Hi guys Nick here from Intuitive Tennis. In today's video we're going to cover
the classic forehand. Before I break down the classic forehand piece-by-piece I
want you to first take a look at some of the great champions from the past.
Players such as Rod Laver, Martina Navratilova, Chris Evert, John McEnroe,
Jimmy Connors, and Ivan Lendl take a look at how these great champions used
to hit the forehand.
Well let's start off with a grip. So the grip on a classic forehand is mostly
going to be a continental grip. Players back in the day didn't really change the
grip from the forehand to the backhand. In addition to that players back in
those days were predominantly serve and volleyers. So the grip is pretty much
the same for the forehand and the backhand. Ivan Lendl was one of the first
players to have more of a eastern grip on the forehand and after him the grip
obviously kept shifting more and more towards the semi-western and the western side.
The arm structure on a classic forehand was mostly a straight arm
structure and this is related to the grip. So if I'm in a continental grip and
if I have a bent arm it's not gonna work because what happens is with a classic
forehand in a continental grip we cannot hit the ball too far in front
if you look at from this angle, the further in front I go on a
continental grip the more difficult it becomes to close the racket. You see the
racquet naturally and wants to open up the further in front I go. So the contact
is gonna have to be further behind almost next to the body like this and if
I now had a bent arm on this shot it would put me even further
behind. So this would be an impossible shot. The bent on forehand with a
continental grip simply does not work. So the arm structure on almost all classic
forehands back in the day was a straight arm structure.
The take-back is somewhat related to the grip and the arm structure on the
classic forehand. So what happens is because we have a straight arm and a
contact that's going to be further behind and we're not going to have a
loop in the swing. We're gonna just maintain the straight arm from beginning
to end. So the player is in a ready position like this and then he will take
it back straight like this this is what the players used to do Jimmy Connors,
John McEnroe, Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova.
There was no looping action like this because look if I loop and my arm
naturally wants to go in a bend I'm not going to loop the racquet with a
straight arm like this. So the players back in the day simply in a continental
grip would just take the racket straight back something like this.
We already covered the contact is very much related to the way the players
used to hold the racket in the continental grip but I want to just give
you one more comparison between the way the contact is on a modern forehand and
the way the contact was on a classic forehand. So one big misconception
when it comes to the classic forehand is that the contact was in a sideways
position like this. So if you imagine me playing this way if the net was in front
of me this way. One misconception is that the players used to stay
sideways on the shot. This is not true, you saw the slow-motion footage of all
the great players Rod Laver etc. Even Rod Laver would hit the majority of his forehands
open stance and at contact the chest that would be facing towards
the net. So the best players back in the day even though they had a classic
forehand they would still make contact with their chest parallel to the
net and there were not sideways what is most commonly believed. On the modern
forehand the contact is even more in front where the on right-handers the
right shoulder will be in front of the left shoulder. This was not possible back
in a day. With a continental grip we wouldn't be able to achieve a contact
this far in front, because like I said you would not be able to close the
racquet face properly because of the continental grip. So the contact was
somewhere around here next to the body but the chest was facing towards the net.
It wasn't as far in front as the players today but it was a still a contact
that was in front of the body.
The finish on the classic forehand was much shorter than the finish on a
modern forehand, the way the players hit it today. The finish would
rarely go past the point of the shoulder. Usually the players would finish
somewhere around here. They would abruptly stop the stroke, so it was overall
a shorter swing path. The players didn't go all the way around like this.
Like the players do today they would abruptly stop the stroke somewhere
around here and was this also means is that the stroke because of this
shorter finish also had less rotation. There was a rotation in the beginning
phase of the classic forehand but there was a lot less rotation in the end stage
and therefore the classic forehand had a lot less power compared to the modern
forehand. The classic forehand does not have as much rotation as the modern
forehand, however it is still a circular swing and not a linear swing. We
already talked about the contact. So when the contact is with the chest
facing towards the net like this and now the upper body rotation is going to
continue. Not as far as it would be on a modern forehand but it is still a
rotational stroke with an across the body type of swing path. So if let's
look at it again. It's a straight take back like that with a shoulder turn and
now the racquet comes around and the contact is somewhere around here and
then the hand and the body continues to rotate to this side. So it is not as
much of a rotational swing as it's today but it's still a rotational swing.
In addition to the classic forehand being a rotational shot it was also a shot that
was performed mostly in a open stance position. Even the great Rod Laver who
played in the 60s would hit the majority of his forehands in an open stance
position. Not as often as the players do it nowadays, where the open stance
forehand is probably hit 90 percent of the time, but still even back in those
days in the wooden racket era, the open stance forehand was very predominant and
the open stance forehand depends mostly on the penetration of the
incoming ball. If you're interested I can post a link to my open stance versus
closed dance video where I discuss the open stance and the closed stance
forehand in detail.
If you are a recreational player and have a classic forehand should you
switch to a modern forehand? Well this is going to depend on the individual and
let's just take a John McEnroe for example. Should John McEnroe switch
forehand to a modern forehand? Well absolutely not. He could possibly ruin
his forehand if he all of a sudden tried to do a semi-western grip or he tried to
add a loop to his forehand. This is absolutely unnecessary, John McEnroe has
all the fundamental elements that are required for a good forehand, it just
happens to be a classic forehand with a continental grip and a more straighter
take back and less of a finish. However, there is a chance that your recreational
forehand might not look as good as John McEnroe's forehand and what happens
often at the recreational level, in addition to having these classic
characteristics of strokes, players will have a straight take back, they will
have a old-school continental grip and the players will often be sideways at
contact and this is possibly the number one a mistake of the recreational level.
So a classic forehand will not work in a sideways position. You take all these
great champions they have a contact with the chest pointing towards the towards
the net. So your classic forehand needs to have the fundamental elements of a
good forehand and what are those? It's a good preparation with a shoulder turn
and the take-back, it doesn't need a loop necessarily. It can be a straight take
back and this stroke needs to have a rotation. The stroke is a rotational
stroke and so if you used to playing the ball sideways like this you must learn
to open the stroke up a little bit and rotate your shoulders and make contact
somewhere around here and then try to finish as much as you can.
I'm gonna try to hit a few classic forehands with a continental grip, with a
straighter take back and I'm gonna try to keep my arm as straight as possible
and then a more shorter abrupt finish and I'll try to make contact with my
right shoulder in front. So let's see how it goes.
I have left out the great champions Borg and Vilas out of this classic
forehand lesson on purpose, because these two guys are the fathers of the modern
forehand. So tune in 2 weeks from now when I cover the modern forehand. 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.