hey guys as you might know i'm a huge rafael nadal fan i'll never forget when he was younger
when he made those five wimbledon finals the way he ran around his backhand and hit
forehand winners on grass was absolutely insane and in my opinion he has the best
forehand from the backhand side whether he's hitting it inside out or inside in for example
when he used to play federer and federer would hit a really solid backhand down the line that could
be a winner against some other players not only would rafa nadal get to that ball but he would run
around his backhand and hit a forehand winner so for you guys that might not be familiar with the
inside out forehand and the inside in forehand i'm going to explain to you what it is so it basically
refers to a forehand that's hit from your backhand side of the court and when you're going inside out
it's basically cross-court and when you're going inside in that's down the line and just like your
regular forehand when you're going cross-court in other words inside out that is a higher percentage
shot because we got a bigger area to play into when we play the forehand from the backhand side
inside in if we hit that ball a little bit too early it's gonna go wide if we hit it a little bit
too late it's gonna sit right there in the middle of the court so out of these two the inside out
forehand is definitely the better option but this doesn't mean that you shouldn't try the inside in
forehand as well so why do players hit forehands from the backhand side well it's not necessarily
that their forehands are better just think of someone like djokovic who has maybe the best
two-handed backhand of all time he will still run around his backhand and hit forehands why is that
the case because every player i don't care who it is is stronger from the forehand wing it's a lot
easier to hit forehand winners than it is backhand winners the reason for that is simple when we hit
forehands we are stronger with this side of the body we're playing the inside of the arm there's
bigger muscles connected to this shot compared to a backhand whether it be a one-handed backhand or
a two-handed backhand we're playing with the back of the arm it is a little bit weaker so generally
even players who have great backhands will still run around their backhands to hit forehand winners
from time to time so running around the backhand to hit a forehand has a high degree of difficulty
and the reason is that often when we're moving towards the left unless we're moving really well
players will find themselves still shifting their weight towards the left in other words they're
falling backwards because the body is turned more sideways often players when they're moving
this way they find it much harder to rotate and the kinetic chain is therefore tougher to execute
remember on the forehand you've got to make sure that you're sequencing the torso rotation
properly so that you make contact with the dominant shoulder in front if you're more
interested in finding out in great detail how this works check out my video titled the kinetic chain
so that brings me to the most important point about hitting forehands from the backhand side
and that is footwork and speed if you are someone who doesn't have good footwork and speed do not
attempt to hit forehands from the backhand side i find myself now that i'm getting older as i'm
getting slower with age it's more difficult to run around my backhand and here's what happens
if you're not quick enough moving to the backhand side you're not going to be able to set your body
properly and while you're hitting you're still going to be moving backwards and your kinetic
chain is going to be completely interrupted and you are actually left in a really bad position in
the court because you're going to be hitting a weak forehand leaving the entire side open
so it's really crucial that if you want to hit a forehand from the backhand side you have to have
really good footwork and you have to move quickly with a lot of speed so that you can create a lot
of space between you and the ball this is the most common mistake when it comes to hitting
forehands from the backhand side simply players aren't moving out of the way quick enough and the
ball is jamming them and they're left with very weak forehands so when you're attempting this shot
the intensity has to be sky high you have to move like a rafa in wimbledon 10 years
ago move super fast to the backhand side you get there with plenty of time create plenty of space
and now you can be aggressive with your forehand from the backhand side of the court
so what you should do at the recreational level is run around your backhand on weak incoming balls
this is going to be a lot easier than doing it on heavy topspin for example but what you will see
often at the elite level is that players will try to run around their backhands even on heavy topspin
balls because these are phenomenal athletes and they can pull this off and when this is the
case actually players will move back in a semi circle so they don't go straight to the ball
because a heavy topspin ball is penetrating through the court so if they move straight across the
baseline that ball will jam them so you will often see especially on clay that players will
move back in a semi circle creating space not only laterally but forwards and backwards so that the
ball doesn't overwhelm them as they're attempting to hit a forehand from the backhand side now you
at the recreational level don't have to worry about this because i don't want you to do it
on these type of balls this would be a bad shot selection it's something that's too difficult to
pull off and when you're moving on an easy ball it's perfectly fine to move in a more lateral way
because that ball is not going to be penetrating the court as much you can comfortably hit it
from inside the baseline and here are the most common mistakes that i see at the recreational
level when it comes to hitting forehands from the backhand side players will turn the same way they
do when they try to hit a backhand so when they try to hit it backhand they will turn towards
the backhand side move over here and then hit a backhand they will do exactly the same movements
if they try to hit a forehand from the backhand side they will go here move this way and now they
will turn around like this and hit a forehand and there is simply not enough time to for that they
are guaranteed to make contact somewhere back here and they're left with a super weak shot
another mistake that i see at the more advanced recreational level is when players sidestep the
entire way towards the ball and then they do the same thing they end up turning too close to the
ball and there's simply not enough time for that at the higher recreational levels and they will
make contact behind as a result of this movement and here's what you have to do when you decide
to hit a forehand from the backhand side you're going to see your opponent hit the ball you're
going to make the decision okay i'm going to take this as a forehand the first thing you do is you
turn towards your forehand side now you don't have to turn your feet completely and back pedal the
whole way you can just turn your upper body and slightly turn your feet now you're going to move
like this you stalk the ball this way now when you have to do it a little bit quicker
now you can back pedal this is something that you can do very fast just picture nadal at wimbledon
he was back pedaling super fast like this but on balls that are going to be a little weaker
you don't necessarily have to back pedal just turn your upper body and now you're moving in this way
sideways and you get plenty of space to the ball plenty of distance whether it's lateral or forward
backward and now very close to the contact you're going to set your feet and strike the ball
don't make the mistake of setting too early now sitting here and waiting for the ball
with your feet set because this ball is most likely moving with a leftward trajectory from
your perspective and it's going to go into you so you have to make the adjustments very
late into the stroke that's why i say don't set the stroke too early on any forehand
especially when hitting forehands from the backhand side because those balls are usually
coming with a leftward trajectory usually struck from the backhand wing so that's the reason why
you have to continue to keep your feet moving you're going to be setting somewhere in here
so guys we already talked about that i want you to hit your forehand from the backhand side
on weak balls but especially on balls that are inside the service box this is where it's very
difficult to put the backhand away because it's a weaker wing even if your backhand happens to
be stronger than your forehand so what i want you to do i want you to really work
on with your coach is that you start practicing hitting a lot of short forehands from the backhand
side of the court the reason why i say that because usually the balls that are bouncing
in this area inside the service line are going to be traveling much slower
and you got plenty of time to get around that ball to run around your backhand
and it's going to be so much easier to put a short ball away from closer in the court
i want to finish off this video with one tip for all you doubles players out there
you know this guy called jack sock in my opinion one of the best doubles players
in the history of the game this guy is so good at doubles now we all know that jack
has a hard time on his two-handed backhand it is a weakness relatively speaking compared to
djokovic and some of the other guys with great two-handed backhand so that's what makes jack
sometimes a little bit vulnerable in singles but he doesn't have to worry about that in doubles
because he plays the ad side and he doesn't have to hit any backhands at all and why is
that because he runs around every single backhand and he can do that because he's only covering
half of the court so if you really work hard on developing your forehand from the backhand side
not only will this help you be more aggressive in singles but it can also improve your doubles game