Hey everyone Simon here from Top Tennis Training and in this video, I want to
help you hit a perfect forehand in five simple steps. So the first thing we're
going to talk about is the grips. Now if you use a western grip on your forehand
you'll get a lot of topspin but it will be hard for you to generate the power so
you don't really want to be hitting with the Western grip if you've got the
eastern flowing grip which is much further around like this now I can
generate a flatter shot and more power but I won't be able to generate the same
topspin as the grip that we recommend which is a semi-western grip
now the semi-western grip is like this from here I can spin the ball but I can
also hit through the ball so now you have your grip you're ready for step
number one which is having a perfect ready position now if we look at
Djokovic Federer and Nadal let's watch they're ready position right now
so there you could see that all three players have the racket head hired in
the grip level they're waiting with their forehand grip and this is because
they want to hit their four hands around 60 to 70% of the court can be covered
with your forehand especially if you're a little bit quicker you can even cover
further into the back and wait so you want to wait with the forehand grip and
you want to hit as many fines as possible so you're waiting with the
forehand grip you're non-healing hand this is my left hand because I'm a
right-hander is on the throat of the racket like so or on the grip if I'm a
two-handed backhand player some two handers will still hold the fruit of the
racket as it allows to really pull back the wrist in that position either way
it's fine but just make sure that the racket head is higher than the grip
because this is going to create that leverage right from the start of the
stroke now what exactly is leverage so leverage is force over the ball the more
force I have over the ball the more power I can get the more spin I can get
the more control I can get on that shot if I don't have much leverage there's
going to be hard for me to generate power there's going to be hard for me to
overcome the power of the oncoming ball and it's also going to be hard for me to
generate the the topspin so I want to have force over the ball and a great way
to have this is by creating that leverage in the racket the wrist and the
arm now notice that the racket is hired in the grip level because later in a
stroke you want to reach a power position similar to this and once you're
set up in this position this allows for a very quick unit turn a very quick
shoulder turn and reaching that power position becomes much easier if I start
with my racket down here takes a little bit longer to reach that position but by
starting up here it's very easy for me to get into that power position so step
number one holding the racket head higher in the grip level like so in your
forehand grip so step number two - the perfect forehand now that you've seen
that the boss coming to your forehand do you want to turn your left shoulder if
you're a right-handed player so my left shoulder is now turning to
the oncoming ball or to the net
so that left shoulder what this will help me is with the racket preparation
if I do nothing with my arm if I do nothing with my hand and I just turn my
left shoulder now I already have the racket half way back so right from the
beginning I'm already half way prepared for the
stroke so from the front it's going to look like this so that left shoulders
turning I'm still holding the throat of the racket and this is going to help
keep the right hand relaxed and loose if I don't hold it there's going to be a
lot of tension in my wrist because of the position of the racket head so by
holding it it keeps my arm relaxed keeps my muscles loose and that's what I want
to have I want to have a loose arm will have relaxed muscles so that I can
generate the power later in the swing so once you have step number one which is
good ready position step number two the unit turn the left shoulder turning
sideways on and step number three is now reaching a perfect back position or
power position
so the power position is where the left hand is across the body almost in line
with a baseline if this was the baseline here my left hand is now across the body
like this this is creating that great unit turn it's also coiling the upper
body so my side of my obliques which are the side abdominal muscles by coming
across with my left hand I'm now stretching and coiling the upper body
today and uncoil when I open up for the stroke so my left hands across the body
this could also help with the tracking of the ball my racket head is still
hired in the grip which is creating that great leverage in the back position here
and as you can see I'm not too close to my body I have a lot of space between my
racquets and my body a lot of players you'll see them hitting a ball from down
here and they end up jammed up at contact because of the a bar being
tucked in when they reach that back position so you want to have space
between the elbow and the torso of the body so I don't want to be here I want
to have a good space I'm not taking the racket too far back behind my body's
line now a lot of the WTA players they will end up taking the racket further
behind the body thread it behind the back so from the front you end up seeing
the racket on the left side of the body here now this is because women in
general are more flexible and also they want to hit the ball a little bit harder
and they're not normally they're not as strong as the guys so to generate that
same power they take the racket further back and it also changes the swing path
so hits a you hit a flatter ball when you're coming from behind the body this
way so WTA players tend to hit the ball flatter whereas the ATP players tend to
hit the ball a little bit more with topspin so what I would recommend is
keeping the racket on your right side of the body if you're a right-handed player
so you keeping the racket out here if you're a right-handed player so left
hand across the body hired in the grip level and in that
position now I'm very relaxed I'm not actually there's no tension in my arms
or my wrists so in this position I'm very relaxed if I was to drop the racket
head down here I would lose that same power and that leverage so by having the
racket hit higher I now have more space to accelerate the racket but without
taking my racket behind my body's line and step number four is now generating
good racket lag on your forehand so from this position because the racket head is
higher than the grip I've now set myself up for a very good racket lag so from
here the body starts to open up the coil uncoil motion starts to happen and then
if I'm relaxed and very loose with my wrists and with my arm I should reach a
position similar to this where the bottom of the racket is now pointing to
the oncoming ball and let's have a look at Federer doing this in the doubt doing
this and countless others
so there you can see all the plants pointing the racket head like this
some with more extended arms like Federer he has a lot of space between
the racket head and the body some players are more tucked in what's the
racket a little bit closer to the body with the double bend in the elbow and
the wrist either way they're still reaching that position where the bottom
of the racket is pointing to the oncoming ball and they have the racket
heads lagging behind the butt cap off the racket so to achieve this we don't
want to force it now a lot of players they'll end up going out and trying to
force that position if you constantly force that position you're putting a lot
of stress on your wrist and you very well may end up with a injury in that
wrist now you own this racket like to happen in an in a natural relaxed way
you don't want to be forcing it every time you hit a shot but by starting the
swing with your racket head in this position now you can see my wrist is
already kind of caught back in that starting position later in the swing
it's much easier for me to then find the racket lags because my wrist is already
slightly back if I started with my racket level with my hand and I take the
racket back like this and now from here I want to then achieve this position
it's much harder than if I start with my racket head higher and then just allow
that racket to just lagged behind the grip in that forward momentum so once
again you don't want to force it you want it to happen naturally but by
having step number one and step number three which is the perfect power
position you're really setting yourself up for step number four the racket lag
and step number five now you've made contact way in front of your body so if
you're if you play off a bit more for Bend you
hit the ball somewhere here if you play a little bit more with the extended arm
you're gonna hit the ball somewhere out there you've hit the ball out in front
you've found the nice contact point you'd hit the topspin if you want or you
flatten out depending on the stroke now we want to have a good finish a good
follow for it a common thing that I see a lot of players doing is they'll do
everything right in the backswing and as they make contact they slow down or they
even stop so as they make fun that they slow down and they don't finish the
swing now let's take a look at some of the best players how they finish
now there are many different ways to finish you can finish with your racket
above your left shoulder like this you can finish across the chest
you can finish much lower down by your left hip you can even do in the Dow
finish where you go more like the last sue forehand
either way you want to have a good follow-through and the reason we have a
good follow-through is during the contact zone if I'm hitting the ball
here from this position to this position I don't really want to be slowing down
if I'm doing more for topspin shot I still don't want to be slowing down
during the contact zone I want to be accelerating through the contact point
if I'm stopping just after the contact point I'm gonna lose the control to
stroke so by accelerating through I'm now forced to finish around my body
either up like this or across my left shoulder like this now the other very
important reason that we want to have a good follow-through a good finish is if
I constantly stop out here just as the contact imagine the stress that's being
placed on my wrist my elbow and my shoulder now over time if I'd constantly
do that I mean I'm gonna end up with an injury now by having that good
follow-through you're allowing the muscles to relax in a natural way and in
a way that's healthy for them you don't want to be doing that quick stop here
forcing the racket to stop in an unnatural way you want the racket to
stop by reaching the end of the swing
you
so let's go over the steps once again step number one a good ready position
with the racket head hired in the grip level which is creating that leverage
right from the start of the stroke but also allowing the wrist to cock back
slightly step number two the unit turn the use of the left hand the use of the
left shoulder to start the preparation for the swing step number three reaching
a good power position step number four creating that racket lag by allowing it
to happen in a relaxed way step number five having a good follow-through
wherever wherever that may be so it may be across the body like so you might
want to do a more traditional up over the shoulder or you might want to do it
slightly lower now inside a forehand blueprint course we cover all of these
steps in much more detail and if you want to have more help on your forehand
if you want to get more power if you want to have more topspin if you want to
just have a better forehand in general technically and the result wise you can
find that link below this video I'll leave that linked to the forehand
blueprint course there you can also watch some more free videos and if you
want to join the full course you can also do that
so thanks for watching the video I hope you've enjoyed it and I hope you have
learned something new if you have enjoyed it please click that like button
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