Your Strokes:
Mike Widell Forehand

Analyzed by John Yandell

This month in Your Strokes we take a look at the forehand of Mike Widell from Chicago, an avid player and an early subscriber to Tennisplayer.

When I look at video of players one of the things you can usually sense is their feeling about the game, and I get a great feeling from the video Mike sent in. He loves tennis and you can see that in his face and his eagerness to hit. After looking at two videos he sent in, I concluded he had pretty darn good hands and eyes--he seemed to put the sweet spot on more balls than not.

So that was the good news. Then we get to his forehand technique....Well, the best we can say here is that--hopefully--it's all about to really improve.

In looking at the strokes of our subscribers for Your Strokes some themes are already pretty clear. There are some common, basic problems. These are in the key movements/positions: the preparation, the hitting arm, the contact point, and the finish. Together the positions form a dynamic model defining the shape of the stroke. Obviously the contact point is the critical point in any stroke. BUT without these other critical positions, getting the contact right is impossible.

The positions are pretty simple. I've written about them in detail in the Advanced Tennis section, in the article called "Common Elements Across the Grip Styles." (Click Here) I can see Mike's forehand being two levels better if he can get these basic positions closer to our models. So let's look and see what he needs to do.

Preparation

Great preparation is actually easy for players at any level to develop, but it still amazes me how many players don't make the basic turn position. I see it in college players and even pro players--those are usually the ones with the shaky or underpowered forehands. But Mike, don't feel too bad, Venus Williams got to be number one in the world with preparation that's not much better than yours.

Two of the most misleading and counterproductive phrases ever devised in teaching are: "Early racket preparation," and "Take your racket back early." It's NOT that you don't want to prepare your racket--you do. But what you really want to do is coil--or "load" to use a current trendy term--the muscles of the rest of your body to propel the racket forward with speed and control. To do this, sure, the racket needs to be in the right place--but it also has to be there at the right time, and in the right relationship to the rest of the body. The key to preparation isn't really the racket--it's the feet, the torso, and especially, the left arm.

To do this you need a unit turn, and then you need to complete the preparation with a full shoulder turn and with the left arm stretched across the body. Mike doesn't get there. He starts fairly well and makes a partial unit turn. But unfortunately he bails out on the preparation just at the critical point. His left arm stops moving across and actually goes back the other way. Look in the animation where his left arm is by the time the racket gets back near the top of the backswing.

We can compare it to Federer and Agassi--watch the shoulder turn and the left arm stretch. It goes to show the foundation is the same whether you are number one in the world, or just want to be the top 4.5 player in you club. I also picked Federer because Mike is using a similar pattern of racket movement on the backswing, turning the racket face to face the opponent. That's OK as a model, but Mike exaggerates the racket height. Look that Federer's racket head is actually lower at the highest point in the motion. Watch the left arm go across the body as well.

Note the height of Mike's racket compared to the Federer.

So the first thing he needs is to get that full turn. This means the left arm all the way across the body and the shoulders turned perpendicular to the net, and probably a little further. The next thing is to compact the backswing somewhat. If we look at his hands and racket in the ready position, they are pretty high. I think the backswing size would come done automatically, just by dropping the hands and pointing the racket tip more directly forward. Compare the stills of Federer and Agassi.

A better ready position is with the hands lower and the racket pointing more forward.

Hitting Arm Position

The second key is the hitting arm position. Mike never really sustains the full hitting arm position with the elbow tucked in and the wrist laid back. He flirts with taking the racket back behind his body, and recover too late. He hitting arm position is only partially correct. But instead his wrist comes forward and out of the laid back position. This Federer forehand is from a warmup and it's very interesting to see how with the same style backswing as Mike, he drops beautifully and natural into the hitting arm position.

The third key is contact. It's pretty obvious in the video that Mike is really late, making contact behind the front edge of his body. Early contact is impossible though when he bails out of the hitting arm position. So let's compare this to Federer and Agassi. The hitting arm position is what makes it possible to make contact in front of the body. It's also critical to allow the shoulder rotation to drive the forward swing.

Improving the hitting arm position should make a big difference for Mike. Once the wrist is laid back, he'll be able to use the palm of the hand to push the racket forward. The image should be with the palm of the hand and the tip of the racket both pointing at the sideline at a right angle. The wrist is laid back at the hit and several frames thereafter. (See Myth of the Wrist. Click Here.)

Compared to the model position, Mike's contact is behind the front edge of his body.

Finish Position

The leaves us with the third key, the finish. Mike actually has an advanced finish move in which he rotates his hand and turns his racket over, the way we saw that Roger Federer hits most of his forehands. (Click Here.) But it looks to me like this is mainly just compensation for being so late at contact. Look at the spacing of his finish. He never makes it all the way across the body. His hand is just a few inches in front of his torso. Compare this to Agassi, even when he turns his hand over. The spacing indicates two things--early contact and movement of the racket head through the shot.

To develop this I think the first thing Mike needs to do is go back and learn more of a classic finish with the racket more vertical or on edge. Look at the Agassi animation of the finish on a more basic drive. The racket stays almost vertical. The wrist is at eye level. The forearm is about 45 degrees to the court. But look especially at the spacing between his hand and his left shoulder. It's probably something like 18 inches to 2 feet. Mike is barely finishing in front of his body. I think he should give up the arm role for now. If and when he does use it, he needs to extend the finish and get the spacing with the torso better.

So the bottom line is Mike need to move closer to those 3 key positions, the full turn, the hitting arm, and the finish. The way to do this? You can't just read this article and head to the court. You need to physically develop the model positions with the checkpoints. The best way to do this on your own is in front of a mirror. You need to be able to execute the swing correctly without the ball and pass through the positions with the correct checkpoints. My experience is that if you can't do that, you'll never implement them on the court, despite your best intentions and hard work. Create the positions physically. Now close your eyes and develop a mental image of the positions including the checkpoints. Learn to execute the whole swing both with your eyes open, and with your eyes closed.

The final step (not the first step) is to go to the court. How do you activate the new stroke pattern while actually hitting balls? Right, through the mental imagery of the keys! Experiment with visualizing each of the key positions. Eye on the ball, mind's eye on the key image. The image works like a blueprint to guide the stroke.

Video tape your swing without the ball and get the keys right. Now compare this to your swing when you actually hit. How close are you to the model? Work over time to make the model and the actual stroke correspond as closely as possible. That's the process Mike needs for changing his forehand, and it's the same for any stroke. Next month we'll change it up and look at the two-handed backhand of one of Mike's buddies. Stay tuned.