Your Strokes: Eva So: Forehand

[johnyandell]

Tommy,

That's a tricky one and not sure I agree. In the before video she is definitely overrotated at contact. The after is better. My own view is that the hand position in the backswing may create the lag, but trying to rotate first actually leads to late hitting.

[tommym]

Still hitting with the arm

She might have improved her backswing slightly but she will still be late on shots and exert a lot of effort to hit the ball - because she is still hitting with the arm.

Her mental image is that she needs to turn to prepare and then hit the ball with the arm.

The correct mental image is to turn to prepare and then turn/rotate to hit the ball and in the last part just before the contact allow the arm to work with the energy supplied from the rotation.

In her case the rotation of her body lags behind the arm - which means she initiates the move forward with arm first. That will cause many late contacts. Telling her to prepare early won't fix that.

[stotty]

Backswings and tiddlers

I was really interested in this article. I was especially keen to see how tackling the excessive backswing would pan out…what teaching tricks would be used. Reducing a backswing can be a real challenge. I can reduce a student's backswing...only to see it increase in size again a week later. It's all about finding coaching tricks to help achieve the desired result.

Using video is one way…setting the racket in the correct position at the end of the backswing is another…tapping the player's racket as they rally if it goes beyond hitting side of the body another, and so on. The bottom line is the student needs to be committed. John's student is certainly all of that.

But what about very young (under 10) players, where verbalised coaching and video analysis has much less impact. Fortunately, I bumped into a great pro a while back who has found the answer. It's a coaching method that works consistently well.

Many young kids develop enthusiastically big swings, we all know that. You can ask him/her to reduce their backswing but they will have no past experience "feel" concept for how to do it….no past experience "feelings" they will be unable to carry out what you ask. The cure:

Have kids with excessive backswings hit 10 normal forehands to the back of the court. Next have them hit 10 forehands that must land in a service box, or even state the ball must bounce twice in the service box. Repeat the exercise over and over. Notice when they hit into the service box how the backswing will reduce significantly, usually to where you'd want it. Once kids get used to what the "feeling" of a shorter backswing feels like they can usually start producing it on request. After around 4 to 6 weeks it's job done. Don't doubt me. I've been doing this with 95 percent success for over two months now. It's still a patient job, but it works.

It's all about giving kids the "feeling" of what to do rather then "asking" them to do it, which is basically a hopeless method with 7, 8 and 9 year-olds.

It's important club coaches and grass root coaches learn to solve these conundrums of basic technique, or the coaches higher up the chain will inherit players who are too flawed to make really good players from. It's perhaps the coaches at the bottom that count the most...in fact it definitely is .

[GeoffWilliams]

There is no snap back in her shot. The type three all have snap backs. They attain auto consistency with smooth fast energy at coil and uncoil, and the frame bevel closes off at take back and then "flips" at snap back towards rear end of the players. Why so few women ever master this is a mystery. Can't be the level of difficulty. Can't be that they are not taught the snap back. So what is it then? Don't the same coaches teach the women?

[bottle]

Long Arm Bias

I've thought a lot about this, will think about it more, don't have the answer. It's perfectly okay to say that Roger Federer-- who definitely is the chosen model for Brian Gordon's work (a choice provocative in itself no matter how much we admire Roger), closes his racket head while it's up at the approximate same level as HIS head, but how exactly does he do it?

Does he lift his elbow like Bernard Tomic or the more so of Ivan Lendl? Hardly. But perhaps barely. Does he press his palm down according to Bradenspeak? Well yes if you watch the video loop in the article repeatedly as we all should. From the front observe the racket tip clock down just at the end of that sequence. Same thing from the back, but here one can see how the little move involves the whole bent arm structure-- which twists! (Exclamation point is from chess notation. It means that the analyst thinks he's found something.)

Remember that the arm will straighten now, which will close the racket head more. Yes, a straightening arm whatever the grip always closes the racket head more although this notion seldom gets expressed.

But more about the little clockwise alteration of arm structure as seen from the rear. Is not Roger's elbow relocating to just behind the body at the same time? I would like to think of this as scapular retraction though not much of it, certainly not all that is physically available. Because I need scapular adduction (slingshot) in area of ball to make not overly muscled topspin work.

I've always admired you, Alexandra of Portugal, for having more ideas than most people. Do you know the Portuguese poet Fernando Pessoa? But I can't think about short-armed forehands just for today.

[alexandrafranco]

closed racquet face

I see many players with their racquet closed at the begginning of the stroke and Eva starts with the edge(I suppose she has more of a continental grip), to get to the closed, pat the dog position, would it not be more beneficial to start with racquet closed?

[mark81]

Brian Gordon's article on the ATP forehand has had a huge impact on my coaching with regards to the forehand. I coach a lot of competitive junior players in Austria and Europe - in particular girls between the ages of 10 and 16 - and can't emphasize enough how much improvement many of the young girls I coach have made on the forehand as a result of Brain's research. The two biggest changes are in their ability to handle pace as well as how much harder and cleaner they are now hitting as a result of hitting those checkpoints Brian outlined with regards to the backswing. It was simply a fantastic piece of research on Brian's part and I can't wait to see what he reveals next.

[klacr]

John,
Great Article. I've tried this type 3 forehand with some of my students with good results. I approached it much like you did with Eva. I currently work at the club level and the vast majority of players have the same issue that Eva has. One of the coolest things about teaching and fixing a stroke is that when you focus and correct the right component there will be other segments in the stroke that correct themselves. This is always the students favorite part as well.

I'm totally geeking out to this new issue. I love it. Keep it up John.

Kyle LaCroix USPTA
Boca Raton

[johnyandell]

Would love you hear your thoughts on "Your Strokes: Eva So: Forehand"!