Forehand Differences:
Pro Women and Pro Men

Jason Frausto

As a teaching professional for the last ten years, I’ve noticed big technical differences between men’s and women’s forehands from the pro level all the way down to the junior ranks. 

Talking to other coaches, I’m not alone in this perception, and I think we will learn even more about these differences when Brian Gordon begins his forehand article series on Tennisplayer next year. 

What I’ve noticed is also consistent with the spin data developed by Advanced Tennis Research (Click Here) that shows that players like Nadal, Federer, and Roddick hit with much greater ball rotation on forehands compared to their female counterparts on the WTA tour. 

In this article, I’d like to break down the differences I see based on video in the Stroke Archive.  Theses differences are in the size and shape of the backswing, the configuration of the hitting arm, and the path of the forward swing.

I also want to talk about my personal experience coaching women and what happens when you try to teach female players to hit a forehand with male technique. 

In the pro video the technical differences between men and women are unmistakable.  But this raises several questions.  What causes the differences?  Is one technique better and more efficient?  Should the answer be different for men and women?  Finally, is the answer different at different levels of play?

Racket Tip

The first difference is the way the players point the tip of the racket at the start of the motion.  Most of the men point the tip of the racket forward toward the opponent at the start of the backswing.  The angle of the face of the racket can be somewhat, but the shaft of the racket is angled forward at a 30 to 45 degree angle.

For the women, the tip goes upward.  Shortly after the hands separate, players like Maria Sharapova and Serena both have the tip of the racket pointing directly upward so that the shaft is perpendicular to the court.

Elbow Position

The second difference is that as the racket goes back, the women tend to keep the elbow of the hitting arm lower and closer to their bodies.  The elbow is tucked into toward the torso, almost touching the player’s waist. 

In comparison at the start of the motion most male players keep the elbow higher and further away from the body.  This affects the shape of the hitting arm.  If you look closely, you see most of the male players get the hitting arm into a V position while the non hitting hand is still on the throat of the frame.  Most of the women have let go with the opposite hand at the same point in the swing.

Left Arm and Wrist

From this position, two things happen.  For the men, when the hands separate, the left, opposite arm stretches out straight across the body pointing more or less directly at the sideline.  With the women the arm doesn’t usually straighten out fully.  The opposite arm goes part way across the body, but usually not pointing fully at the sideline.

For the women, the second thing that happens is that they begin to lay back the wrist.  This is different from the men who tend to have the wrist in a neutral and more relaxed position at this point of the swing.  For the men, the lay back tends to occur later in the backswing, much closer to the start of the forward swing.

Hand Position

What happens next may be most telling.  As they continue with the backswing the women tend to take the racket behind the edge of the body.  From the front view, the racket can disappear behind the torso.  The tip of the racket can point back behind the body at a 45 degree angle or more.

In contrast, the men keep the hand and the tip of the racket on the right side of the body.  The tip of the racket points backwards at the back fence or slightly further, but not much and the racket hand is clearly visible from the front view.

Swing Arc

These differences in the hand position at the completion of the backswing have a big effect on the shape of the forward swing.  For the women, the forward swing is much more circular, starting more from the left and coming forward on a noticeable curve toward the contact.

The arc of the forward swing for the men appears to be significantly flatter.  The racket is traveling more directly forward to the contact on less of a curve.  This makes sense since the hand is starting the forward swing from further to the right.

So to recap, the men point the tip more forward during the first part of the backswing and keep the elbow higher further from the body.  They stretch the left arm further across the body and tend to keep the wrist neutral longer.  They finish the backswing more on the right side, and this means they come more directly forward into the ball.

The women point the tip more upward, with the elbow lower and closer in.  They don’t stretch the arm as far across the body, and set up the laid back wrist position earlier.  They take the hand and the racket further behind them, and swing to the ball on a more circular path.

The Female Exception

Of course these differences aren’t universal.  Justine Henin had a picture perfect male forehand.  She hit the same technical checkpoints as the men and had one of the best forehands on tour during her playing days.  As great as her backhand was she would routinely run around it to pound inside out forehands.

Her ability to drive the ball with spin on her forehand side seemed to differ from the majority of women on the WTA tour and I would imagine much of that had to do not only with her strength and footwork, but also her desire to play a more male oriented game against the other women.

Svetlana Kuznetsova and Ana Ivanovic are two other players who have some of the male forehand elements. Neither of these players go as far back on the backswing as players like Sharapova or Davenport, but the hand position is still further back than Henin on most of the clips in the Stroke Archive.

So if Justine can do it why can’t the rest of the women on tour?  Strength has a role in all of this.  Men are naturally stronger and can produce more pace and spin with a smaller swing than a woman typically can.  But the issue of training may come into play as well. 

So far as I am aware, Henin is the only player to specifically model the elements of the men’s technical forehand.  Although it is not widely known, her coach Carlos Rodriquez studied high speed footage of Andre Agassi’s forehand provided by John Yandell and used it to reshape Justine’s motion.

Advantages?

But a fair question is whether making similar technical changes would result in a clear advantage for most women players.

If you look at the top 10 players on the WTA tour most still hit the ball relatively flat when compared to the men.  Why don’t women strive to generate a heavier, more male oriented ball?

That’s pretty easy to answer.  The fact is that women don’t cover the court as well as the men.  You don’t see women staying in cross court rallies as long as the men.  Often times they’ll take the ball down the line early on with pace, because it hurts the opponent or wins them the point. 

Typically it takes more quality shots to get a ball past a high level ATP player.  For the women, one big shot down the line can often get the job done and win points for players like Sharapova or the Williams sisters. 

So, as Rick Macci has pointed out (Click Here) the men and women are playing different games.  This may explain the backswings.  In the quest for the racket head speed they need to hit hard, flat winners the women are taking larger backswings.  If this swing pattern is working, why bother changing it? 

Of course the game will continue to evolve and it is very likely that more and more women will develop the technique that is more universal on the men’s side.  Time well tell about the results.

What to Coach?

I’ve been teaching this male oriented technique to junior girls for a few years and it can be very interesting to see what happens.  What I’ve noticed that although many female players can make the technical positions on the male backswing described above, time and time again these girls tend to revert naturally to what their body wants to do. 

My thoughts on this from trial and error are to teach junior girls the male oriented technique, and if it sticks, fantastic.  They may very well improve their ball striking and results. 

But if it doesn’t stick, it’s important to understand that their technique probably won’t cause them major problems against most opponents the way the women’s game is currently played.

I’m sure as high speed video analysis is used more and more in coaching, you’ll see more women come along that don’t bring the racket fully behind them during the backswing.  But at this point in time it works quite well for them and it’s hard to argue with the results.

As the game evolves and court coverage improves the women might be forced to play a heavier game that involves playing more crosscourt shots, and opening the court more outside the singles lines.  If that happens it might force changes in
the forehand technique that currently seems more natural for women players.