Hey everyone, Simon here with Top Tennis Training and in this video, I want to
show you how to hit an ATP style forehand. There are a few things that you
want to focus on Tachi hit an ATP star forehand and the first thing is because
our swing is more compact because our swing
stays on the right side of our body we have to use the body a segment to
generate more power so this means the legs
this means a trunk and this means that Coyle and uncoil so the first step to
hitting an ATP style forehand is to have a great unit turn that great coil at the
start of the swing
you
so in that ready position I'm waiting with my forehand grip and as soon as I
recognize the balls coming to my forehand my initial step will be turning
and coiling my trunk muscles so I want to fill my trunk muscles stretching from
this position here
so coiling up the upper body and really storing the energy in the trunk muscles
what this will do is later on when you start that forward phase of the swing
and you actually uncoil you'll have a massive amount of power from your
abdominal muscles in particular the oblique muscles the side abdominal
muscles responsible for rotation of the upper body
you so that's the first thing that we want
to focus on having that great coil and to really Zone in on this take away the
ball take away heading again somebody just do shadow swings from that ready
position you can do this in front of a mirror if possible and all you're doing
is coiling the upper body as soon as you want to start that swing so split step
coil split step coil and when I'm turning I'm feeling my abdominal muscles
really squeezing and coiling as I'm doing that turn so once again split step
coil split step coil split step coil step number two is then keeping the
racquet always on the right side of my body
you
I'm gonna show you a drill how to actually in greener into your game now
if you're watching me from this position if I take my racquet behind my back
you'll see the racket now is on the left side of my body for an ATP style
forehand we don't want this to happen what we want to happen is we keep the
racket on the right side of our body the entire time so instead of having the
racket come behind I'm keeping the racket on this side of
my body and once again I can do this simply by doing shadow swings so now
instead of just the coil I'm also going to have the coil and the power position
so split step coil power position split step coil power position and you might
be thinking what is the power position now if we look at most players on the
ATP Tour when they reach that back position they have the racket head
higher than the grip so the racket head is in that position like so
then on hitting hand this is the left hand if you're right-handed is across
the body because of that coil and because it's helped with the preparation
now it's in line with a baseline more or less and I have that full body turn and
I'm loading up on the legs now this normally means loading up on your
outside leg this is the right leg so this might be for the open or the semi
open stance but even if you're stepping in with the neutral stance you'll still
have the body weight on the back leg in that position and then your step forward
with this left leg and you'll have their weight transfer on the weight forward
so once again we're looking at right head being higher than the grip level
rackets on the side of my body left hands across my body and I'm stirring up
the energy on that back leg after you think about it in terms of a clock if
I'm looking forward at my opponent or at a net that would be twelve o'clock six
o'clock would be right behind me directly behind me now when we get to
this power position you can go to four or five o'clock on that imaginary clock
so let's imagine this is a clock now and facing you facing the camera would be
twelve o'clock when I take my racket into that power position I want to keep
my racket at either four or five o'clock some ATP players like Djokovic will take
it back to around six o'clock even Wawrinka sometimes does this
but in general you'll want to keep it around four or five o'clock and if you
pass six o'clock that then becomes like a WK style forehand where the racket
breaks the left side of the body so now I'm facing 12 o'clock with my racket
head as I coil up the upper body I'm now at two o'clock I'm now at three o'clock
around 2 or 3 o'clock you'll separate the hands so I'm turning I'm separating
the hands now and now around 4 to 5 o'clock with my right hand and my left
hand is either at 2:00 or 3:00 o'clock so I'm in that position in the power
position of my forehand now another way you can work on this ATP style for hand
to keep the racket on the right side of the body all you do is Shadow those 4
hands on the net so all I'm doing is shadowing my 4 hands and if I end up
touching the nape of my racket and I've gone behind my body's line in that
imaginary six o'clock position so I'm in that position here if I hit the net and
I've gone too far so
it's a simple way for you to feel that connection on the right side of your
body only your only swinging on the right side of your body if you're a
left-handed player will be exact thank me now I'd like to use the neutral
stance when I'm doing this drill if I have the open stance it's quite easy for
me in turn I actually break the body's line but because of the racket like
position end up hitting the net whereas with the neutral stance it's easier for
me even when I have the racket lag it's away from my body it's away from the net
so once again in that position and I can do hundreds of these in a very short
amount of time to really incorporate that ATP style swing on the right side
of my body but once again from this angle
and this is a great drill if you're a junior player this is a great drill if
you're working with junior players if you're a coach or you're a tennis parent
get your kids to come up if they're tall enough of course and simply shadow their
forehand on the right side of their body and before we get into the final step
the last step of the ATP star forehand I just want to say if you want to download
our free forehand guards our PDF to hitting an ATP star forehand I'll leave
the link below this video so all you have to do is click on that link enter
your email address and we'll send you that free pdf right away so the last
step is now you've had that coil you're using the body you're using the legs
we've now kept the racquet on the right side and now the final step is to get
that racket lag as much as possible prior to contact now what is lag so
after the power position we then have the racquet dropping down some coaches
will call this the Pat the dog position from here you now have the racket head
lagging behind the grip and the wrist
you
so the bottom of my racket ends up pointing towards the oncoming ball so in
this position you'll see Federer you've seen the Dow you'll see most of the big
four hands now there'll be variations you'll have some players like a Federer
who will have his arm extended all the way or close to full extension and
you'll have other players like Djokovic with their elbow bent
do you have those two variations you can have the extended arm or you can have
the bent arm and either one is fine as long as you're achieving some degree of
like what you don't want to happen is to get to that position and then be stiff
on this forward face because look at what happens to my racket now it's
coming in line with my wrist and I won't have much power and that indicates that
I'm very tight and very tense and I'm very stiff with the wrist and this will
cost me power instead of actually giving me power so in that position from here
now I start to uncoil and at the same time you can see what happens with my
racket it lags back behind the grip and behind
my hand
this position now I'll then end up hitting the ball out in front of me
could be with the extended arm or if the bent arm I want to still make contact
out in front there's many variations of the for hunt finish that we've covered
in other videos as well now to achieve that racket lag you have to be loose you
have to have the right biomechanics and also you want to work on it now some
players ask me is racket like natural yes it's natural for some place some
players just have it I have some four-year-olds some five-year-olds who
get into a very good racket like position and I have never taught them
that position but they have the right biomechanics and they're using the body
in the correct way so they achieve this racquet lag quite easily and quite
naturally for other players you'll have to work on it you'll have to ingrain
yourself to get into that position that doesn't mean you want to get to that
position and then force your wrist into that back position because then you're
creating tension you want to be loose into that position and a great drill
attaching corporatist is to simply take a ball and instead of imagining hitting
with your strings you're now going to hit the ball with the bottom of the
racquet I'm in that power position I'm gonna drop the ball instead of hitting
the ball with the strings I'm hitting it with the butt cap of the racket like so
so power position and butt cap it might even be off your palm or the heel pad of
your hand that's fine as well positioned hit with the bottom of the racket yeah
yeah and you want to achieve this in a loose and relaxed way don't be stiff
when you're doing this trying to be loose try to be relaxed and still
achieve that actual flag and making contact with the vodka now the next step
to this drill is to hit one with the butt cap of the racket followed by an
actual forehand with the strings so it's going to look like so power position but
cap followed by power position strange our position right cap power position
string so there you have it I hope you've enjoyed this video if you have
give it a thumbs up please subscribe to the channel
turn on the notification bill so you get notified if you want more help of your
forehand download our free four hand guide but if you want to get really deep
into the forehand this includes the entire mechanics of the forehand to
forward stances the different ways you can produce more power and more spin or
to hit a flatter shot the different grips and all areas of the forehand
we have an entire forehand a course it's called the forehand revolution and I'll
also leave the link to that course beneath this video signing off
Simon from TTP all the best guys and see you soon stay safe