What is Open Stance?

Kerry Mitchell

"Open-stance" hitting has become the standard with players and coaches alike. The trend has been developing for a long time, but how did this really come about? Often times, "modern" open stance hitting is contrasted with the "obsolete" footwork of the past.

Like many observers of the game I just assumed that the players of the past stepped into every ball. But I had to examine that assumption after I watched a video called "Kings of the Court," with some great historical footage, produced by my fellow Tennisplayer contributor Ed Atkinson. (Click Here.) The video is revealing because it has so many instances of open stance hitting, from Bill Tilden to Rod Laver. The fact is that even before the start of the open era, the great players were using open stance positioning. Today it may be done by design, but the great players of the past slipped into open stance hitting as easily and gracefully as today's players.

The video also shows there was a progression. Gradually players used more and more open stance hitting. Probably this progression was due to three factors. One factor was the accelerating ball speed. The second factor was the increased use of topspin. We can see this in the forehand of Rod Laver, who hit the ball harder and with more topspin than previous players. For Laver, hitting open stance became more and more common, a decision or choice.

The final factor, and possibly the most important, was the change in surfaces, with more and more tournaments on clay and hard courts, replacing grass, which was once the surface of 3 of the 4 Grand Slams. The shift to harder courts produced much higher bounces in the rallies, which made it difficult to "step in" on every ball.

Open stance had always been a natural part of the game. Great players knew when and how to use it, and as the evolution of tennis dictated, they naturally used it more and more.

The way the game was taught was an entirely different matter though. Open stance was heresy, the mark of a lazy, poorly skilled player.

There was one player who changed all that: Bjorn Borg. Unlike players of the past, Borg used open stance positioning almost exclusively on his forehand. His western grip (mild by modern standards!) and open stance hitting proved to be a potent combination, especially with Borg's incredible speed around the court.

Borg showed the world that even on grass, an open-stance, westernized baseliner could dominate serve and volley players. It was something the commentators and teachers couldn't believe and consistently criticized. But once players and coaches saw the possibilities of this stance position both in terms of control (topspin) and power, there was no turning back.

When we use the term open stance, we have to be precise in what we mean. There are several versions of open stance, and judging how "open" the stance is on a given ball also depends on shot direction, among other factors. To understand this we have to look at the shape and dimensions of the tennis court itself. The tennis court is a rectangle. It's defined by right angles. But the most basic shot in the game is not hit on a right angle--it is hit crosscourt, on a diagonal to the lines of the court.

What does it mean then to "step into" a shot? Many instructors will say that you step directly forward so that a line across your toes is parallel with the sidelines of the court. This is where the confusion starts.

I say that "stepping in" means that the front foot steps in the direction of the shot. On a crosscourt shot the step would be on a diagonal. This means a line drawn across the edges of the toes would be parallel to the target line. The sharper the crosscourt angle, the sharper the diagonal.

Often I feel the court lines themselves confuse players in terms of direction. If we were able to move the court lines with each shot to line them up with the target, footwork would make more sense to the general player. When hitting crosscourt the trajectory of the shot does not match the vertical court lines so why should the stance?

In learning proper alignment, this same basic principle applies when it comes to open stance hitting. The player may not place his front foot on the court, but when he begins his open stance swing, a line drawn from the back foot across the front foot should still be more or less on the target line. With open stance the front foot may be in the air, but the same geometry applies. You can draw a line from the back foot to the front foot that is parallel to the flight of the ball.

If you learn to look closely or spend a lot of time in the Stroke Archive, you'll see this alignment in a significant percentage of the open stance forehands hit in pro tennis. It should be the basis for developing your own open stance style, as I'll explain below.

After the open stance hit the front foot will often come back around with the body rotation and land on the players left side. But look at the alignment during the critical moments around the contact. The feet are aligned on the diagonal of the shot line. Whether one foot or both feet or neither foot is on the court during the hit is not a function of alignment per se. Rather this is a function of ball height and the player's ability to unload upward into the shot (and into the air off the court.)

This basic diagonal alignment has to be distinguished from the more extreme open stance in which the front foot stays much further back, sometimes almost parallel to the back foot. And there are reasons and advantages for developing this after the basic alignment is solid and natural.

Although it varies with the player, most pros hit with this more extreme version of the open stance at certain times for certain reasons. One is disguise. It allows them and go down the line at the last second without giving away the shot selection. The second is it allows them to break off sharper angles crosscourt. The third reason is that they are often forced or rushed by the ball.

But it's a fatal mistake for recreational players to immediately copy the more extreme versions in learning open stance. It is far more difficult to understand and feel the basic turn with an extreme open stance. Players at lower levels who stress this too early tend to end up with less body turn and less rotation--the supposed benefits of the open stance in the first place. So let's see how to develop the benefits by learning the more basic open stance positioning.

To a certain extent, then, the whole debate about "open" versus "closed stance" is a red herring. It can distract players from understanding the most important element in any of the stances, which is alignment to the target line. This gets me to the most important underlying point about stances--the critical role of the backfoot in achieving alignment. All the debate about stances is focused on the front foot, but in reality the key is understanding how to align the backfoot to the ball. When you understand this the amount you open your stance on a given ball will happen almost naturally.

To gain the proper alignment to the target, what foot would you initially align with the incoming ball? In every case, it is the rear foot, or the right foot for a righthander. It is sometimes also called the outside foot. (Click here for Bob Hansen's excellent article on positioning on the forehand.) This should be done when "stepping in". It's also the same for "true" open stance hitting of all kinds. The positioning of the rear foot is the most important point.

The first aspect of correct alignment is what I call learning to "chase" or "lead" with the rear foot to the incoming ball. Chasing with the rear foot is critical but is rarely explained or understood in most lessons.

If you watch top players you will often see them take a number of small positioning or adjusting steps around the ball in order to create this critical alignment between the rear foot and the incoming ball.

This chasing aspect is also used even when moving forward to a short ball. The concept of chasing with the rear foot is probably the toughest part for club players to achieve because it requires the upper body rotation to occur without the front foot coming around in the preparation

Most players, as beginners, struggle with the basic concept of getting turned sideways to the ball. So many instructors teach their students to get around with both feet to help in this initial process. Once the front foot comes too far around in the initial move, it has the potential to completely disrupt the movement pattern and actually prevent correct alignment to the ball.

Unfortunately, once they bring the front or left foot across, many players learn to chase the incoming ball by leading with their front foot. This means they often reach the ball with a step across the body, and often actually hit with a closed stance. Ironically, they believe that are correctly "stepping into" the shot. Instead this blocks the the rotation of the torso and makes them feel jammed by the ball. Because they feel "too close to the ball" and sometimes trying to correct this makes the problem even worse. They develop the habit of stopping even further away and stepping even further across with the front foot to reach the ball. The result is poor alignment and loss of power for any shot except down the line hit from near the center of the court, or an inside out, and this happens only by accident.

In reality, you want to chase the ball with your rear foot, the right foot for a right handed forehand. There are more extreme cases where the first step can a drop move, or on the run a player does take a big cross step with the left foot early in the movement pattern, but let's talk here about the basic principles of developing good alignment.

This means that the player should learn to step out with the rear foot. The body turns but the left foot should stay on the left side, with the left foot up on the toes. The goal should be to achieve the full turn position of the upper body on this first step. Once he has a feel for this initial full turn without a crossstep, the player should learn to move with the goal of recreating this position behind the ball.

This means he reaches the ready to hit or step up position with the right foot, with the left foot still on the left side. At the set up, the weight is on the right rear foot with the toe of the front foot on the ground just for balance.

The upper body should be as upright as possible. The hip alignment is perpendicular to the net or as close to that as possible. Aligning with the rear foot also allows for greater adjustability for irregular bounces that do occur more often in today's game. It allows more freedom of placing (or not placing) the front foot where necessary to make last minute adjustments.

From this proper foot alignment the angle of the stance can now range from 45 to 90 degrees to the baseline, depending on the angle of the diagonal of the shot. The player can hit with a mild open stance, or step into the shot and hit with the front foot on the court. The alignment is the same.

What are the advantages of developing this well-aligned open-stance hitting? And when should players employ it? One advantage which I mentioned earlier is adjustability. Hitting open-stance allows the player to play balls higher and/or further back in the stance. This is true for every grip position. With the use of more power and topspin in today's game this kind of adjustability is necessary.

The second advantage is the increased potential for creating topspin. Open-stance hitting has made creating topspin possible on all types of balls. The more traditional player with an eastern grip who tries to step in on every ball is only comfortable with creating topspin on lower balls. Open stance hitting allows even a traditional styled player to hit topspin on all types of balls, even high balls that would be far above the strike zone with an eastern grip otherwise.

This aspect goes hand in hand with the next advantage of hitting open-stance which is power production. The amount of forward rotation placed on the ball is huge today compared to the pre-open era.

Power production is tremendously increased when open-stance hitting is done properly. I believe that open-stance hitting is equally as responsible for the increase in the power of today's game as the advancement of racket technology.

The amount of torque possible when hitting open stance is far greater than hitting with a more traditional stance position. Shoulder rotation both into and out of the turn have dramatically increased. You can see this in the angle of the shoulders at the completion of the followthrough. Extreme grip players routinely finish with the front shoulder pointing at the opponent. Now Federer has demonstrated how this same level of extreme rotation can be achieved with even a quite conservative grip.

Trying to step or land with the front foot parallel with the vertical lines of the court drastcially impedes this rotation. Borg started the trend of increased torso rotation mainly to hit more topspin for control, but players today have taken it to new heights in terms of creating ball speed.

The fourth advantage to hitting open-stance is court coverage. Recovering back into the court for the next shot is far more efficient than with a closed stance; which often has a player falling off balance toward the outside of the court. This is in evidence time and time again when pros use their rear foot to stop their momentum after a long run. By landing on the rear foot it is far easier to stay upright and maintain good balance throughout the swing. They do this even by taking an extra step to the side with the rear foot after the first landing. The positioning for recovery is still far more favorable.

The fifth and final advantage of open-stance hitting is the better use of the court in shot making, particularly in terms of creating angle. Aligning the feet to the true direction of the shot and not with the court opens up the possibility of greater and greater angles. Hitting with a traditional closed stance makes these kinds of shots difficult because of the necessity to swing across the body plane (pulling your arm across the body).

Is open-stance hitting only for the forehand? As we look at the pros today I would say no. More and more two-handed backhand players are hitting more exclusively open-stance (especially in the women's game) taking advantage of the potential in terms of power generation and court coverage.

Even one-handed backhand players are starting to see the potential of hitting open-stance especially on wide or high balls (much like the players of the past did). It has opened up angles, for the one-handed players, which were only thought possible for the two-hander. More on the open stance and the backhands in upcoming articles.