hey guys when i first started the intuitive tennis youtube channel i released a series of videos that
dealt with the topic of whether we should hit through the ball on all the various strokes and
unfortunately these videos didn't get that many views the videos didn't have as much of an impact
as i thought they would have so in today's video i'm redoing this topic i'm going to explain to
you in great detail why it's an absolute myth no you shouldn't try to hit through the ball
in fact all strokes when we're talking about a forehand a one-handed backhand a two-handed
backhand or a backhand slice have a circular swing path and the intuitive tennis teaching methodology
is based on how the best players in the world play and it is undoubtedly true you can check
the slow-motion footage yourself that high-level players have a circular swing path so in other
words they are not hitting through the ball if you take a look at what happens
to their hand or their racket at the moment of contact because that's what determines what
we do when we hit the ball the hit is related to the impact of the strings with the ball so shortly
thereafter the hand will go across the body on the forehand on the one-handed backhand and on
the two-handed backhand as well and even on the one-handed backhand slice and take a look when i
go through these four shots here's a forehand you will see that the hand goes immediately
across the body when i make contact with the ball the same is true for a one-handed backhand same is
true for a one-handed backhand slice and even a two-handed backhand and i'm sure if you've seen
drills where players are supposed to hit through three balls before they start coming across
and this is something that's still around unfortunately when we observe high level players
in slow motion footage it is obvious that players are not hitting through three balls what is this
all about and in today's video i'm only going to cover the forehand if you're interested in finding
out why we are not hitting through the ball on the two-handed backhand on the one-handed backhand
and the one-handed backhand slice subscribe to intuitivetennis.com all the videos are there so on
the forehand this is actually really simple guys if i'm hitting this way and my body is completely
sideways of course my arm will go through three balls before it comes up towards my shoulder
this is naturally what will happen on a forehand it doesn't have any torso rotation so if indeed
i didn't rotate at all i would have a completely linear swing path and i would
and i would hit through three balls before coming across my shoulder like this however as soon as i
involve the torso rotation things change now torso rotation doesn't guarantee by any means
that you will hit in a circular swing path up across the back you could very easily
indeed hit through two to three balls even with a rotational forehand so let me give you an example
if you started the rotation on the forehand simultaneously for example
you went forward and started rotating at the same time you will be guaranteed to make contact
further behind with the dominant shoulder behind the non-dominant shoulder now naturally even if
you continue to rotate at contact you will be going forward before coming across now
our forehands at the high level struck like this yes there are there will be circumstances where
players of the highest caliber even nadal federer and djokovic will hit forehands with the dominant
shoulder behind but this is only in emergency situations for example if they get jammed they
don't get out of the way enough if they catch the ball late for example situations like hitting a
forehand on the run or return of serve there will be times where players make contact with
the dominant shoulder behind now something super interesting happens when this is the case players
usually don't go for very aggressive shots when they make contact this far back they will gently
push the ball back into play and then look to be more aggressive on the next shot now why could
this be the case is because when we are pushing through the ball hitting through the ball we
have very little control so you could absolutely make power with the linear shot there's no doubt
about that but you sacrifice control what the control comes from on a tennis stroke especially
on a forehand is a circular swing path so guys check this out i'm gonna be completely sideways
i'm gonna be forced to have a linear swing path and take a look i can get the ball in
pretty hard it doesn't even look that bad the forehand but as soon as i start hitting
the ball a lot harder this is where the control suffers see the ball goes very low over the net
and i have very little control over the placement of the ball so what naturally happened to the
forehand over the course of the last 50 to 60 years is that the forehand became more and more
rotational and the swing changed as well players back in the day did not have a loop they would
take the racket straight back like this when this is the case now the rotation of the forehand
is sequenced much differently when the racket does not have a loop and goes straight back the forward
movement of the racket towards the ball and the rotation of the torso happens simultaneously
and when this is the case naturally the contact is further behind and what that
means for power is that players will not hit the ball very hard they will push the ball
they will massage the ball they will guide it so the big game changer on the forehand
is actually not power but it's control because with more control now players can absolutely rip
the ball something that they couldn't do back in the day because remember power is completely
useless without control it doesn't matter if you can hit the ball hard if it doesn't go in
so nowadays players are able to hit the ball as hard as they want without sacrificing control
and why is this the case because now players are making contact further in front than back in the
day it's at least the contact where shoulders are parallel to each other and this is possible
because now players also have a loop so here's what happens on the sequencing of the torso
rotation when a loop is present players will loop the racket in this fashion so they will they will
not go straight back like this they will loop the racket and now as the racket drops players
will start opening up early that means when the racket starts going forward in other words
when we start approaching the ball players are already open their chest is towards the incoming
ball so naturally when we are opening early so to speak we are guaranteed to make contact
further in front and what is something that all high level players have in common is a contact
on 95 of their forehands with the dominant shoulder in front of the non-dominant shoulder
let me show you what that looks like so i'm going to loop my racket and then i'm going to
start opening early and because of that i'm guaranteed to make contact further in front
and guys i told you this is going to be super simple and it is super simple the more sideways
the player is the more the stroke will become linear the more rotation there is on the stroke
naturally the stroke will become more circular so what happens to the forehand when we make
contact with the dominant shoulder in front is the following even if we wanted to hit through the
ball we couldn't because naturally the momentum of this rotation will carry us on right-handed
players towards the left and backwards you see professional players line their forehand up like
this with a coil and when they're done their chest is pointing towards the opposite side
now there will be instances on the forehand where there is a little bit more of a pause
when players make contact depending what they're trying to do but generally speaking
the rotation is continuous starting from this point to this point and when this is the case
this rotation of the torso will naturally result in a swing path that's more circular now here's
the crazy thing these things are happening in milliseconds so players are not necessarily aware
whether they're hitting through the ball or whether they're hitting a cross i know this
sounds kind of weird but it's the absolute truth and it's the only explanation i have why even some
former elite level tennis players still teach their students to hit through three balls when
slow motion footage clearly shows that is not what they do when they hit a forehand
and the reason why there's such a confusion is that that part of the forehand is over so fast
and when players are hitting the ball they don't really know what happens right there
are they hitting through three balls or they're not and they're not so sure because that's over
in the blink of an eye so most likely what these former elite players are referring to are tips
that they received when they were juniors for example because hitting through three balls and
the linear swing path is something that's been around forever and it's something that's still
around today now you're probably thinking what about flat forehands nick i'm glad that i have a
flat forehand so i can tell you what happens on a flat forehand a flat forehand is still a circular
forehand now the racket doesn't move in the same manner on a heavy topspin forehand something you
see on the atp tour the tip of the racket goes vertically across the ball in this fashion this
does not happen on a flat forehand so on a flat forehand the tip of the racket indeed
comes through the ball but if you take a look at what happens to the hand when the tip of the
rack comes through we can clearly see that the hand is going across even on a flat forehand
now why would this be the case because whether we're talking about a flat forehand or a topspin
for him the fundamentals are going to be the same the sequencing of the torso rotation is going to
be the same the contact position of the shoulders is going to be the same so the same fundamental
elements that we have on the topspin forehand we do have them on a flat forehand as well and therefore
a flat forehand is also a circular upper cross and back swing path just like the topspin forehand
now if you want to know in great detail what a flat forehand is it's actually a flat topspin
forehand because all modern forehands are topspin forehands some will be flatter for example on a
wta tour and some will be hit with heavy topspin but all high level forehands we're talking about
a modern forehand of course have an upper cross and back swing path this is a flat forehand you
see the racket's going up across the back and this is a topspin forehand it goes up across and back
as well so if you want to know in great detail how it works check out my video on that topic
but in any case it's not all about control guys the circular swing path also gives us more power
now think about it this way when we make contact with the ball if we were to continue going forward
and hit through three balls we would indeed be disconnecting the contact from our core where
we are the strongest so the more we go forward the further the hand and the arm is away from
the core and we lose power that way i'm going to show you absolute proof that we are indeed hitting
across when we exert our maximum power have you ever gotten mad on the court and ripped the ball
over the fence i've done it many times and i'm not proud of it it is a shot that nobody practices in
other words this is a completely intuitive shot players will grab a ball and they'll just rip
it over the fence or if you talk about the pro level they'll rip it out of the stadium so it's
a shot that nobody practices that nobody teaches a completely intuitive shot now take a look when
i rip this forehand how my racket and my hand is behaving will i hit through three balls to exert
the maximum amount of power on this weird shot or am i indeed gonna go across let's take a look
so you can see in the slow motion footage i indeed went across the body with my hand why because
i connected the contact to my core i pull that ball towards my core and i was able to accelerate
the racket much faster so in addition to control the circular swing path also gives us more power
now guys look i understand that hitting through three balls is a thing that's been around
forever and a lot of pros are teaching this but there's been one guy maybe the pioneer
of the circular swing path and that's oscar wagner oscar wagner was teaching hitting across
or in other words a circular swing path many many years ago he saw how the pros were playing and he
called this methodology uh play like the pros i'm not 100 sure with but that this was the
name of his methodology but i know that oscar would teach his students to play like the pros
and that's basically what it is guys we have to set the high level technique as the benchmark
of how tennis is played optimally now some of you guys might say nick maybe we shouldn't try
to play like the pros we're at the recreational level maybe we should try to hit through the ball
maybe that's easier actually it's not going to be easier at all because think about it i explained
to you today that when you're not using torso rotation you're going to be more sideways and what
happens when you're more sideways and swinging yes you will have a linear swing path but the
arm is going to be working in isolation on the other hand when you're using the body's rotation
the body's rotation will support the arm and in fact it will make your strokes more effortless so
if you play with a circular swing path this is not only the only way to play if you want to play
tennis at the high level but it's also the optimal way to play on the recreational level as well