Your Strokes:
Shroud: Forehand
Analyzed by John Yandell
Over the years I've mentioned a few times that I like to "participate" on the TennisWarehouse message boards. By that I mean I have gotten into some epic fights. And given some free explanations of Tennisplayer insights. And had chances to interact with passionate tennis players and coaches worldwide.
One topic has been predominant. The dreaded, so-called Modern Forehand. I first encountered Shroud (his message board identity) in one of those forehand discussions about "lag and snap," a current buzz phrase that has mesmerized unsuspecting tennis wonks worldwide.
For more on Lag and Snap and it's relation to reality see John Craig's article Click Here. For my take on Lag and Snap among several other imaginary "modern forehand" concepts Click Here.
To summarize the message board discussion with Shroud: he had spent a long time working on compacting his backswing and getting his racket in position to "lag and snap," but with mixed results and a lot of confusion and frustration.
I told him that I thought if he could work through 2 key model positions in the forehand that were common to all good players, he could forget about trying to make "imaginary" things happen--and develop a reliable forehand that was powerful, consistent, and fun to hit. (Not by coincidence...see this month's teaching system article that outlines these 2 fundamental positions that make the forehand happen. Click Here.)
There was so much noise on the TW thread about my advice and about his forehand and about blah blah...that I finally said if Shroud wanted to come over to my court in San Francisco (since he was in the Bay Area), I would work with him at no charge, video him in high speed, and see if he thought what I was recommending would work.
So he came over. He can speak about it for himself in the our Forum--and I hope he will--but from my perspective it was a tremendously positive experience. He has already posted words to that effect on TW that have generated a lot of discussion. If you want to check it out the thread is called: John Yandell Rocks. (His title not mine, but I can't say I don't like it.) Click Here for that.
So getting down to his actual forehand, what did the video show? First that he had indeed done some great work in creating something close to a pure ATP style backswing. He just couldn't figure out why that alone hadn't made his forehand a reliable weapon.
The fact is there are many, many backswing variations that work for elite players and players at all levels. Many years ago I did a backswing study of the top players of the time: Sampras, Agassi, Kuerten, Hewitt, Safin, Roddick, Haas, etc.
All of them had backswings with very different shapes, heights, and spacings from the body. They all pointed the racket differently at the start of the motion. Some kept the racket and hand on the hitting side in the backswing, and some didn't. (Click Here.)
And it's the same with the current top players. Roger and Grigor Dimitrov have the pure "ATP" backswings as described by Brian Gordon, with both the racket hand and the racket itself s on the hitting side of the body. (Click Here.)
But Novak, Andy, Rafa and Stan don't have the pure version. For these players, the racket tip and sometimes even part of the hand can move behind the body plane. No one on our site could probably exchange forehand with Madison Keys and she takes the racket way, way behind her.
Don't get me wrong, compact is better and probably more powerful as well because of the way the backswing sets up the shoulders and hitting arm. I have been deeply influenced by Brian and that is what I teach and what I try to do myself.
But without other fundamentals the ATP backswing alone is meaningless. And all the great past and current players I have filmed have had those fundamentals, regardless of backswing shape.
What are they? First, great preparation will a full body turn, leg coiling and an appropriate stance. Second great extension in the forward swing outward and upward toward the other side of the net. These positions allow players to maximize loading energy and then, maximize releasing it into the shot.
And you know what? When I filmed Shroud he had the super compact backswing for sure, but the other two elements were partially or completely absent.
Instead Shroud's had two other technical components that are often extolled by "modern" teachers. A fully open stance. And a super quick wrap finish.
These elements were limiting his coil and his extension. They were effecting his ability to hit with power and consistency and even his ability to control shot direction.
Open Stance?
So first we addressed the preparation and the stance. Although we've looked at this many times on Tennisplayer over the years, there is still widespread confusion about the preferred stance in given situations.
Pro players do not in general hit with fully open stances. Fully opens means a line across the toes is parallel to the baseline or close to parallel.
Instead they work very hard to set up semi-open on most balls. Why? Because fully open stance reduces the coiling by reducing the hip turn.
True the shoulders turn more than the hips. The shoulders usually turn past perpendicular to the net, but there is significant hip turn as well with the front hip turning at least half if not two thirds as far. In fact a couple of years ago I did a detailed study of how his tendency to hit fully open was affecting Andy Murray's forehand by reducing his turn. (Click Here.)
This was exactly what was happening to Shroud. If you imagine a line across the tip of both of his shoes, it's basically parallel to the baseline. Look also at his hips. The stripes on those adidas warmups tell the tale. They are pointed too much toward the sideline and not enough toward the net.
His shoulder turn and his stretch of the left arm across the baseline were both great. But the hips were barely turned, far less than Nadal's or Federer's in the animations--and in fact far less than all good players when they have time to set up.
Without the hips there isn't the same rotational energy and the shoulders can tend to rotate too far to soon in relation to the motion of the racket in the forward swing. This probably explains why Shroud had a hard time hitting crosscourt on a regular basis. His torso was ahead of his hitting arm.
Wrap
The other major limiting factor was Shroud's lack of extension. Watch how quickly his racket comes across his body and starts to move backwards.
There is very little spacing between his racket hand and his torso in the followthrough. In fact it's almost like he might hit himself in the chest. Compare that to the extension in the Federer animation which appears to be almost 2 feet.
So, the analysis was, limited lower body turn and a quick short swing across the body. These were the two factors we worked on. I filmed him, showed him the video of himself, and then we looked at video of the key positions using pro models, the same key positions in the animations above.
Then we went on the court and modeled the positions physically. When Shroud tried to feel for the semi-open stance he had a hard time finding that 45 degree angle across the toes.
I suggested that he try for neutral stance instead, stepping across and forward with his left foot. This stance was actually a better solution at least right now to correct the hip turn problem, because it forced him to turn the hips sideways in order to step across.
Notice how the adidas stripes are now pointing almost directly at the net. It may seem like a relatively small change. Actually it's huge.
This what the pros do when the ball is at lower heights--step across with neutral stances--even extreme grip players like Nadal. And the reality is that most of the balls Shroud is likely to play are going to be at heights that can be well hit with neutral stance.
The stance balance is one of these issues that players work out over time. Shroud needed the cross step to get the feeling of the hip turn. But as he get's comfortable he may naturally or deliberately move to semi-open, which may be more natural with his extreme grip. It's something that time and experience will determine.
Extension
Next we worked on the second position--the extension of the motion. First, I gave Shroud the checkpoints.
Wrist at eye level. Racket hand even with the left side of the torso. And then the spacing between racket hand and the torso. Everyone's body proportions are different but for him it was about one and a half feet.
The image of this position is what controls the path of the forward swing. The swing is on an arc moving in three dimensions: outward, upward, and also across.
The question is what is the best path to hit a power topspin drive? If the racket comes up or across too soon or too late, it effects the balance between speed and spin.
The finish position I gave him ensures that the arc will be relatively close to the line of the flight of the ball and creates power and spin naturally and simultaneously. Of course it can also be varied to alter the shot characteristics--but that is a story for another story.
Then came a key point. I made Shroud close his eyes, visualize the checkpoints, then do practice swings with eyes open and closed, using the images to guide the swing and comparing his key positions to the checkpoints.
Now he was ready to hit balls. The result? A huge and almost immediate change in proximity to both positions. As he hit more he began making both positions more consistently.
All of a sudden the effort and the strain went out as well. The entire motion looked smoother, easier, more relaxed, more rhythmic. Now the wrap was occurring naturally at the end of the extension instead of being forced too early in the swing.
Paralysis
As anyone on the TW board knows, Shroud is what you could call an analytic guy. And that brings up a huge point that isn't understood and often fundamentally impedes change.
Words and movement don't mix. Of course we needed words to explain the problems we face and to understand the model positions that we want to move toward.
But to actually translate that information into physical tennis on the court, Shroud needed to cross into a different world--the world of image and feeling. It's not a coincidence that John McEnroe once said to me: "I see a shot flash across my mind and then I hit it."
To actually make his new forehand work, Shroud had to visualize the images of the key positions and also imagine how they felt as guides to execution while actually hitting. I believe this use of subverbal keys is how great players do everything on court and why they can seldom explain anything technical about their own amazing strokes.
I know from my experience as a player and a coach that this can be a fundamental, magical transformation. And Shroud had a taste of that. Let's see if he can keep it going.
