A New Teaching System: Forehand: Preparation Part 1

[johnyandell]

DB,
Yeah we will probably do a whole new series on movement. This one sticks with the fundamentals.
The left side is critical and a lot of people don't ever get that. I find though that the use of video and physical modeling solves the problem. I also like to have players develop the neutral stance because that helps with the turn.
I see where the twohander could accomplish some of this but I don't use it myself--think it would just complicate and confuse.

[don_budge]

bottled comments...

Once you know how far the shoulders can turn…

But I am just as power hungry as anybody else, and power is a single and separate subject that interests me a lot.

And yes, I subscribe to your notion that control is power...

You do go round and around but one day if you stick with it there is a difference, a mental leap, a connecting of the dots (and thanks so much for your repeated use of that expression and allusions to the great dark writer Ferdinand Celine).

Good bottle…if not great. Golfers talk a lot about distance and how to maximize distance. You will never hear a golfer worth his salt say swing harder…to a man they will tell you to turn the shoulders and never let the hands get ahead of the shoulders…until they do. You turn the shoulders and the hips will follow…if the feet are in proper position. I advocate the golfer stance as well…as a foundation. The closed or semi-closed stance…for those that are uncomfortable thinking in terms of closed stance.

As power hungry as the next guy. That's a good one! Control is power…not only in tennis. Think relationships. Think Machiavelli.

Thank you for acknowledging my repeated references to Ferdinand Celine. Of course he is a dark writer…I believe we may have gotten the notion of dark or black comedy from him. I find him rather amusing in his seemingly pessimistic musings (read realistic).

My favorite though was…"one of several reasons I like coaching beautiful women". I get you bro. One of several reasons…that's a safe way of putting it. Delicately.

[bottle]

I think it's a great idea, a way of getting the student to learn what his maximum of body turn is. Once he understands this, though, I don't see what the hang-up is in learning the various options. There are a lot of them, but most people just do what they do. Resulting in loss of potential (in many cases) in my view.

Once you know how far the shoulders can turn, you can try different racket and opposite hand positions, all utilizing the memorized maximum shoulders turn, at least for maximum shots. Body turn would appear to be where the real thunder comes from, but as so ably has been pointed out, we frequently don't want thunder but finesse.

But I am just as power hungry as anybody else, and power is a single and separate subject that interests me a lot.

And yes, I subscribe to your notion that control is power, so maybe I should say pace and huge spin and whatever else great racket head speed can offer, and once the student understands that, no, masters it (if that ever happens), he should proceed to the next level and work on some softies.

Or start with softies and develop "big shots" later-- don't know that one sequence is better than another when contemplating the development of Andre Agassi who supposedly started out with his father's encouragement hitting the ball over two or five fences.

From my own experience in crew coaching (which has recently renewed itself somewhat through a growing friendship with Dick Bell, Head Coach of the Detroit Boat Club, the nation's oldest), I would say soft strokes first, hard strokes later-- one of several reasons I liked coaching beautiful women so much-- they seemed to understand this point better, which cut the learning curve down by about a year over huge macho men who just wanted to be bulls in a china shop from day one.

Like a good friend, Dick has given me a reading list, so that I am filling in with rowing books I may have missed in the last few decades. It goes way beyond THE BOYS IN THE BOAT, I'll tell you that, although I am one of the millions who likes that current book about to be an awful movie probably very much.

To continue this subject of soft strokes and hard, I'm sure that after the initial learning progression, all education becomes circular rather than linear (like growing ground stroke technique), i.e., goes round and round, which leads to irresponsible accusation that one is a Sisyphus who will never get anywhere.

But round and round is just fine. People simply don't do it enough, then declare that all golf, tennis, rowing and jai-alai articles along with the advanced lessons in each discipline are useless. That whining is the cry of hacks.

You do go round and around but one day if you stick with it there is a difference, a mental leap, a connecting of the dots (and thanks so much for your repeated use of that expression and allusions to the great black writer Ferdinand Celine. Oh, sorry, he wasn't a black or brown man but a white physician and Dearborn auto worker? Then I must have meant the word "black" in some other but very positive way).

[don_budge]

The Two Handed Forehand…Pancho Segura

Continuous motion comes if one separates hands immediately. Face it, one can aid turn of the body by hanging on to racket with opposite hand forever or doing that some then pointing across or just by pointing across.

This is a really very tough point to get across to beginners and one often sees the bad technique that this evolves into.

For students that have a difficult time with the involvement of the non-hitting hand I advocate the two hand forehand…as a training tool. One of the physical reasons to get this hand involved is to engage the opposite side of the body as it "pulls" the racquet towards the ball initially. If you fail to engage this opposite side of the body you get a motion that is decidedly too much arm oriented.

John…what do you think of using the two hand forehand as a training tool to get the student to utilize the other side of the body as well as the non-hitting arm itself?

For a right handed player I have them use the left index finger and thumb to grip the bottom of the handle.

[don_budge]

Shades aside…Preparation is the mantra of a tennis player

The discussion of the sunglasses led me to take another look at your video. Getting into position is so important to emphasize to the beginner and also to practice as a player at any level.

Good preparation to go forwards is what enables a player to take a good, balanced and well timed swing at the incoming ball…and not by pointing at the incoming ball itself as you point out.

A couple of thoughts…

Discussion of preparation for low, short balls as well as high, deep balls and how they might differ. Perhaps a little elaboration on balls that the player must run to get into position. Preparation on the run? The non-racquet hand may be thought of as pointing at the point where the player intends to make contact with the ball.

Your emphasis on completion of the backswing as or before the ball is bouncing is a very important point. The player should be fully prepared to go forwards when the ball is bouncing.

Your initial demonstration of a backswing that you are not recommending is a very good example of what not to do and what virtually every beginner does "naturally". They swing the racquet back using only the arm itself. This leads to a couple of problems…usually the beginner will miscalculate the speed of the incoming ball and will be late. At the same time if the backswing is accomplished solely with the backward motion of the arm the body will not be in position.

I am looking forwards to the next segment…transition from backswing to forward swing is the most crucial aspect of a swing. I am not sold on the series by the English gent who is advocating the 1-2 rhythm method…but I have managed to keep quiet thus far. I am curious as to how you are going to verbalize and further illustrate this crucial aspect of the swing. I suspect it will be very sound fundamentally speaking.

[don_budge]

The Shades...

Ray Ban?

[captnemo]

Ha!

No itz because Nick B. is my idol.

No really it's because on the paradise court the sun is directly in my eyes and I can't read the teleprompter. But it is true those are cool glasses.

[don_budge]

Rds...

hey john why always the dark glasses?

It's called "Robert DeNiro Syndrome".

[captnemo]

hey john why always the dark glasses?

[johnyandell]

bdole,

Yeah rotate the whole body like it's a cylinder and as we will see in the next article step up into a semi-open stance or neutral depending in the ball.

[bottle]

But I'm not Defeated This Easily

Continuous motion comes if one separates hands immediately. Face it, one can aid turn of the body by hanging on to racket with opposite hand forever or doing that some then pointing across or just by pointing across.

One coils arm from same time hands separate in the third choice. The arm bunches up like the infielder preparing his throw. If the snake wanted to, it could coil all day long for one strike. A timed coil equals continuity again. Now comes flip and wipe-- the whole thing is one motion but with less to do in it than in conventional forehands.

Might not look like much but...

If Type III ATP edited down conventional topspin strokes by making them shorter then I think I'm continuing the progression by paring away the dogpat.

Or do you, any reader, think I'm a pretender? The test so far has only been in seniors doubles for one day. But there is more doubles tonight. If the new shot is not the best way ever of hitting a tennis ball I will let you know.

[johnyandell]

t udin,
Once the turn starts the racket should never stop moving. The motion should be continuous to the full turn position with the left arm stretch. What changes is the rhythm and timing of this movement.
The goal is to reach the full turn around the ball bounce. It's about a second between the rackets in pro tennis, but surprisingly maybe in club tennis it's only about a second and a half or two seconds at low levels. Very little time.
I have filmed dozens and dozens of club players who just don't make the turn in time, and if they try to "stalk" they inevitably late.
If I had to choose I would rather see the racket back too early. Serena and Venus get full turns but the racket gets ahead so you sometimes see them double pump, but they have done alright
I actually think you said it right when you said the key was being fluid and loading in the right sequence. For me this means continuous motion.

[bottle]

A Pinwheel is too Sophisticated

John,

Great video! My takeaway is the whole body nature of the setup, with the emphasis being on getting the body turned and coiled rather than focusing exclusively on the racquet.

Yes to body coil, no to unfocussed racket. Focus on the racket a lot, making sure that its tip comes at ball from the left. The operative word will be "pinwheel" as in a crude pinwheel in which the axle is embedded in the end of a dowell, not in the side of the dowell. Side of the dowell would be a right-angled birthday party toy that is too sophisticated.

We want our forehand to be primitive and effective, not all gussied up with loops and furbelows. Face it, forehands somehow got stupid when somebody designed them so that everybody would swing rather than spear. That dull designer got all the forward motions of a forehand circling too much in the same direction. Balance, close to the outset of tennis, became forever lost.

Have great virtuosos over the decades been able to overcome this handicap? Of course. But they had to work too hard and many quit to go into Real Estate.

One needs to put a powerful push on a tennis ball while administering spin to it at right angles. Nothing else counts but this spear with a pinwheel on its end to substitute for a sharp point.

The room for error is not in leaving forearm too open to ball but on the too closed side. This lends absorption or dwell to one's contact since forearm can be springing somewhat back even as one wipes.

The launch of this stroke resembles the classiest thing that ever happens in baseball, an infielder's throw to first base.

One coils at the elbow, uncoils arm to a right angle, mondoes and wipes.

If this more economical way of hitting a tennis ball works for a 76-year-old it can work for a 14-year-old. The goal is clean hits. The future is here.

[bdole]

John,

Great video! My takeaway is the whole body nature of the setup, with the emphasis being on getting the body turned and coiled rather than focusing exclusively on the racquet.

I especially liked your point regarding the opposite/front leg getting lazy during the unit turn. For sure I am guilty of this. Great fodder for the next hitting session.

[tennisudin]

I'm a bit confused by the reference to keeping the racquet in front too long.
Do you mean in front in the ready position or to the front in the unit turn position. Since the balls are moving very fast, the pros don't have much time to hold the unit turn racquet position very long. Even so, they get into the unit turn very fast and are usually not rushed to turn back. A recreational player has much more time before the ball bounces on their side, so I think it is import to emphasize holding the racquet in the unit turn position much longer and maintaining good footwork to stay in rhythm, making adjustments, and getting into good hitting position. I rarely see this and don't think it is taught enough. Recreation players have trouble feeling the non-hitting arm position because they do it do soon or too late. The players are too anxious to bring their arms back and this creates, poor foot adjustments and uneven momentum even if they go back like Federer or Djokovic. The key is being fluid and loading the energy in proper sequence. So I think.