what if all the best tennis players in the world had the same technique in other words if there was
an optimal way to strike the forehand the backhand or the serve and then players could basically just
copy each other and everybody would play the same well this is obviously not the case because we see
vast differences in techniques among the best players in the world and through my extensive
research i was able to identify fundamentals that every high level player has in common however when
we look at the best players in the world we can see they all strike the ball differently doesn't
look the same the only example i can think of where a player resembles another is grigor
dimitrov and roger federer they look very much alike however if you take a closer look there
are small differences even between dimitrov and federer but other than that i can't think of any
other player that resembles another and the reason why it's so rare to see players who look exactly
the same is that players that make it onto the elite level are there for a reason because these
players were either taught or allowed to develop their own style i'll give you some examples of
players who either went by their own feel in other words they did something by feel and it
felt good to them and they just continued doing so or players were mentored either by their coaches
or by their parents and were allowed to keep their own individual style and the first player
i'm going to use as an example is the father of the modern forehand which is bjorn borg and
if you remember back in those days nobody used the western grips in other words players would
have a continental grip and nobody really went over towards the western side whether it be the
eastern grip the semi-western or the full western grip and bjorn borg was one of the first players
he wasn't the first one there was actually some players before him he used the western
grips but he was actually taught to play the forehand with a continental grip and he liked
the way it felt going over towards the western side he used the eastern forehand grip and the
coaches were actually telling him not to do that because this was considered wrong back in the day
but borg didn't care and continued playing with an eastern forehand grip and it's not only the
grip borg also was one of the first players to have a finish that went around his head
kind of like rafa does this was considered extremely wrong back in those days but borg
liked the way this type of forehand felt and he continued doing so and another controversial thing
back in the day that borg did was have a loop on his forehand which now is a fundamental element of
every high-level forehand so prior to borg players didn't really loop the racket they simply took it
straight back and when the racket goes straight back the sequencing of the torso rotation is much
different than with the loop so borg was the first player to play with a loop he would take
the racket up then down and when this happens on the forehand the rotation is sequenced much
differently it is started much earlier and therefore the contact is made much more further
in front compared to a classic forehand and borg didn't really listen to anyone he simply played
tennis the way it felt best for him and as it turns out he became one of the greatest players
of all time there are also examples of players who are mentored in a very good way and monica seles
was coached by her dad karolj and if you guys remember monica had a two-handed forehand i
don't even know how she was holding the racket so she was lefty i think she was holding the racket
like this very unorthodox most coaches that got to work with monica tried to change her forehand to
a one-handed forehand because it's logical to think that she would have an advantage with a one-handed
forehand but her dad karolj knew monica obviously better than anyone else and he knew that
for whatever the reason might be her two-handed forehand was phenomenal it was one of the best
forehands in the world and he didn't allow anyone to touch her forehand and what happened was
monika ascended to number one in the world faster than any other player in wta history and how about
tony nadal most coaches would consider this type of finish controversial and there is some logic to that
because often players that have this type of finish are defensive but tony knew that rafa's
finish on his forehand contributed to a tremendous amount of topspin maybe the greatest topspin
forehand of all time so tony instead of trying to force rafa to do more of a conventional finish
he allowed him to have his own individual forehand that suited him and only him because that forehand
that rafa has came out completely on its own and it matches his mentality and matches his
body and it matches overall his game strategy it is not by accident that rafa still to this
day continues to hit this forehand like this so what does this mean when we play tennis should we
just go out there and do whatever we want no we have to learn the fundamentals these are things
that all high-level players have in common there's no doubt about the fact that we must
have these fundamentals if you have any chance to get better at tennis however there also needs to
be some room for individuality not only because it's going to be more fun for us fans to watch
players with different styles but also the players themselves will benefit tremendously from having
their own style because it's going to be their style and no one else and when players develop
their own style it is guaranteed to match their own body it's guaranteed to match
their mentality and it's overall going to benefit their game more than if they try to force somebody
else's style upon them so what is the difference between style and fundamentals well if i did this
comparison on all the strokes this video would be an hour long so let's not do that i'm only
going to take the forehand as an example so on the forehand a fundamental part of the forehand
will be your loop so this is something that all high level players have in common so this part
of the forehand is fundamental in other words the racket has to go up before it goes down now
how you get into this loop this is going to be style so some players get into it like this other
players get into it like this there's going to be different ways to get into this position and you
should do it in a way that feels most comfortable to you and this is going to be your own individual
style another style element of the forehand is how the racket drops so some players will drop it more
with a straight arm and a closed racket face other players will be a little bit more open as they
drop the racket this is also going to depend depend on the individual there's no right or
wrong in this regard and there's many differences among the pros and how this position of the racket
is achieved so what you should do is develop your own style maybe you're more comfortable
closing the racket like this or maybe you're more comfortable being more open as the racket drops
into this position another fundamental part of the forehand in other words something that all
high-level players do is where they make contact so you will not find the high-level forehand that
makes contact with the dominant shoulder behind this will happen only in rare circumstances on the
other hand this often happens at the recreational level where the dominant shoulder is behind the
non-dominant shoulder contact however at the high level all players will make contact with
the dominant shoulder in front and this has to do with the sequencing of the torso rotation if
you're interested in finding out exactly how this works check out my video titled the kinetic chain
so another style element of the forehead is how we finish the stroke and this is also
going to depend on if you're more of a spin player if you're more of a flat ball striker you're going
to have a different finish than other players some players will be a little bit more vertical
as they come across and maybe they're going to be more going up and then down around the waist
other players will go more around the shoulder and this is another stylistic element that has
to match you it does you no good to try to copy somebody else you must do what suits your type
of game and what feels the best so guys when it comes to fundamentals you gotta have them
when it comes to style develop your own and the great thing about it is when you develop your own
style it's going to be truly unique and if it's really stylistic other players will try to copy it