hey guys in today's video i'm going to talk about forehand power and there are four main
power sources on the forehand before i get into the technical details of these power sources i
want to preface this video by saying that power is irrelevant if the forehand does not have control
and it's those players who combine control with power who have the greatest forehands of all time
players such as fernando gonzalez marat safin pete sampras james blake and of course the big three
djokovic nadal and federer have amazing forehand that have those characteristics in common they
have incredible control accompanied by incredible power and the first power source on the forehand
is swing momentum in other words the racket will pick up momentum as it's going through the swing
and there are some interesting characteristics about this swing momentum and one is that the
racket will actually pick up more momentum if we make a lower contact so if i feed this ball
and allow the racket to drop lower the ball will have more power
and the reason for that is simply
that the racket will have more range of motion as it's dropping to a lower place now unfortunately
it's not good to hit the ball below your waist because now it's gonna be very difficult to get
it inside the baseline because we have to hit the ball up but this is something that you want
to keep in mind that you will have more power if the racket drops lower so there's a disadvantage
to take the ball higher you will have less swing momentum when the contact is occurring
at your chest height for example then at your waist height so it turns out that the waist height
contact point on the forehand is the optimal way to strike the ball when it comes to swing momentum
guys another source of power on the forehand is the incoming ball so we can
create a lot more speed on our forehand if we get to use the power from the incoming ball
now this of course requires good timing so if the power of the incoming ball overwhelms us we make
bad timing then of course we don't make a lot of power but if we can time the ball well
and redirect this power we can use the speed of the incoming ball to generate more pace on our
forehand one example is the fastest forehand of all time hit by james blake at the u.s open
where he basically took a full cut on his forehand return it was actually on match point and he hit
it off a 130 mile an hour serve and this is recorded as the fastest forehand in the history
of the game so the speed of the incoming ball can help us generate a lot more power on the forehand
and one example i want to show you is what happens when we take the ball in the air versus letting it
bounce because what happens when the ball hits the ground the ground actually absorbs a lot of
the energy from the ball and reduces the speed so take a listen to when i hit a forehand out of the
air as a swing volley versus a forehand where the ball is bouncing there's a significant difference
in speed and it's simply due to the higher pace of the incoming ball on the swing volley
so you can see that the speed of the incoming ball is a significant factor when it comes to the pace
of our forehand and the reason why i discovered this was sometimes my lessons my students would
spray the ball long and i would just for fun take a full cut from behind the baseline with a full
swing and i noticed there was probably a five to ten mile an hour difference versus letting
the ball bounce with that same type of swing one disclaimer i don't advise you to start taking full
cuts at fast balls ala james blake because this is most likely going to go bad because it does
require a very fast preparation and incredible timing but generally speaking just picture
yourself playing against a dinker or a pusher and you have a very hard time generating power and then
when you play someone who hits the ball a little bit harder a little bit cleaner you feel like
you're playing better the only reason why this is happening is the pace of the incoming ball
is a factor when it comes to the pace of your own shot and the third power source on the forehead
is vertical momentum so high level forehands will often bend the torso down creating a v formation
between the outside leg or the inside leg in some instances but the vast majority of the forehands
at the high level are struck from the dominant leg and so the upper body will slightly bend
forward in the loading phase you will see a lot of players slightly go down and obviously they're not
going to hit the ball from this position and stay down this will be very counter-intuitive to the
swing path so naturally what's going to happen as the racket starts hitting the forward phase
the body will start straightening and it's going to straighten so violently from this vertical
momentum that in most of the cases the non-dominant leg will lift off the ground as a result of it
a little bit more challenging to load in this way and then make a little bit higher contact i made a
separate video explaining vertical momentum on the forehand in great detail and if you're interested
check it out and this is definitely something that you do want to add to your forehand and lastly the
most important power source on the forehand is the horizontal rotational momentum which helps
us connect the ball to our core and this is how it's going to work we're going to be in a sideways
position with our non-dominant hand across the body and now the important part when it comes to
the horizontal momentum is that it's going to be initiated prior to the forward phase of the racket
so back in the day where players didn't have a loop they would take the racket straight back
and now racket and the torso would rotate together and now as a result of that the contact was made
with the shoulders parallel to each other this is the old school forehand a la john mcenroe
or jimmy connors the modern forehand has a torso rotation that leads the way in other words
the non-dominant arm will start getting out of the way prior to the forward phase so as the racket is
dropping this arm is going to start getting out of the way initiating the rotation of the torso
so that when we hit the forward phase our chest is going to be pointing towards the ball so it's
a much more open position as a result of that now we get to pull with our core towards the
ball we continue to rotate and make contact with the dominant shoulder in front
and are able to connect this ball to the core much more compared to the old school forehand
now if you're interested in finding out how this works in great detail check out my video titled
the kinetic chain on the forehand this explains it step by step how this is done and guys this
rotational momentum is crucial not only when it comes to power but when it also comes to the
control because it can help our swing path in fact the vertical and the horizontal momentum
can help the modern up across and back swing path because think about it if we load the body in this
way where we're bending slightly down and now we're also going to rotate and straighten at the
same time this happens simultaneously so are we rotating and straightening so the body is starting
to go up this will help the racket go up because let's face it as i said in the beginning of the
video power is irrelevant if it doesn't have control and this type of setup on the forehand
doesn't only help with power but it also helps to control because the upward swing path puts
more rotation on the ball and therefore gives us a lot more control so guys it is of the utmost
importance that you execute your forehand with the horizontal momentum because as i said it's not
only going to help your power but it's also going to help you control and this leads me to the next
point which is the most important point control is the most important thing on the forehand you
shouldn't even worry about your forehand depending on your level so let's say if you're a beginner
control and feel of the ball is the most important thing because what will happen on the forehand as
you start controlling the ball as you get this happy feeling of the ball going in consistently
you're going to trust your forehand more and then as you progress in the stages of tennis your
confidence is going to grow and you're going to trust that you can hit the forehand harder without
missing it and this is exactly how power should be developed on the forehand or on any other shot
and tennis it should happen very gradually and slowly so don't go out there try to hit the ball
hard try to rip it this will bring you absolutely nothing what you should do instead is work on your
control first make sure the balls are going in and then gradually over time your trust and confidence
is going to grow that eventually you can hit your forehand with power and control at the same time