The Straight Arm Forehand: Part 2

And then came Rafael Nadal, with a different version of the straight arm forehand. In my first article on the straight armed forehand (Click Here) I explored how the modern straight armed forehand works and suggested some possible advantages to this technique, including a contact point further in front, and more leverage from shoulder to hand. Despite these differences, however, most straight armed forehands look to me a lot like the double bend forehands I have written about. In this article, I would like to look once again at two straight arm hitters, Srichaphan and Philippousis, along with an interesting clip of Alex Corretja. We’ll do this as a segue into an analysis of another straight armed forehand that is, in my opinion, shockingly different. And it’s the forehand of Raphael Nadal. Nadal straightens his arm out just like these other players, but he uses the straight arm to achieve very different things in my opinion. I hope that by comparing and contrasting Nadal to these players, we can begin to get a handle on what Nadal is doing, and how he has taken the straight armed forehand in a whole new direction. I will suggest at the end of…