Your Strokes: Anthony Forehand

At 10 years old something close to the so-called Type 1 pro forehand. I got an email from Anthony's dad Alex about Anthony's forehand. A coach he was working with wanted to reconstruct his forehand to a more classical model. So I asked Alex the dad to send me some high speed iphone video. When I looked I was amazed. Anthony is 10, and here he was with most of the elements of Brian Gordon's mythical Type 1 pro forehand. Click Here.) He had a semi-western grip, but not super extreme. Like many top players, he pointed the racket tip at the opponent at the start of the backswing. The backswing then stayed compact, totally on the hitting side, the racket flipped and then Anthony went into what looked like a completely straight arm forehand. He had amazing forward extension on the swing and a full wiper. Racket tip at opponent, backswing on hitting side, straight hitting arm, great extension! It's a forehand that all the 3.5 players on the tennis message boards dream of having. I told Anthony's dad that it was up to Anthony and him whether they wanted to reconstruct it, but my opinion was, definitely don't....