hey guys i recently released a video on why finishing all your shots is one of the most
important technical elements that you need in order to have success at the game of
tennis but in today's video i want to tackle the forehand because it is one of the most complex
shots in tennis and has many finishes in fact there are five different finishes on
the forehand i'm going to explain in great detail what those are and which one you should choose at
the recreational level and before we get started with the forehand finishes one important thing
to understand is that when we observe high level players or elite level players you will see that
players of this caliber will utilize different forehand finishes so let's just take for example
novak djokovic and roger federer they will have their regular finish so in federer's
case it is somewhere between the elbow and the shoulder and djokovic case his regular finish is
somewhere above the shoulder however both of these guys will utilize different finishes so
they will sometimes go around the head kind of like rafa does and they will also sometimes go
around the waist so the important thing that i want you to take out of today's lesson is that
while all high level players have their bread and butter finish their regular finish certain
circumstances and situations inside of the point will bring out different finishes for example
if a player tries to put more spin on the ball or if a player is in a defensive situation where
they make contact behind the body naturally they will finish around their head to get
a hold of the ball depending on the height of the ball and their positions in the court the finish
might change they might finish lower than they usually would however every player will have their
bread and butter finish their regular finish that was ingrained in their muscle memory all right so
let's get to the five finishes on the forehand i'm gonna explain each one in great detail let's
start from the top to the bottom so let's start off with the rafa finish basically rafa will go
around this head like this so he still has a circular swing path the racquet will still go
around the body and then somewhere around his right ear because he's left-handed the racket will
start going around the head like that now rafa is one of the players with the most amount of topspin
and naturally when he swings his racquet like this his swing path is a little bit more vertical than
other players now let me try out the rafa finish now i made a separate video about rafa a long time
ago and i hit a bunch of these rafa forehands so what i found that i was actually having a hard
time generating more power i felt like that it does require a little bit of strength believe it
or not to be able to powerfully bring the racket up in this way so this is definitely not a finish
that worked for me and i will say that it is a finish that's quite unorthodox i have not seen
many players being able to pull this type of finish off consistently but again it's not a
wrong finish at all it's not a defensive finish either a lot of people have this false belief
that rafa has a defensive forehand and not at all rafa has one of the most aggressive forehands
in the history of the game now where people are getting confused they are confusing it with the
regular reverse forehand that's hit in distraught in defensive situations where players are hitting
the ball behind the body and going like this yes that's a defensive forehand but it's not
what rafa's doing so don't confuse rafa's forehand with a defensive forehand however i will say that
rafa can pull it off and maybe a few other players there was a player back in the day called
igor andreev was a fantastic player who had a very similar forehand to rafa but i have not seen many
other high level players be able to pull this type of forehand off and it is a quite extreme finish
now on to the next finish which is the around the neck finish that's used by daniil medvedev i would
also categorize this as an extreme finish because it is quite uncomfortable to bring the racquet
around the neck like that it's almost like as if you were strangling yourself and this does not
feel that comfortable it is not again just like the rafa finish it's not a wrong finish at all
but i have not seen that many players be able to attempt this type of finish the reason why
it's not wrong because again anytime you're going upwards you're doing good things on your forehand
you're creating that vertical swing path and good things are going to happen from intending to go up
high now does medvedev always finish there no he doesn't he has many different finishes just
like other players do all right so let me try the medvedev finish and let's see what that feels like
there it is around the neck again not a big fan of it it doesn't result in a bad forehand by any
means but just it feels awkward and feels like suffocating to wrap your arm around the neck
in this way now of course medvedev is not holding the racquet here and then strangling
himself he comes in and out of that position quite fast he does something like this he goes
here and then the rack comes out quite fast so it probably feels quite comfortable to him but i've
found at the recreational level where players are trying to copy this style often they will prolong
this period of time here which is actually a good technique to be
able to feel where you're finishing to pause and freeze the finish and this just doesn't
feel comfortable for the vast majority of players
now on to the next finish which is the djokovic finish where the racket goes above the shoulder
and this way in my opinion this is the most comfortable finish to execute at any level
whether you're talking about the wta we're talking about the atp or whether you're talking about the
recreational level this is a very comfortable finish there's a big space between the hand and
the body so it feels quite comfortable and also by intending to go here you are guaranteed to have a
vertical swing path and this is the type of finish that i employ on my forehand now sometimes on my
forehand one of the weaknesses that i have is that sometimes i don't finish that much sometimes my
racket kind of gets lost in this area and i don't get to finish my forehand all the time but when i
play my absolute best tennis i tend to finish a lot more and i have to remind myself to trust my
forehand enough so that i can finish all the way so in my opinion this is a finish that translates
really well not only at the pro level but also at the recreational level to all you guys that
are starting out at the beginner level or the intermediate level this is a really good finish to
attempt to do basically you're going to intend to go right over your shoulder and what i always say
is that the back of your right hand should go to your left cheek if you are right handed that
little flip in the end will give you more of a chance to have a more vertical swing path and
employ more topspin and not only does this feel comfortable but in my opinion this looks very
stylish it's a very good-looking finish and it is my recommendation for the rec level
now the next finish is the around the elbow finish and this is something that does work
at the recreational level it does work at the high level of course because
a lot of players are using this finish i would say the vast majority of atp players use this finish
around the elbow and the vast majority of wta players use a finish that goes a little bit higher
above the shoulder and the reason why this finish is great because it correlates to a modern
heavy topspin forehand let me explain that in a little more detail so when the racket tip goes
up in a vertical fashion this is a modern heavy topspin forehand see the tip of the racket goes up
and it comes around this way naturally the racquet will land somewhere around the middle
of the body which happens to be the left elbow this is naturally what happens when players play
with heavy topspin on the other hand on the wta tour the racket does not always travel this way
yes it does on some players but the vast majority of wta players have more of a flat
top spin forehand where the tip of the racket comes through and now naturally as the racket goes up
it's not going to come down here it's naturally going to travel towards the non-dominant shoulder
now here is the important thing that you guys need to understand at the rec level if you're coming
around the ball like this and going around the elbow you're going to be dumping a lot of balls
into the net and this finish is not going to work for you you got to remember what i said
a couple minutes ago when the racket goes up and this way then it's okay to finish around
the elbow so the key factor here is that the racket initially goes up over the ball
and then comes down when that happens on your forehand it's perfectly okay to finish low around
the elbow but you have to stay away from having a very horizontal shallow swing path where the
racket just goes like this and then goes around the elbow you're going to be dumping a lot of
balls into the net and you're going to have a hard time getting topspin on your forehand
it feels quite comfortable if the racket indeed goes up this is kind of a natural way
to swing the racket around with heavy topspin i do like
the feel of this finish now let me try something interesting i have a little bit more of a flat
topspin forehand let me try to hit my regular forehand finish
around the elbow and let's see what happens and see now all of a sudden it feels forced it doesn't
feel natural so when that tip of racket comes through the ball this way it is unnatural to then
wrap the racket here it will result in a more shallow more horizontal swing path and you're
going to get less topspin on your flat topspin forehand so again what you have to understand
about this finish that you see on tv is that it only works when there's heavy topspin present
and finally let's talk about the around the waist finish a player like gael monfils he has this type topspin
of finish and the same thing that i said for the around the elbow finish can be said for the
around the waist finish players who wrap their racket around the waist are not doing anything
wrong on the forehand in fact they have amazing forehands why because their racket is going
up like this and then instead of going around the elbow the racket just goes
around the waist this way so again absolutely nothing wrong with this type of finish if there's
heavy topspin present if there's a heavy topspin swing path present where you're going to get in
trouble at the rec level if you try to attempt this type of finish and you don't go up with the
racquet now you have very little chance to get that ball over the net consistently and also
when you get it over the net depth is going to be lacking okay so i'm going to try out the around
the waist finish and the first one i'm going to apply heavy topspin and see what that feels like
that was actually a ten and under ball let me try it again heavy tough spin and go around the waist
it feels okay but i prefer actually around the elbow it feels a little bit
awkward for me to bring my arm down i kind of feel something up here
in my shoulder area it's just not something that i'm used to and now let me try to hit more of a
flat topspin forehand i'm not going up with the racket and let's see what that feels like
yeah guys the only way this around the waist finish works is if the racket
the tip is going up over the ball so this is a finish that only works with a heavy
topspin forehand let me try one more time so if i go up now it's okay to go around at the waist
so there you have it those are the five finishes on the forehand now remember what i said in
the beginning every player at the high level utilizes different finishes depending on the
situation they're in and also every player has their finish that they're most comfortable with
that for example they use when they're just warming up hitting the ball back and forth
or when they're positioned really well in the court so when it comes to the recreational level
you definitely need to find a finish that's comfortable for you you need to find a finish
that you're going to be that you're going to be using all the time where you can develop the
muscle memory that you need so you can call this type of finish off in match situations what i've
seen with a lot of my high level players is that they learn these special finishes according to
situations that they're in completely intuitively so naturally they will start getting the racket
over the head they don't necessarily practice this naturally they will swing the racket around
the waist when they need to however i will say that at the recreational level especially
for players who started playing tennis later in life learning these type of finishes intuitively
based on the situation that they're in is less likely to happen so i also advise you to practice
the reverse forehand i have a video on the reverse forehand you can check it out
and i also want you to practice going around the waist now you're probably thinking nick why well
because a lot of players don't practice high balls and there's going to be certain situations where
the racket will travel from high to low on your forehand for example if you're closer to net and
you get a high ball you will have to bring that racket down a little bit so while it is crucial
that you find a finish that's comfortable for you you also want to practice those special finishes
and like i said in this video what i teach to my students is to find their finish naturally however
i will say that the best finish is the finish that goes around the shoulder i'm also okay with the
finish that goes around the elbow with the caveat that does require a proper swing path this is the
reason why i call the around the shoulder finish the best swing path because it is a versatile
finish you can easily hit the ball more with a flat top spin swing path and finish around here
but you can also apply heavy topspin like djokovic does and have the racquet tip go up and across and
then still finish around the shoulder like this so for that reason the around the shoulder finish
is the best finish on the forehand there is especially at the recreational level