Head Position in Pro Tennis: The Forehand

What can high speed video reveal about the position of the head on the forehand? It’s commonly taught in tennis coaching that players should keep their heads “still” or relatively still at contact. It’s a key point in Chris Lewit’s great article this month. (Click Here.) But what does that mean? Coaches often point to the extreme example of Roger Federer whose head is virtually sideways pointing toward the sideline at contact. But as Chris says a still head position can be quite different for different players. So let’s use our amazing high speed video to investigate the range and variety of head positions at contact for multiple elite players. And also look at how the head gets to the “still” position, how long it stays there, and what happens to the head after contact. This month we will look at the forehands and the backhands next month. You may be amazed at what the video tells us. Since the contact of the ball on the strings is about 3 or 4 milliseconds it is rarely captured in regular 30 frame video, much less the small fractions of a second before and after contact. But as subscribers know (or should…