all right this is a before and after analysis of thomas's forehand the top video shows them
in the summer and this was the first time i looked at his forehand there were a few things
that i didn't think were major issues but thomas wanted to have more acceleration and more topspin
on the ball and there were a couple of things that prevented him from doing so so let's jump right in
so if we're looking at his swing path that's the first thing that i want to
point out is right at this point we have the racket head above the hand that is ideal we have
the racket face pointing to the outside that is good as well but for a top spin for a heavier
topspin you would want the racket face pointing down a little bit more so that the frame of
the racket basically points over here a little bit more this is more of a classic forehand i
was always taught when i was a little kid to be able to balance a penny on the top frame and i
think when we're looking at the full swing here that would be true for thomas's forehand there's
nothing per se wrong with that it's just that you're not getting a whole lot of topspin on
the ball when you have a more linear swing so we're seeing that here it's a fairly shallow
swing a fairly straight forward swing up to contact point here and that's difficult then
when you're never getting your racket face pointing down and the racket head below your wrist
a whole lot to then being able to swing up more steeply because that is how you get more topspin
and then if you you know really accelerate um when you have a flatter stroke that's when
balls are launching so that is what we talked about that the racket head needs to drop a little
bit lower so ideally in this position in the lock-in position you would want the racket head
here if i'm drawing this correctly you want the racket head a little bit
more below the wrist and ideally the face would look down a little bit more so that you can brush
up steeper and get more topspin on the ball the second thing that i thought was something
that thomas can improve on is as you're seeing here when he's making contact his
shoulder is preceding the hip and when we're talking about the kinetic chain that comes
from the energy comes from the ground up the hip should be at least level with the right
shoulder so in other words this almost looks to me like you're again going with the old teaching stay
sideways hold your side so that is something that we talked about that you wanted to change
by keeping your right shoulder a little bit more connected and then lastly to get a little bit more
heavier load into the back leg so that your stride then is a little wider than shoulder width because
that allows you to really get more body weight into the ball whereas right now it still looks
again this is the older video the older forehand that when your right hip comes forward it's more
as an effort to catch your balance and that is obviously not what the function of the hip is
so let's look at how you implemented those tips
so this is good separation here of the left arm and the racket face here is pointing to
us it's above the wrist that's exactly what we want and we wanted a little bit of a lower drop
and let's see if that happens so it's a little bit of a bummer that we don't
have more frames in the recording because you can't really see it as well but i do want to
say that there is a little bit of a lower drop so at the lowest point here
that's a little lower and there is a steeper upswing and that's what you want to get more
topspin so there is a difference between what we saw in the upper video and the lower video
ideally ideally thomas you would have the racket face a little bit lower here so again that the
racket face is basically below your wrist at the lock in position again butt cap pointing to the
incoming ball and the reason again for that is just very very simple the lower you have
your racket face down here and if it's pointing a little bit further down that makes it even easier
the more you're able to really brush up to the ball where i think you made the biggest change is
that it feels to me it looks to me a lot more balanced so the connection of the
hip and of the shoulder is better so if we look at that you're coming forward here
there so the shoulders all the way rotating
and your right hip comes through with it so this connection of right hip right
shoulder is a lot better to my mind and you're not having to reach as much
and you're getting more angular momentum here and movement which means that you're basically
rotating around the axes of your body and that is again also a trade mark of a more modern forehand
as opposed to a quote unquote classic forehand that was more linear so let's look at that one
more time so you're coming around here nicer you still have extension on the ball that has never
gone away that should never go away but you're coming around or over the ball and then around
more easily so that is definitely an adjustment that you made and i
think that is really good now here is what i would like on every ball if possible so it
looks like that last ball that you're getting up here is a little shorter and you're doing a
really good job getting up to the ball and not reaching to it but you see this here
this is where you're loading your outside leg for you the right leg because you're right-handed and
see how you're striding into that ball here so this is clearly wider than shoulder width
right so you see that stride here and you're getting a lot more body weight into that ball
and you can brush up to that ball and some of the other ones it looks a little bit more like
your older forehand where you're not getting quite as much stride into the ball so not quite as much
body weight into your shot so that is something i think that you can continue to work on
so on this one i think you're doing a much better job getting under the ball there see how low that
racket head is so that is a better example again it's blurry so we can't really tell as much
but it looks to me like you're having a much steeper swing path and that is what you wanted
to work on and that is what you're creating here so in all i think you did a good job for the short
amount of time to implement some of these changes and this is something that i think we should never
underestimate since you're not a pro player you're not going out there you know eight hours
a day to make those changes they will always be incredibly incremental so i didn't expect
you to all sudden you know look like a totally different player but i think you did a really good
job implementing some of those things and there's still some things that you can continue to work on