hey guys in today's video I want to talk about the top to bottom kinetic chain on the forehand
and this is quite contrary to what's commonly taught because most tennis coaches will teach the
opposite they teach that the kinetic chain starts from the ground up it starts from the legs it goes
into the hips then goes into the Torso into the shoulders and then finally transferring into the
arm and the wrist now what I teach is the complete opposite basically the kinetic chain starts with
your eyes you're going to be tracking the ball and then the hands start the movement on the forehand
and I already made a video about the kinetic chain that you can check out on my YouTube channel
I went into detail on how to perform the kinetic chain if you want to go even in more depth you
can sign up for intuitive tennis premium where I talk in more detail and how to perform the kinetic
chain on the forehand and if you want to go into the ultimate deep analysis of the forehand they
want to learn this step by step you can buy the intuitive forehand course where you will
not only learn the kinetic chain but everything that encompasses the complex stroke that is the
forehand and I received many DMS many emails from tennis coaches all around the world that adapted
my methodology and they started teaching the top to bottom kinetic chain to their students and they
were amazed at the results it simply made sense to these coaches they never liked the idea of
the forehand starting from the ground up hitting the forehand with the legs it didn't make sense
to them that's what they wrote to me it was always somewhat weird that a forehand is supposed to work
this way and once they watched my initial video on the kinetic chain it was like a light bulb moment
all of a sudden everything made sense they adapted this method started teaching it to their students
and the results were phenomenal not only for the coaches but for the students themselves many of
you guys who are watching adapted my version of the kinetic chain and you saw amazing results
but not only that but also a Simplicity in which a forehand is performed it made absolute sense
that that's how a forehand works you don't hit any tennis ball with your feet you hit it with
your hand now the racket is connected to the hand of course but the mental image of hitting with
your hand makes a lot more sense than the mental image of hitting with your legs and by focusing
on the eyes and the hands that is the best way to visualize how tennis is actually played now
let me show you a couple of instances where professional players actually do generate the
stroke from the ground up in other words the first thing that happens is the legs pushing against the
ground and you do see this from time to time on players like Kyrgios Monfils so even back in the day
marat safin and Marcelo Rios and it is the jumping forehand on the jumping forehand yes players are
going to jump first and that is going to be the first link in the chain and then everything else
will follow later let me try to demonstrate that so you're going to jump first
I can't even do it let me try it again this is a tricky thing to do so you're going to jump first
and then everything else is going to come later there is a jumping forehand
and that is indeed a shot that was initiated with the legs now let me try one more I'm going to try
to do a little better job and get higher in the air okay I'm getting old guys I can't
get much clearance but you see what I mean on that type of forehand yes you are going
to jump first and everything else that happens on the forehand it's going to follow later and
that is truly a forehand that is generated from the ground up and guys the reason why a lot of
coaches are proponents of the leg drive on the forehand because it does make sense why because
you see Elite level tennis players high level tennis players or even high level Juniors get
airborne so it makes sense that when players are getting Airborne that there is some kind
of a push being generated off the ground and that indeed is a jumping forehand but anybody
that has played tennis at the high level will tell you that you never jump on the forehand
this is something there's a conscious decision to perform a jumping forehand like the
terrible one that I just demonstrated that is a conscious thought when you don't think about
your legs and you play tennis at a high level you are indeed not driving with your legs the
only way a high level forehand works if the eyes and the hands are the first links in the chain
now the context that is missing when coaches analyze high-level forehands or Elite level
forehands is the incoming ball and the incoming ball matters a lot in how the forehand is going
to be performed so obviously if we're talking about the ATP Tour there's a tremendous amount of Spin
and the ball is bouncing very high what you will see however is that players still make
contact somewhere between their waist and their chest area this is the optimal contact on the
ATP Tour and players manage to make contact in this Zone on the vast majority of their forehands
now how do they do that when the ball is higher well they straighten their body so you will see
that players will become airborne as a result of adjusting to their desired contact point if they
didn't do that they will indeed strike the ball too high and this will have a negative effect on
their forehand I'm going to show you what happens to the feet when players strike a forehand so what
you will see is that the back foot will usually be behind the front foot and now when the feet
leave the ground you don't see a violent push off the ground where the players are exploding
upwards you will see this on a jumping forehand ala gael monfils what you will see on players like Nadal Djokovic
Federer Murray is that the feet passively leave the ground so the body starts to straighten you
will see the feet passively leave the ground with the tips of the shoes are still on the ground and
then the feet passively dangle in the air this is how players are getting Airborne on the forehand
they are not violently jumping up they are leaving the ground as a result of the entire kinetic chain
working in conjunction with a straightening of the body and that violent action makes them leap off
the ground passively now you ask yourself Nick why are you so sure that they are not actively jumping
well I know how to play tennis and I know that I leave the ground on my forehand all the time
when I hit it hard especially on a higher ball and I am not conscoiusly jumping but yet I am leaving
the ground and my feet are passively dangling in the air as well when I study professional players
and especially Elite level players I can see the same type of movements because fundamentally
this is what happens to everyone when the fundamentals are present when the kinetic chain
is executed from top to bottom in conjunction with a straightening of the body to adjust to
a higher ball this violent acceleration of the entire system will make players leave the ground
when players leave the ground it is not an active jump the feet are passively
dangling in the air why because players are not consciously jumping
they are being propelled off the ground by the acceleration of the whole system
now here's the important thing that you need to understand is that not
every ball is going to be high some balls are going to be waist height and players
will not leave the ground also some balls are going to be below the waist and players will
stay low you'll see this a lot on the WTA tour where balls tend to be a little bit flatter so you
cannot say that on those balls players are not executing the kinetic chain that's supposed to
start from the ground up no the kinetic chain always present on every single forehand what
players are doing they are adjusting their body to the incoming ball specifically to
the height of the incoming ball and they're either gonna stay down when the ball is low
when the ball is waist tight they are going to straighten a little bit and when the ball
is much higher they're gonna have to become airborne to make an optimal contact point
and another super important thing that you have to understand is the following you will
rarely have a situation when you're playing a match where you're going to be truly set the
vast majority of your forehands are going to be hit on the Run you're going to be moved in
all kinds of directions whether you're going laterally this way or this way maybe running
around your backhand whether you're going forward or backward you will rarely be set
like you are for example when you're warming up and therein lies the danger when you're studying
forehands when players are warming up they're in a stationary position this rarely happens in a
match so it will often happen is the following when players are truly hitting the ball on the
Run they will execute their kinetic chain while the feet are still moving in other words they
will not get a chance to set their feet they will truly hit the ball on the run so in those
scenarios is obvious is that the kinetic chain is not starting from the ground up it is truly
starting from the top down and this brings me to the next point which is that the feet
are the most important thing on every ground stroke obviously if you don't put yourself in
the perfect position you're not going to be able to hit the shot properly your Technique is going
to become irrelevant also you're going to have to have a good balance when you strike any shot
but especially the forehand so those things are absolutely true the feet are the most important
thing on the forehand or in any other shot in tennis but when we're talking about starting
the stroke from the feet obviously when we're on the run the stroke is not starting from the feet
the feet are adjusting to the ball finding the ball but the stroke starts from the top
and most importantly and this is something that's very easy to see when you study the
best players in the world is the late setup now if you want to know how timing works on
the forehand you can check out my video on that subject it's a great video it got more than
half a million views and I can give you a brief synopsis of this video what happens at the high
level is that players will wait to initiate the stroke so they can have a more continuous swing
and a faster swing but another thing that happens when players wait is that they keep setting up
for a long time prior to actually setting their feet so we're not talking about hitting the balls
truly on the run we're talking about situations where players are actually setting their feet
this will happen quite frequently so what you need to understand is that the setting
of The feet meaning when both feet are planted into the ground this will happen deep inside
the stroke meaning when that racket is already in a drop phase this is when players will set
so obviously when we're talking about the beginning of the kinetic chain the stroke starts it's
obviously not starting when the racket's already here this means that their stroke has already
started the kinetic chain has already started prior to the players setting their feet
you take a look at any high level player take a look at any Elite level player you will see
that what I'm saying is absolute hardcore fact players will set their stroke not only on the
forehand by the way on any shot deep inside the stroke somewhere in the racket drop area this is
where either this foot is going to set or this foot is going to set this will happen deep in
the stroke which means that the kinetic chain has already started prior to the feet setting
now a lot of you guys in my comments on Instagram especially like to talk about firing the hip this
is something that's very popular firing the hip as some kind of an initiator to the stroke but
I'm here to tell you this is complete nonsense that right hip on right-handed players will
always be behind the left hip I can prove it to you why because when you take a look at high
level forehands ninety percent of forehands are going to be struck where the back foot is going
to be behind the front foot and another nine percent of forehands are going to be struck
where that front foot is going to be in front of the body this way so we're basically talking
about either a semi-open stance forehand or a closed stance forehand the last one percent
are going to be circumstances that are truly emergency situations where maybe the right
foot is going to come in front like this when players are reaching for the ball this leg the
dominant leg getting in front on the forehand is something that happens less than one percent
of the time the vast majority of the times that back leg is gonna be behind the front leg whether
we're talking about closed stance or semi open stance or even fully open stance now what you
need to understand is that players will remain in this position take a look at Federer take a look
at Djokovic take a look at Nadal when they hit their forehand what you will see is that the non-dominant
leg will go up into the air and now they're going to go through their kinetic chain where it starts
from the top the hands start to separate now the racket starts to go back when the racket starts
to drop the shoulders start to rotate the left hand starts pulling out of the way so that when
we hit the forward phase of the stroke the chest is going to be pointed towards the incoming ball
and now players start initiating that back hip and they drive it forward towards the ball and
when they make contact the dominant shoulder is in front but the position of the feet doesn't
change the back foot will remain behind the front foot and often this front foot will be
even in the air because what happens when players load the balance is distributed so that more body
weight is towards the hitting side of the body and when players accelerate that non dominant foot gets
off the ground and it remains there why because naturally players are executing the kinetic chain it
goes from the top to down the hips are not firing the right hip always stays behind the left hip and
at the very end of the stroke when we're talking about the finish here now the entire body starts
to rotate and that back hit comes through we got the chest pointing towards the other side fence
look I know this is deep technical analysis but this is based on Hardcore facts everyone hits
the forehand in this way you take a look at all the legends of the game you can go even back to
the old school players that hit open stance players like Becker Sampras Agassi and we're
talking about the modern players like Federer and Nadal Djokovic or the next gen players they all
hit it the same way because that is the only way you can hit a forehand if you would indeed Drive
the legs first and then fire your hip you would open yourself way too early now people believe
that firing the hip will somehow Propel the arm to go forward this will not happen guys in my first
kinetic chain video I explained in great detail that the arm will not move by itself every stroke in
tennis is a conscious movement of the arm the arm will not fly on its own we have to make the arm
move a certain way I'm not only talking about the hitting arm I'm also talking about the non-hitting
arm you are consciously adjusting the position of your hands and your arms and you also consciously
you're rotating the body all this stuff happens conscious but what happens with the rest of
the body is a natural thing it is what I call an accommodation to the swing path now let me explain
that in a little more detail it does happen naturally on most players but it doesn't on some
players especially at the recreational level so if you have trouble with accommodating your swing
path it should be a circular swing path because naturally what happens on the kinetic chain is
that you are initiating the rotation prior to the forward phase and the rotation is going to
continue all the way to the end which naturally results in a circular swing path so when we're talking
about a circular swing path on the forehand the rest of the body must accommodate the swing path
so let's take an example of a closed sense forehand we're going to execute kinetic chain
and now naturally at the end of the stroke that back leg is going to come around to accommodate
the swing path we're talking about the forehand tha you see most of the high level where the back foot
is behind the front foot it's called open stance semi-open stance if you want to be more specific
and what you will see here most frequently is that players with execute their kinetic chain
this leg will go up into the air and now this leg will pull back a little bit to accommodate the swing
path this is true when there's a lot of penetration coming from the other side which you will see most
of the time on the ATP Tour but when players have a little bit more time or maybe they want to be a
little bit more aggressive you will sometimes see that back leg coming through a little bit
and what has to do that again the movements of the feet they come at the very end of the stroke
well after the contact has already happened and it's done to accommodate the swing path
so guys forget the idea of driving your legs initiating the forehand with your legs it
doesn't work it's a very complicated process and when players try this out and I have seen players
try this out they can't even do it because it doesn't make any sense the confusion lies in
the fact that players are leaving the ground now don't confuse this with the jumping forehand it is
a thing and I don't want you to try this either because that's more of a show shot it doesn't
really have any purpose when players attempt to do this they're doing it for show they're
doing it to get attention and I don't want you to execute any shot where you're jumping including
the serve by the way but we're gonna get to that in another video and when it comes to the kinetic
chain take the information that I presented in today's video take the information that I
presented in my other kinetic Chain video if you want to go more in depth and buy my products that
I have available and you're going to learn the thing that makes the most sense is that
the forehand starts with the eyes and the hands and then continues through the rest of the body