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.