Your Strokes: “Modern” Club Play: Fully Open Stance

How applicable is "modern" technique to club tennis--such as extreme open stance? Every year I do a video analysis clinic for my friend Marc Moran, the tennis director at one of the great Bay Area clubs, Club Sport in Pleasanton. Marc loves having his players videoed, but it also gives me a chance to take a concentrated look at what is happening in club tennis. We film the players, then let them see their strokes in comparison to certain key positions we extract from our pro high speed footage. Then Marc and I make recommendations accordingly and we go back out on court and work on what we’ve seen. What’s Modern? This year the clinic was on the "modern" forehand—what is happening in the pro game, and how it may apply to all levels. One of the fascinating things to observe is how adult club players are trying more and more to incorporate pro elements, and what this really means for their strokes. The two most interesting issues that I saw in this clinic were, first, the use of extreme open stance, and second, the windshield wiper action in the forward swing--what I call hand and arm rotation. (Click Here.)...