Your Strokes:
Anthony Forehand

John Yandell

I got an email from Anthony's dad Alex about Anthony's forehand. A coach he was working with wanted to reconstruct his forehand to a more classical model. So I asked Alex the dad to send me some high speed iphone video.

When I looked I was amazed. Anthony is 10, and here he was with most of the elements of Brian Gordon's mythical Type 1 pro forehand. Click Here.)

He had a semi-western grip, but not super extreme. Like many top players, he pointed the racket tip at the opponent at the start of the backswing.

The backswing then stayed compact, totally on the hitting side, the racket flipped and then Anthony went into what looked like a completely straight arm forehand. He had amazing forward extension on the swing and a full wiper.

It's a forehand that all the 3.5 players on the tennis message boards dream of having. I told Anthony's dad that it was up to Anthony and him whether they wanted to reconstruct it, but my opinion was, definitely don't.

And I think they may have been convinced. With that grip there would be no way to hit a “classic” forehand with an on edge forward swing.

But more importantly Anthony liked his forehand and wanted to hit it the way he was hitting it. For any player that should be a determining factor.

Split Step and Stance

But I did have suggestions. First his ready position. It may have been that he was just hitting easy rally balls, but he should be at least shoulder width with the feet with the knees flexed, and practice that on every ball. After the split, he should land even wider.

Next was his stance. His dad sent 4 shots and the stance was a little different in each one. On some of them he was stepping back into a fully open stance.

Anthony should strive to develop the classic semi-open stance. This means the weight loaded on his outside foot with good knee bend and his front foot offset so that a line across his toes is at about a 45 degree angle to the baseline, as the Federer example shows.

He can them vary that as necessary, hitting fully open when time is restricted, and stepping in with a neutral stance on lower and/or shorter balls.

Left Arm Stretch

Third was his left arm stretch. Anthony's left arm definitely goes across his body, but not far enough. You can see that this limits his shoulder turn somewhat.

The left arm should be straight and about parallel to the baseline and perpendicular to the sideline again like the Federer animation. He doesn't quite make that position.

I also asked his dad to film Anthony's forehand in relation to the bounce of the ball.

He should reach that full turn position on most balls either at the bounce or even shortly before. Anthony does complete his turn at the bounce. But again it should be fuller with the left arm really stretched, and that means the shoulders will turn a little further, going somewhat past perpendicular to the net.

I plan to stay in touch with his dad and see how his forehand progresses! Stay tuned!