Ian's forehand : The Floreat Rafa

Check Ian's forehand from the side view. Although is a bit too far and the video is a bit dark it was by far the best footage that I recorded of Ian's forehand.

It is a forehand that is very similar with Nadal on some aspects.



The major flaw on Ian's forehand is the excessive independent movement of the right hand and forearm in relation to the right elbow and shoulder that happens between the unit turn and power position (from seconds 0,11 and 0,22).



As you can see on this picture Nadal has the elbow back and there was no independent movement of the forearm and left hand. Nadal pretty much keeps the structure of the arm very compact and just rotates more his shoulders until he achieves the power position:





Brenton is another player that hits his forehand with a stretched arm technique. Watch how Brenton keeps his left elbow back and there is no independent movement of the forearm and left hand. Watch the distance from the left elbow to Brenton's torso at the 13th second.

07/05/10

Junior players - Forehands on fire

We have here 3 different junior players with their unique way of hitting their forehands. I'll be analyzing them in the next few days.

Milos Forehands

This is Milos Forehand. Milos has been improving his forehand and it is much stronger than what it used to be in the past. Milos is capable to hit great forehands but sometimes it lacks consistency. Footwork is a main issue for Milos and quite often Milos is not in a good position to hit the ball. Milos prefers to hit his shots with an open stance and likes to hit the ball just behind the baseline. Actually all of his shots are being hit in the same area of the court just behind the baseline. As soon as Milos starts stepping in more to the ball (and waiting less) with a neutral stance and even stepping back away from the baseline to play his shots safer he will become a stronger player.

24/07/10 - 1


Milos starts his preparation with a unit turn. When his shoulders become perpendicular to the net he releases the left hand from the racket and he stretches it out to the ball to reach the power position. On the previous shot Milos was late for the power position since his right foot wasn't ready to load by the time the ball bounced on the court.


24/07/10 - 2


24/07/10 - 3


The previous two shots the ball was a bit more difficult for Milos. They were deeper and they were both hit on the rise. On both shots Milos was rushed and the left arm that was stretching out collapsed a bit to soon although on both shots Milos was still able to hit a reasonable shot.

24/07/10 - 4


Milos needs to make his swing more compact. He can elevate his right hand on the unit turn while elevating the right elbow making sure that it is not so tucked in to his torso. If we focus our eyes on Milos right hand we can see that it goes at the same height throughout the whole swing. Another important element is the position of the right hand on the power position. Milos has his right hand on the left side of his body and with his arm almost stretched back which makes his swing too big and horizontal and again with the right elbow tucked in to the torso. The majority of the pros have the right hand more on the right side of the body and have a higher position of the right elbow. As I'm writing this we have been changing it on court already. The results will come...


24/07/10 - 5




24/07/10 - 6


The previous shot Milos was running to his forehand on a difficult ball and instead of doing a big step with his right foot before contact he closed his stance therefore he didn't hit it as good as he could have.

So this was Milos forehands. Milos hit hundreds of better shots that were not recorded on video.His forehand is much better than what it was before and who knows how far can Milos go.
I can't wait to put his shots on the blog again in a couple of months. I think you're gonna be surprised!

William's Forehand

Here is William's Forehand

William starts his preparation with a unit turn. He turns his shoulders with both hands on the racket until the shoulders are perpendicular to the net. Then he releases the left hand, and stretches his left arm out for the power position. His timing for the power position is really good. His body is low and his knees are quite bent.

19/07/10 - 1



19/07/10 - 2



I think William's preparation is great. He gets his racket ready for the power position with such a simple motion. He might need to elevate a bit more his right hand (like Milos) during the unit turn.

19/07/10 - 3


Where William doesn't go quite so well with his forehand is after the power position. His hitting arm position seems a bit suspicious. The racket head is not coming low enough in time for the contact. Maybe he gets late just off the power position. As a consequence his wrist is not laid back enough and doesn't seem to be very strong at contact therefore his extension on the followthrough is compromised.


19/07/10 - 4




He needs to produce more topspin on his forehands. He will do that with a better hitting arm position if he brings the racket head a bit lower and earlier on the forward swing, and by using more hand and arm rotation on the followthrough (wind screen wiper). He might be holding the racket to tight and that doesn't allow racket head acceleration on the forward swing, contact and followthrough..


19/7/10 - 5


Videos 4 and 5 show us another element that William has to improve on his game, FOOTWORK!
William has a tendency to wait too much with the open stance behind the baseline. He needs to move better and wait less for the ball. On shot number 5 he would do much better if he was faster on his feet and if he had gone around the ball and stepped in with the left foot forward (neutral stance).

19/7/10 - 6


On the side view videos we can see how William some times leaves his right foot with his toes pointing forward and that forces William to have a smaller full turn and to rotate his hips and shoulders a bit to early on the forward swing.


19/7/10 - 7



And that was William's forehands. I do like his forehand quite a lot and I am sure he will keep improving his best shot. Its gonna be very interesting to compare his forehands on his next forehand analysis.

Ian's Forehand

This is Ian's forehand. Ian has been improving his forehand quite a lot since the past year. What can we see from Ian's forehand and what can we learn from it? How can Ian improve his forehand?

I am lucky I had already two comments about Ian's forehands. They have been very helpful.

Ian hits his forehand with a straight arm configuration just like Nadal and sometimes Federer. Ian can hit it with a reverse forehand but unfortunately the reason why Ian hits the reverse is because he has a tendency to be late due to his late shoulder turn on his preparation.


20/7/10 - 1


Ian's preparation on the forehand apparently started with a unit turn, but seeing it on super slow motion we can see clearly that the racket moves faster than the shoulders. His first movement is upward and by the time the left hand is released from the racket you can still see the right shoulder and part of the chest. To be fare Ian has been improving that element of his forehand quite considerably during the past year. While before was very clear that his unit turn was poor even with the naked eye, now only at 200 frames per second we can be sure of that.


20/7/10 - 2


So Ian starts by moving his hands up and then he turns he shoulders. The problem is that he has no time to finish his shoulder turn. On his power position he could have his shoulders more turned. On the majority of Ian's shots the power position is a bit late as it was pointed out by Richard on the comments for this post.

20/7/10 - 3


One of the elements that I like the most about Ian's forehand is that he has a compact forehand. His right hand is kept on the right side of his body throughout the swing just like the pros.


20/7/10 - 4


Watching all of his videos there is one common major aspect that is very clear. All of Ian's forehands, the ball is hit on the way down. Some of the balls are short and bouncing on the service line and Ian is still waiting for the ball with an open stance. Open stance is the best stance to use when the balls are either too fast or deep or when the contact is high, normally above waist height. Shot number 4 Ian is making contact below the waist, with a slow coming ball. He waited with an open stance and to make things harder he didn't get his body low enough. Notice the tension on Ian's head just during contact. He is lowering his head to compensate for his body being so elevated. I, (as any pro), would certainly go around the ball and would use an neutral stance bringing the left foot forward on that shot.
This is a major flaw on Ian's game and in most of all junior players (we saw how William and Milos had the same problem). The flaw's name is footwork as been pointed out in the comments to this post by Richard and a Tennis West coach. Juniors need to practice going around the ball with little steps and step in to the ball with a major left foot step, but for that they need to leave the safer baseline and adventure the middle of the court. They need to be more agile and more explosive out of the split step.


20/7/10 - 5


Ian has a powerful forehand and a very compact one. I think he might have the best forehand of all my junior students. I can't wait to see his improvements on his next post. Keep rocking those forehands Ian, let it all out!

The myth of bad habits

I encounter a lot of people who come to me and say that they have a lot of bad habits with their technique and that they feel there is nothing they can do about it .

Well a bad habit (if there is such thing) is a million times better than having no habit.

What is a habit? a habit is just the best way that our mind and body found to perform, with the awareness that we have at the time. With a limited awareness he have a limited habit. Habits are not bad or good. They are just as they are.

You cannot improve a habit, you can only find a new habit, perhaps a better habit!

How can you improve the habit of rolling your wrist on your forehand? Its impossible, as soon as you stop rolling the wrist you found a new habit, but you didn't improve it.

This is really important because we do not need to unlearn a habit before changing and finding a new habit. All we need to do is to be aware of our habits and find new ones. The same way a baby doesn't need to unlearn the habit of crawling to begin a new habit of walking, in fact during a transition stage he does both, then later he just drops the habit of crawling.

So how can find better habits on the tennis court?

First of all we have to be aware of what we do. For that we need to practice more until we know how we hit the ball and we can watch ourselves on video or even in the mirror. If you don't know that you have a funny walk, how are you gonna find a different walk?

There is no need to feel helpless on court, we just need to know what we're doing!