Bremen on the forehand there is not enough body
involvement so when we rallied I saw you using the arm in isolation a lot
and there's two ways that you need to think about body involvement the prep
phase and the finished phase so on the prep phase you're actually not turning enough
you need to be in a situation where your chest is completely pointed towards the
side so in this case you're playing that way your chest has to be towards the side fence
on your forehanded chest is still pointing somewhat forward when you are taking your
racket back so you're not getting enough rotation into the contact because of that
naturally what should happen when you turn more it should be more rotation on the other
end as well we have to see but let's start with you turning a little bit more in the prep phase
okay how does that feel does that feel better okay so now you turned more
you're still making contact a little bit too far behind so in other words
like when you make contact with the ball this shoulder is behind this shoulder okay
so what needs to happen on the forehand is that when you go through your Loop and the
racket is dropping back here when you get towards the moment where the racket goes
forward so on the bottom portion of your racket drop when the racket is about to
go this way that's when you have to start opening up so when the racket goes forward
you can't be having your chest positioned to the side you have to be already forward
so mentally what you have to work on is opening up on that bottom portion
of the racket drop so that you can make contact with the dominant shoulder in front
let's recap what we have to do on the forehand we can't set up where we're open to the court
and not turned enough because now we're going to lack range of motion it's going to affect
the forehand badly in many different ways so we need to turn at least this amount chest to the
side fence and as you go through the stroke you need to open up a little bit sooner you do that I
really like on your forehand the swing path it's a topspin Swing path and I really like your finish
the good things is that the couple of the things that you have to fix are happening
in the prep phase and those things that you you can get them right every time
in other words sometimes it's tough to work on multiple things at once on the
shot because it happens so fast but you're gonna have plenty of time to do these two
things correctly so as soon as you see the ball going to your forehand you can right
away make this turn and separate the hands so well before you even initiate your take
back you can already get these first two things correct and you can get them correct every time
open up a little bit sooner Bremen you're too late on that
you're still too late open up sooner now
I'm gonna scream at you when it's time now
now
he's saying that because I'm late the open I understand so I had to change that yeah like
whenever I come here I'm waiting to the last second it's also connected to the incoming
ball and a second I'm going to feed your balls on the other side but the timing of actually
hitting is very important in the context of this type of forehand because here's what you have to
understand when you are doing the first two steps meaning when you're turning here and separating
you can do that very fast and very early so as soon as you see it it's going to be a forehand you
can do those two things but the actual stroke itself when you're taking your racket back
that should happen late I'm going to tell you why because if you do that part too early now you're
stuck in here and the racket's already pointing forward and you're breaking the sequence okay
so opening only when you have a little before contact point way before the contact Point that's
the thing then yeah when you look when you look at the pros the pros are making contact with this
side way in front like this that's where the pros make contact 95 of the time all of them
and not only the pros anybody that plays tennis like at a higher level they may contact there most
of the time so the only way to do that because they're not planning to do that this is just a
natural yeah result of the correct sequencing and it happens because when you start your Loop and
you're dropping your racket you're still sideways you're not opening yet you're still sideways now
you could start opening when you do this but now when you go forward you'll naturally make contact
further back because there's number one going to be less acceleration and you're going to have less
time to get this side in front so what happens on the players is that they drop the Racket and stay
sideways and on the very bottom portion of the drop is when they start opening up so that when
they hit this their chest is already open towards the court and then they continue to rotate into the
contact so that the dominant shoulder ends up in front of the non-dominant shoulder at the moment
of contact so when we're talking about opening up it has to happen prior to the forward phase
that's when you start opening up so mentally this is something that's a very subtle thing because
your racket is already traveling fast when it's catching the bottom phase and it's not something
that's an easy thing to learn so you really have to work on this feeling of being in front that's
how you're going to know you did this correctly and to get it you have to tell yourself to open
up sooner now one important caveat to that is and this is where a lot of Rec players make a
mistake when they try to adapt this teaching methodology is that when they start opening
they start opening too fast so they open on the bottom portion of the drop and they go too fast
here and now they're over rotating they're opening up too fast you have to understand that the rotation
tempo of the rotation has to match the tempo of the stroke and the tempo of the stroke is
not the same throughout the stroke so the racket goes slow here it starts speeding
up and then when it goes here it starts becoming very fast up to 100 miles an hour
at the pro level so when you're turning your shoulders you can't open up 100 miles an hour
you have to kind of open up slowly and then accelerate as you get closer to the
remember when I told you that the timing of the actual hit is so important when it comes to this
technique because when you wait to initiate the take back what will happen naturally is
that when you reach this phase that ball is literally going to be in front of your face
so you're going to reach the forward phase the ball is already going to be in front of you so
in other words there's going to be milliseconds separating the bottom portion of your racket the
butt cap and the ball and so in essence you have to accelerate super fast in order to make contact
with the ball if you don't the ball is going to pass you and you're going to miss it so what I'm
saying is this is going to happen intuitively if you do the correct sequence absolutely
maybe the best one you hit so far I really like that one
I really like that one that feel different if it felt more in front right
you feel the rotation good okay let me go on the other side so we can work a little
bit on the timing of the take back okay better turn a little more better
separate the hands a little bit elbow space elbow space better okay go again Bremen
go a little bit earlier here like when I when you see me feed the ball you go here like this you
prepare a little bit quicker
maybe my favorite one that was really good remember nice work man
that was a good looking forehand right there that was a lot better