Is the Open Stance for You?
(Yes)

Dave Kensler

I was taught to play tennis according to the traditional progression that dominated coaching for generations. Turn sideways, take your racquet back, step into the ball, swing, and followthrough.

As a player, the impracticality of this "system" quickly became apparent. Like most players, I found I did not have time to step into the ball consistently when my opponent hit a powerful shot or I was on the run, and in various other situations as well. Like many other players I found I began to hit open stance naturally.

If you were taught the traditional footwork pattern, you may have adapted the same way I did and have begun to hit open stance naturally, possibly without even knowing it.

But there is a different possibility. You may have more recently encountered the new "modern" approach to teaching. You may have been taught that open stance is superior on every ball, and that stepping in to the shot is strictly old school.

Neither of these extreme views reflects the reality of the way players use stances in pro tennis. I believe that taking this kind of "either/or" approach will limit players at all other levels as well.

I am a huge advocate of adding options to your game. If you can hit a forehand groundstroke flat, with underspin and topspin then you have more options than the person who can only hit with topspin. The same goes for how you position yourself to hit shots. Being able to hit both from both a neutral and open stance position gives you more options for dealing effectively with more types of balls. If you have not consciously added open stance to your game, then this article will help you in that process.

Pro Stances

There are several articles in the Advanced Tennis section on Tennisplayer that have explored the issue of stances in the pro game. (Click Here.) What we need to understand are the relationships between grip, shoulder rotation, and ball height.

The more extreme under the handle forehand grips are associated with much more rotation of the shoulders, so that players often finish with the front shoulder pointing toward the opposite court. Trying to step into the shot blocks this more extreme body rotation. But even players with more moderate grips, including Roger Federer, are using the shoulders in this fashion on many balls.

A huge factor is the height of the ball. Contact is regularly at shoulder level and above in the pro game. Players are exploding upward off the court with one or both feet in the air to keep the ball in their contact zone. (For more on this Click Here for John Yandell's article on the Osmosis Forehand.) If they didn't do this, the ball would literally bounce over their shoulders in many cases. For all these reasons, pros use the open stance is on the majority their forehands.

But it's not totally open stance in pro tennis, and this is important to understand as well. You still see a significant number of forehands hit with a step forward into a neutral stance. Typically this is when players make contact at around waist level. This happens on short balls and also when players choose hit the ball on the rise. Again, ball height is a key factor.

All this helps us understand the relevance of stances for the majority of recreational and club players. The first point to understand is that few balls in club tennis are struck at shoulder height. Club players do not normally hit 90mph forehands with extreme topspin.

This is why the option of stepping in still great advice on many groundstrokes, depending on the types of exchanges. Neutral stances are often the most appropriate choice for the speed and bounce of the opponent's shots, and also, because there is usually more time in the exchange.

Having said that there are many important situations where hitting open stance is more appropriate and usually much more effective. This is why, when it comes to the stances, you need to develop all your options.

Rather than blindly following a certain teaching theory, you need flexibility. This will allow you to adjust to the ball in matches in ways that will definitely improve your stroke production. So let's take a look at some of these situations and see how to set up and execute from the open stance.

High Balls

Higher contact points at the recreational level may not result from players hitting forehands with 3000rpm of topspin like Rafael Nadal. But anyone who has played club tennis knows that against certain players, you may still have to hit quite a few high balls. These usually result from slow looping shots, moonballs, and lobs. To deal with these high bouncing balls you have to raise your strike zone.

Open stance is a pre-requisite in this situation on the forehand side. Often, this occurs when players are also moving backwards due to the depth of the looping shot or moonball hit by the opponent.

The key is to start the body turn early, with both hands on the racket. Next set up on the rear leg behind the oncoming ball. From this position the open stance swing is natural. Players can swing upward and all the way across and through the shot, and execute their normal followthrough.

If you try to step in when the contact point is above waist level you will have difficulty rotating the shoulders and end up arming the shot or hitting with a very short followthrough. The result is often a weak reply or an error.

Don't worry about trying to "jump" or come up off the court like the pros on the high balls. Just swing up through the shot. If the ball is high enough, and you generate sufficient energy from your swing, you may leave the court, but you won't have to think about it.

Running Balls

Another situation where it is natural to hit open stance is on wide or running balls where you have less time to set up. This is true even if the ball is lower and at a normal contact height. By using an open stance, you can execute an effective stroke in a briefer interval and keep the timing of the contact. Often the time required to step in will make the contact late.

Players need the ability to do this both on the forehand and the two-handed backhand. It applies as well on one-handed backhand, although it is used much less frequently on that side since one-handed players will often deal with wide and running balls by hitting slice.

Getting the outside foot positioned behind the ball is again the key to allow you to execute your normal swing and followthrough, even if you continue to move through the shot. (For a great article by Bob Hansen on positioning in this fashion, Click Here.)

Return of Serve

Returning a powerful serve is another example where it is often preferable to hit open stance. On the return, you may only have time to react and execute a compact swing. In this case, making a simple turn into an open stance is very effective. This is also true when the serve is hit directly at you on either side.

Notice that the preparation is still with the entire body, although the amount of turn, backswing, and followthrough may be somewhat compressed. Kerry Mitchell has written two excellent articles on the mechanics of the return swings that go into all this in greater detail. (Click Here.)

Volley

For the volley, particularly in doubles when all four players might be at the net, it is often more practical to hit open stance because the reaction time is so short. I often tell my students that unless they have to take crossover step to reach a volley they should try to hit open. This not only saves time, it allows them to keep facing the net and be ready for the return shot.

Open Stance Advantages

In all these various situations, open stance has certain advantages. First, with open stance you can recover more efficiently. On the groundstrokes or the returns, when you take the final step towards the net you also have to reverse that step to recover (or take an additional step with your outside foot). With an open stance you are already facing the net after the shot, and are naturally in the ready position.

Second, open stance can help minimize late hitting. It is easier to get your hitting arm and racquet to the contact point on time because you have eliminated one element, the step with the front foot, from the mechanics of the stroke. Over the years I have helped many a student who complained of hitting late by having them add an open stance to their game.

Open Stance Technique

One of the most important things to understand about open stance is that there is still a body turn. The players are turning as much and sometimes more than when they step in. It's important to initiate the motion with the turn, and the key to this, in my opinion, is to keep the opposite hand on the racket and not separate the hands too soon.

Another important point: find a swing speed which you can control. Hitting open stance does not mean you have to hit for power on every shot. Sometimes the solution is to slow down your hitting arm and racquet speed. If you are driving a car on a wet road and start to feel a loss of control, do you accelerate or slow down?

A third key is the length of the swing. The pros, because they swing so powerfully, and because the motions happen so fast, often appear to pull their hitting arms and racquets immediately across their bodies. But what your eye is seeing is usually what is happening at the end of the swing. If you watch frame by frame video in the Stroke Archive, you will see a much longer contact area than often appears to the naked eye.

Open versus Half Open

There are variations in open stances. Players hit with open stances of different widths, from quite extreme to relatively mild. When there is less time or the ball is hit directly at the player, you will see the opposite foot simply pivot and keeping the stance at the width of the split step. In this more extreme stance, the feet are at an equal distance from the net and a line drawn across the stance is parallel to the baseline.

But in most cases, the open stance is somewhat narrower than this, with the opposite foot ahead of the rear foot and closer to the net. The angle across the feet in this case can be more like 45 degrees.

What About the Injury Factor?

Finally, what about possible injury with open stance? This issue is often raised by people who are open stance critics or opponents. "Look how many pros are injured on the tour compared to the old days." Certainly when you see a player like Gustavo Kuerten who has had two hip surgeries while still in his twenties, it raises some questions.

But open stance is just one factor in the modern game that probably contributes to increased injury risk. Yes there is more rotation of the body with the open stance. But look at the explosive movement up into the air and around the court, with many players routinely sliding on hard courts. Look at the size and power of the athletes and how hard they are hitting the ball.

Many experts feel the two-handed backhand is more dangerous than the forehand. (Click Here to see what Scott Riewald says about that.) What about the rackets and the polyester strings? The lack of an off season? There is probably some combination of causes behind most of the injuries we see on the pro tour.

Most of these factors don't apply at the lower levels of the game anyway. And in fact you could make the opposite argument, that the appropriate stance allows players at all levels to execute the stroke more efficiently and therefore reduces risk. I believe if you add the open stance to your game you will be happy with the advantages it gives you in certain situations. Remember, give yourself as many options as you can to play tennis!