Your Strokes:
Ryan Dickerson Forehand

Analyzed by John Yandell

If you've noticed I haven't published a Your Strokes article for a few months. The reason is that the fundamental problems most players have are quite similar, and it started to feel that the analyzes were getting repetitive.

Then I got some video from coach and long time subscriber Kevin Patrick. I'd worked with Kevin on his own game several years ago in San Francisco and done one of the first Your Strokes on his forehand. (Click Here.)

So I was interested when he sent me video of Ryan Dickerson. Kevin is a hitting partner for Ryan, who is a top 50 national junior and headed to Division 1 college tennis.

The Tennisplayer Protocol

One thing that was great was that Kevin used a high speed camera with a high speed shutter and filmed Ryan from both the side and rear angles. He also filmed with the player relatively tight in the frame.

The result was that it was possible to see what was happening very clearly. It's the protocol I use myself on my court in San Francisco, and I recommend it for anyone who wants to do the most effective possible video analysis.

When I looked at the video, it was like Ryan had developed his strokes based on everything that we've learned on Tennisplayer over the last 10 years. And it turns out that was pretty much the truth.

Ryan's dad Steve is a high school coach in New Jersey who taught his son to play. From the start he used oncourt video and stroke models downloaded from Tennisplayer.

That gives me a lot of satisfaction because facilitating that ex process was a goal I had in launching Tenniplayer. It is something that had never really existed before, and still doesn't exist outside the confines of our site.

It still amazes me that so many players take so many lessons for so many years and see so little change. Meanwhile the video analysis process is so powerful, so effective, so rewarding, and also, fun.

When I looked at Ryan's video over I decided that this article would be different. An analysis of a young player who was himself an excellent technical model for modern technique. This month we'll start with his forehand and then go one to the backhand in the future.

Grip

Ryan's grip looks about what we call a 4 / 4 in Tennisplayer lingo. (Click Here for more on that.) That means both his index knuckle and his heel pad are predominantly on the fourth bevel down from the top of the frame.

It what I call a strong or extreme semi-western, but it's still less extreme than players like Djokovic or Nadal. I wouldn't recommend this for most club players, but it is very common in high level junior play.

Why? It creates more topspin naturally by making the forward swing plane steeper. But the main reason is that the natural range of contact heights is better suited to dealing with the higher balls that are the norm in elite junior tennis as well as every level on up to the pros.

Preparation

I have to admit I get depressed when I see the preparation of so many players--even high level junior players--especially when the principles of a great turn are so well known and easy to apply.

But it's not a problem in Ryan's forehand. His turn is as strong as any of the top pros. The turn starts with the rotation of the entire body. Both hands are on the racket.

The left arm then straightens and stretches across to the players right. The shoulders reach 90 degrees and usually more to the net.

The chin turns across the left shoulder. This is combined with the coiling or knee bend on the outside or left leg.

Ryan's forehand has all that. But what is also excellent is the timing. Watch how he makes the full turn position when the ball is bouncing on the court. Go watch club tennis and see how few players achieve this critical position, much less at the right time.

As Ryan is turning his racket also moves to the ATP backswing position. For more detail about what that is and why it is so powerful and advantageous, check out how both Brian Gordon (Click Here) and Rick Macci (Click Here) have explained it.

Look at Ryan's "outside" position. His hand is at about shoulder level and to the right of his body. The racket head is pointed up at about a 45 degree angle and the racket face is slightly closed. This is a key check point that any player can use and resolves the confusion from the huge variations we see in pro tennis.

Also notice the Nadal-like adjusting steps to get into a semi-open stance. Remember the fully open stance is not the norm in the pro game, whatever certain "modern" exponents claim.

The semi-open stance predominates, as it should in the preparation phase at all levels. This means the feet are lined up so that a line across the toes is at an angle of about 30 to 45 degrees to the baseline.

From this position the player can shift the weight left in the semi open as the swing begins, or he can step into a neutral stance when appropriate, something that is more common at the club level with less extreme grips and lower contact heights.

From set up position you can literally see Ryan's racket accelerate as the swing starts forward and the racket "flips." This is how the shoulder muscles get turbocharged, as Brian Gordon puts it.

The racket and hand stay on the right side and move forward to the contact point. Look how Ryan makes contact beautifully in front of his body.

The hitting arm structure is a classic double bend, elbow bent and wrist laid back. We know that the straight arm forehand is very trendy, as used by Federer and Nadal.

But there is a guy named Djokovic who hits the forehand pretty well with the double bend structure. In any case I think players should develop the arm shape naturally.

You can always experiment with moving to a straighter arm if you feel the desire. It might be better or worse for your forehand and your level. But the choice of hitting arm structure is far less important than having the other fundamentals.

Followthrough

Speaking of which, watch how Ryan combines the two critical elements in the followthrough. These are the extension outward toward the other side of the court and the hand and arm rotation or the windshield wiper.

The wiper is necessary with his grip structure to get the racket all the way through the swing. But many players with his type of grip tend to turn the hand and racket over without extending far enough outward.

This tends to skew the speed/spin balance and results in a ball that is loopy and lacking depth and velocity. So forward extension is critical for all possible grip variations.

After the extension and rotation, watch how Ryan's racket naturally decelerates in the wrapping motion back toward the body. This wrap can go upward over the shoulder, or more around the body.

It's the relaxation phase and should happen automatically with the right extension in the followthrough. Trying to make the wrap happen is another common mistake made by players trying to play modern tennis. It has the same effect as too much emphasis on the wiper. It shortens the extension and reduces depth and pace.

Finally notice what happens to Ryan's shoulders. When players load with the shoulders and legs and explode upward off the court into the contact, they tend to rotate the torso much further. This is a commonality across the grip styles.

Ryan finishes with his rear shoulder almost perpendicular to the net. If you as a player are making contact at similar ball heights, this should happen naturally and automatically as a function of the explosion in the forward swing. If you are a club player where the velocity and energy are a much lower level, don't worry about trying to make this happen.

Conclusions

I see no fundamental problems with Ryan's forehand, in fact the opposite. But two questions occur.

First, is Ryan slightly overrotated at contact? His front shoulder at least in these balls appears rotated past parallel to the baseline. This puts the contact slightly past the middle of the torso rotation pattern. Would it make sense to experiment with holding a split second longer before firing?

Second, even though his backswing is probably more compact than Nadal, would it be worth experimenting by compacting it slightly more. To do this he could keep his hand slightly lower and move a little sooner to the ATP outside backswing position.

Those are questions that could be helpful to address or insignificant. If everyone in the tennis world was remotely close to the technical positions in Ryan's forehand, they'd probably have to change the NTRP rating system.