Your Strokes:
Param Srinivas Forehand

Analyzed by John Yandell

What can players and coaches learn from the resources of Tennisplayer - our incredible collection of articles and Stroke Archives? Could you learn to hit a perfect Roger Federer straight arm forehand for example? Could you do this at 10 years old?

If your name is Param Srinivas the answer is yes, or at least pretty close. Param's dad sent me this amazing piece of video. The family lives in India and has used the resources on Tennisplayer to build a gorgeous technical forehand for Param. He did something I wish more people would do, filmed at 60 frames per second with a shutter speed of 1/500th of a second. Make a note if you want your strokes considered for an article here!

I love it when I see examples of how our site is actually helping actual tennis players, especially young guys. Amazing to think he might be hitting this shot we helped him craft for the next 40 or 50 years.

A lot of people talk about the straight arm forehand. Some of them send me videos. But often times what they say or think is happening differs significantly from what the stroke clip shows.

The straight arm or straight elbow forehand is not just about the straight arm - that's only one element in the motion. What is more important than the hitting arm position in isolation is the whole constellation of technical elements - the body turn, the backswing, the body rotation, the contact point, the extension of the swing, the wiper, etc etc.

Let's remember there are plenty of great forehands hit with the other major hitting arm structure, the double bend. Including a guy named Novak Djokovic who is doing pretty well with it.

So just keeping your arm straight won't make you hit the ball like Roger Federer. But if you have the other components in place, well then, it just might be possible. And that what is so great about Param's forehand: the foundation and the mastery of all the elements that go into a sound technical motion, not just the arm position.

So when we look at the video, what do we see? Let's work through an analysis of his forehand and see what is so sound about it, but we'll make a few important suggestions as well.

First, you can't see exactly but from the orientation of the racket, Param is using some version of a modified eastern or mild semi-western. You need that grip if you want to model Federer!

And it's really great to see this kind of grip with young players, especially since so many default to the extreme under the handle grip and hit topspin moonballs. That may win some matches in the juniors, but in my opinion for the long run for most players, the Federer style grip is the much superior choice.

Now, let's look at the preparation. I've said it, written about it, given talks about it and often feel that I am repeating myself way too much. But then I go to a club and watch players hit forehands and see that the concept of the unit turn is still a mystery to most players.

It's the foundation of the motion, and when players send me video and ask complex technical questions about advanced elements in their forehands those questions are often irrelevant because of fundamental problems in the first move.

Watch how Param rotates his entire body: shoulders, hips and legs at the start of the motion. Many players try to turn their shoulders, but the hips and/or the legs get stuck and the shoulder turn often gets restricted as well. For the turn to be full, the left leg and foot need to come up and around as a unit. That's why we call it a unit turn, right? So Param does this effortlessly and naturally.

Watch also how he has keep both hands on the racket. When both hands stay on the frame, as we've seen so many times with pro players, the movement of the racket is initiated automatically by the body turn.

We see a lot of variation in the exact height and position of the hands and the angle of the racket among good players. So a lot of possibilities can be effective. But Param's motion matches Roger's virtually perfectly, so I don't see how that could be a problem.

In fact one of the things that I really like about Federer's preparation is how minimalistic and compact it is at the completion of the unit turn. I think this is easier for the average player to control than some of the larger motions that have a lot more upward hand movement, for example, like Juan Martin Del Potro.

But I do have one suggestion for Param at the start of the motion. His base in the ready position is too narrow. This probably because he is demonstrating his swing, not moving around or playing a match.

Still it would be better to have a wider base with some flex in the legs and also to do a split step at the beginning of the motion. This makes practice closer to reality, but it also helps players feel the role of the legs.

When you split you generate forces from pushing off the court that are going to transfer into the swing. You definitely want to incorporate this into the forehand even in practice from a single location on the court.

Left Arm

After the unit turn, Param's hands separate and his left arm starts to straighten across the body. Watch how compact the backswing stays.

Again the racket hand is at the same level as Roger's, about mid chest. And most impressive, look how his hand and racket stay on the right side of his body, unlike so many junior players who end up with the racket far behind the plane of the body. So this is a pro style backswing.

Like Roger, Param's left arm also goes across his body and points at the sideline. But I do have another suggestion here . Even though his arm goes across, he could stretch it a little harder and a little further. Notice his elbow is still somewhat bent.

Straighten that out completely and stretch it hard toward the sideline. When you do this as a player you feel the extra coiling in the shoulders, and that energy will then naturally release into the shot.

The feeling of the left arm stretch is in my view one of the great keys for the forehand - whether you hit straight or double bend. If you know this position and are comfortable with it, when you make it in the heat of match play you feel confident that you can unload on the ball.

Hitting Arm

Now we get to the straight arm set up. The face of the racket is naturally closed at this point in the backswing. This is due to the fact that Param, again like Federer, straightens his elbow out in the backswing descent.

But watch what happens next. The racket face now turns till it is close to on edge. The wrist lays back at something close to a 90 degree angle.

The shoulders start to rotate and the butt cap starts to go forward. Here we have the perfect straight arm set up. Compare it to Roger and see. Note again how the racket and hand have done this while staying on the player's right side. The correspondence is virtually perfect.

Contact

Now it's time for this superior preparation to pay off. Boom! Watch the acceleration to the contact. The shoulder rotate until they are parallel to the net.

The arm stays straight. The wrist remains laid back. And from the slight rear view we have of Param, you can really see how far out in front the contact with the ball is.

Again the correspondence with Federer is amazing. You can almost feel the racket head acceleration thumping the ball. But equally amazing is how smooth and effortless it looks. That of course is a Roger trademark.

One of the interesting issues here is the exact location of the contact point in relation to the double bend. Is it as far or farther in front? Probably farther. Is it more to the side? Again, probably. Both are topics worthy of future detailed study.

The key though is that with the conservative Federer style grip, the wrist angle remains laid back at contact. You can see how the shoulder rotation, hitting arm and wrist position are all interrelated in transferring energy to the ball.

Extension

I've also written extensively about this next factor, what I call the extension of the swing. That is the furthest point the racket reaches traveling upward and outward toward the target. (Click Here.)

The extension point can vary dramatically depending on what the player is trying to do with the ball, and the height of the contact. But one of the pitfalls of copying modern forehands is failing to develop this element in the basic drive.

This is because the motion happens too fast for the human eye to see and the extension point is just a few fractions of a second in that invisible motion. This is what makes video so critical.

Not to repeat myself, but again I love the correspondence between what Param is doing and the model. Of course the swing is on a curve and the hand and racket are coming across the body, but look how far out they are actually traveling while this is happening. This is what creates velocity.

Outside Leg

Now before Param gets too much praise, let's add another suggestion. Even though he positions himself well on the outside foot, he's not getting nearly enough out of his legs.

This is related to what we saw before about the split. The wide base and the knee flex should start the motion.

As the player sets up on the outside foot behind the ball, he should also coil as deeply as possible. This bending means the legs push off against the court in the forward swing. It's hard to over emphasize the importance of coiling that outside quad muscle because it's the single strongest muscle in the body.

Param has some bend but he not working hard with the legs. Compare the bend to Federer. Param is young and needs to get stronger as he grows which will make this effect greater. But it's something critical to work on now as well.

It should start with the split and the wide base and continue as he sets up. The lower body is just as critical as the more complex upper body swing mechanics.

Wrap

And now a final point about the modern forehand model. I am really tired of hearing commentators talk about the low finish. First, this obscures the critical role of the extension. Second, it usually doesn't really happen, or at least in the extreme version so many people talk about.

I've looked at hundreds and hundreds of Federer forehands. Occasionally you can find his hand wrapping around mid torso. These tend to be variation balls, though, short, low, sharp angles, heavy spins.

On his drives, in part because of his great extension, his racket usually wraps around mid shoulder. In the video it's possible Param is coming down a little too much, at least on the few balls we have to study.

That's a good check point to watch. Where does the hand actually finish? Other players may wrap lower on more balls, but then again Roger is our model here, isn't he?

So that's about it. It's really phenomenal to see what Param and his dad have done together. Also fun to be writing Your Strokes and not dealing so much with the same fundamental problems that crop up time and again.

Some of you older guys can take a note - the resources really are there to develop superior technique if you have Tennisplayer and a video camera. Keep it up Param and send us some video later on.