Hey guys so on the forehand should we catch the racket when we finish or should we let
the racket finish uninterruptedly so it's going to depend a little bit on what type
of finish you have and there are five finishes on the forehand so we can go
like rafa around the head like this we can go around our neck like this we can go
around the shoulder we can go around the elbow or we can go around the waist
So guys obviously if we have a buggy whip finish like rafa there's absolutely no way to catch
the racket because everything's happening on the hitting side of the body also if you have
a around the waist finish like monfils or nick kyrgios there's no need to catch the racket
down here because this would put our non-dominant hand in an uncomfortable position and this could
potentially hurt our balance also if you have a finish like medvedev and the racket
is going around your neck it's going to be very uncomfortable to catch the racquet up that high
this would mean that the non-dominant hand would have to go way up to catch the racket up here and
this does not feel natural so if you have one of these finishes you should not try to catch
the racket now the two finishes where it's okay to catch the racket is the around the shoulder
finish and it can even be a little bit above the shoulder and also the around the elbow finish and
the reason why it's possible to catch the racquet on the finish for the around the shoulder finish
and the around the elbow finish is what happens to the non-dominant arm on the forehand so when we
initiate the torso rotation the non-dominant arm is not going to stay straight it's going to tuck
and most players will have the fingers spread in this way and the hand is going to point forward
so naturally someone with an around the elbow finish will simply catch the racket as the racket
goes to this side it's a very natural movement also if you have an around the shoulder finish
it doesn't take much effort to catch the racket up here so let me show you what that looks like
first the around the elbow finish kind of like federer who does catch his racket on the finish
and now the around the shoulder finish all i have to do is raise my hand a little bit upwards and
it's also very comfortable to catch the racket in this way and guys i'm sure you want to know
which pros catch the racket and which don't and it's really interesting because it doesn't really
apply to any generation of players so there are some next generation players that are catching the
rack and there's also some next generation players that are not catching the racket
and the same goes for some of the more old-school players the only correlation that i see was with
the type of finish that a particular player had so usually if a player has an around the waist type
finish there will be no catching of the racket and also if a player had a medvedev type around the
neck type finish i also did not find any players who catch the racquet with this particular style
so there were some variations on players who had an around the shoulder finish and then around the
elbow finish whether they're catching the racquet or not if you take a look at two players with
very similar forehands you're gonna see what i'm talking about so these guys strike the ball very
similarly so alexander zverev will go around the elbow like this and he will not catch the racket
he will naturally allow the racket to finish like this while on the other hand felix auger aliassime
will have a similar swing path as zverev and he will catch the racquet on his finish okay guys so
here are the players who do not catch the racket on their forehand these are kyrgios murray djokovic
nadal serena zverev medvedev sampras dimitrov and borg and now the players who catch the racket on
the forehand which was a surprising list and here it is del potro federer thiem tistsipas wawrinka auger
aliassime agassi and halep so guys this comes down to personal preference so obviously on the finish
around the waist it would be uncomfortable to catch the racquet down here and it might inhibit
the shot the same goes for the around the neck finish this will also be uncomfortable to catch
the racket up here but for the other finishes that are between the shoulder and the elbow it
really does not matter you have to realize that the stroke is over anyway at that particular
time so it doesn't matter whether you let the racquet swing out like this or whether you catch
the racquet with your non-dominant hand and what is very important on your forehand is a proper
finish so when you're finishing your forehand you have to make sure that you're rotating
all the way and that the racket is pointing towards the back fence and this is where a lot of
players misinterpret the catching of the racquet so what i see sometimes at the recreational level
is that players will catch the racket up here now the stroke is interrupted the rotation is
interrupted and you will not get enough power on a forehand that stops right here
So whether you catch your racket or not on a forehand that finishes between the shoulder and the elbow absolutely does
so whether you matter what does matter is that you finish the stroke all the way that the racket is pointing
towards the back fence and you do achieve a full rotation and what you should never do is catch
the racket in front and interrupt your stroke and guys one interesting thing that i discovered when
i was doing this research is that grigor dimitrov and roger federer do not have identical forehands
if you take a look at federer's forehand as we already discussed federer catches the racket
grigor dimitrov on the other hand does not catch the racquet he lets his racquet swing out freely
like this so contrary to popular belief dimitrov's forehand is not identical to federer's.