Ace down the T

Ace down the T

Claremont Lawn Tennis Club, Perth, Australia

Its an honor to be the Club Coach at Claremont Lawn Tennis.

We have 12 grass courts, 4 hard courts and 2 Tiger Turf. You can come here and make us a visit. You will be welcomed!

Would you like to have a lesson and maybe have your shots recorded with a high speed video camera?

just give me a call on : 0478 524 382

or send me an email: vazpintotennis@mail.com


Friday, March 23, 2012

Boon's Forehand

Thanks Boon for sharing your shots with us.
Boon you have a very interesting forehand.
After watching all of the six videos of your forehand I can notice some aspects of your technique that can be improved.




The first thing I do before analyzing someone's technique is to compare the similarities between all the videos. Is there any of the six videos where your technique seems more sound?...

Yes there is! The second video from the front angle is in my opinion the better swing.

However the first thing that we cans easily see Boon is that you are not on your toes and you don't do your split steps. You might be loosing 20% or 30% of your reaction time. Your preparation might be seriously doomed because of the lack of split steps...




The previous video was better than on the other ones because you kept the left hand longer on the racquet. You released the left hand from the racquet when your shoulders were perpendicular and that is one aspect which is common to the pros.
What that means is that your unit turn on the second video was better and so there was less independent movement of the right arm and racquet on your preparation.
As a consequence of a longer hold of the left hand on the racquet, you were able to rotate the shoulders more than on any of the other forehands here recorded on video. The left hand was positioned across the body roughly parallel to the baseline:
(Picture taken at the bounce of the ball from the second video)


I can remember one player with a similar position of the hands and racquet head during the unit turn. Agassi has gone higher with the hands and racquet and his rotation was greater of course but there is still a similarity:



Boon maybe you can give it a go and raise the hands a bit more on your shoulder turn. Just like Agassi you can try keeping your left hand a bit more on the racquet to increase your turn.




Another important element to observe on your swing is what we as coaches say is the hitting arm position. This position occurs just before contact. It is very hard to observe it with the naked eye and normally we need assistance of HS video. In this position the butt of the racquet is in line with the ball and except on flat balls or higher contact balls the players have the butt of the racquet much more than perpendicular to the net.
My photo with a hitting arm position:


And here we have two pictures from your forehands. The first is from video number 2 and then video number 3:






Although I like the stance on picture 3, your hitting arm position is not as effective as on picture 2. On picture 2 the butt of the racquet was almost on perpendicular to the court which means that although is better than on picture 3 you still need to have to tilt your racquet head back and to your left side a bit more with your wrist on a laid back position to allow you to have more power.



Because your hitting arm position is not great, at contact your wrist doesn't seem to be laid back and therefore you swing across with your forearm just after contact and on your followthrough.



From this side view angle you can see how your left hand separates itself from the racquet in front of your body and didn't assist the rotation of your shoulders on your preparation. This is probably the most important aspect to improve on your game firstly. As you start turning more your shoulders due to the longer hold of your left hand (better unit turn) you will probably find easier to position the racquet on a more effective hitting arm position and therefore having your wrist laid back at contact.
I can't wait to see your improvements on your forehand. Good luck Boon and don't forget your split steps!

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