will go
in the net we might have some miss hits
if we maintain the integrity of our body
alignment throughout the swing and we
finish and we keep the shoulders level
at the end because they started angled
we have the best chance of hitting easy
effortless powerful foreheads sounds
like something you probably want right I
know I wanted that and I wish people
would have coaches would have taught me
about body alignment when I was younger
but after my search into Tai Chi and
yoga and other disciplines I realized
that body alignment and body awareness
is so important to becoming a better
tennis player so related to the
shoulders when you swing with this the
angled shoulders your head is going to
be angled a little bit as well you'll
notice when Federer swings his head is
in this position it's not level like
this it's not looking at the ball again
as soon as the head goes here then this
stuff starts to happen with the swing
technique starts to break down so we got
to get the head and the shoulders
working properly and finally I always
like to tell my players to focus
feeling their side here so if you
imagine a golfer when they swing this
position with the side okay right here
same thing with a forehand when you
swing you want to feel this side as
you're swinging as soon as you give up
the side and feel it over here that's
when you get into problems that's when
you're manipulating the racket you're
gonna lose power and control this is a
no-no in tennis right here and you see
so many players doing it I don't want
you to make this mistake get those
shoulders angle that contact when the
ball is in the strike zone you and I
together helping you with your forehand
I'm gonna give you a tip that I believe
is going to help you a lot it's gonna
clear some things up just so that you
can have an awareness of what's next for
you on your forehand journey and for
your game for that matter so I typically
teach two different types of forehand
swings when the ball is in the middle of
the court okay things start to change a
little bit when you get wide and when
the ball is high when the ball is low
but this is specifically when the ball
is in the middle but you're gonna
understand some things at the end of
this video that I think are pretty cool
and it has all to do with body awareness
and how the body works so typically when
I'm teaching the forehand at first I
want to see what the technique looks
like I want to see what the first move
looks like I want to see obviously I
want to see what the grip looks like but
I want to see what the first move looks
like I want to see how relaxed the
player is and if there's natural lag
back here because there's relaxation or
if there's tension okay but I also want
to see what the follow-through looks
like and when you look at the pro game
today there's a lot of pros that swing
and finish here but there's still a lot
of pros that go over the shoulder I
believe that the fundamental forehand
that should be taught and focused on as
your primary base forehand is one where
you swing low too high and you finish
over the shoulder okay that's number one
we start there so I have players swing
and finish high and keep this foot back
I'm working on balance when I do this so
if you're on a ball machine or if you're
just warming up you can really work on
this forehand right here where this foot
stays back I liken it to a golf swing
where you really get to work on your
balance at the end of the swing notice
where I finish here on the golf swing
notice
where this foot is all right this is
just to help with awareness and balance
so we finished over the shoulder when we
keep this foot back but you know what
there's a time and a place to be able to
swing and bring this leg around and yes
you can finish over the shoulder when
you do this but I've found that if your
swing path will change a little bit not
if your swing path will change when you
bring this foot around so I like to have
the swing path feel like especially when
you're on the baseline you know if
you're deep in the court you probably
still want to go over the shoulder but
when you're up on the baseline and
you're playing an aggressive style of
tennis and you're stepping in you're
squaring up you should feel like the
racket goes a little more across the
body
okay so then now the ball is gonna go
straight or you can still shape this
ball but it's gonna go straighter and
you're finishing more cross so the rule
of thumb with these two follow throughs
or these two finishes is that when you
keep this foot back follow through over
the shoulder more okay when you square
up after you've stepped in and you
square up you finish more across so let
me demonstrate that right now okay
keep my back foot back low to high
very natural so my hips are actually
square when I'm done I'm not blocking
myself either I want you to notice that
when I'm done my hips open up and it's
natural when I keep this foot back it's
natural to have the racket go here if I
keep this foot back and then swing
across it feels really awkward even if I
try to catch the racket it feels awkward
because there's no release of the hips
so if you keep this foot back warming up
I think you should finish high okay I'll
do it again
step in back foots back I finish high
that feels really good now I bring the
leg around look where I finished this
time just below the shoulder look at my
base it feels to me from my studies and
from testing it
feels a little weird to go low too high
when I finish down like this I feel like
when I stay low then the racket should
go more across like this you see that
across and you can see how the racket
turns over like this keep the back foot
back low to high it would be weird for
me to go around like this bring the leg
around it's weird for me to go low to
high it doesn't feel right to stay low
and wide and just swing low to high
so I swing across does that make sense
simple keep the back foot back when
you're warming up low to high on the
ball machine working on your balance
even sometimes when you play a point you
might be in this position low to high
bring this leg around you're in an
athletic position you're wide you swing
across and you turn your hand over like
this so you step in and you and you
bring the leg around if you're in an
open stance here on this shot typically
I wouldn't teach that in the middle I'd
teach it out to the side again a little
bit more across even could use the buggy
sometimes it's just the buggy whip it's
just a little strange like I said to go
over the shoulder when you stay so low
like this I like to keep the body down
and the swing more across I like to keep
the body a little more upright so that I
can swing low to high like I said I feel
more blocked if I swing across and keep
this leg back okay I feel a release when
I swing across and I bring the leg
around and finish here I think one of
the three tips I just gave you and your
forehand can skyrocket and of course
that's what I want for you you can even
go to a deeper level with your tennis
and improve if you get access to our
free tennis evolution membership inside
the tennis evolution app and on our
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or somewhere in the video ok see ya bye