Your Strokes:
Sam Forehand

John Yandell

I enjoy collaborating with other coaches, and especially ones who make extensive use of video in their own work. So when my friend Miles Bentley asked to watch me work on the court I suggested he bring one of his students.

Sam is going into high school next year and is playing tournaments. He plans to go out for tennis at a private Bay Area powerhouse high school in the fall, assuming that is possible by then. He's already an accomplished player, but Miles wanted to get my opinion on his forehand, so they came to my private court in San Francisco.

When we videoed Sam, I didn't see anything deeply, fundamentally wrong. But when you look frame by frame at high speed video, you see possible adjustments that could make a real difference.

I know there is a rage for Federer style outside backswings and for straight arm hitting. Sam didn't have either of these but to me that isn't some kind of fundamental deficiency.

These elements are actually not that common in elite players, even at the tour level. Brian Gordon is probably correct when he says that the game is going that way, including on the women's side, and definitely correct when he says that Roger and Rafa with their straight arms are the epitome of optimized forehand technique. (Click Here.)

I also understand that when Brian starts with young, elite juniors who are going to compete nationally he wants to bake in those more advanced elements, and he has produced many players who exhibit them beautifully. (Click Here.)

But a lot of people at lower levels torture themselves focusing on these super high level elements and at the same time are oblivious to what is actually sound in their strokes and what smaller changes they could make to improve them. Even Brian openly declares that few players can achieve a true straight arm forehand.

So what did the video show about Sam? If you have followed my work on Tennisplayer you know that I think the first forehand fundamental is having a great turn and stretching out the left arm across the baseline. When we looked at Sam he definitely was extending his left arm, but in high speed you could see that his arm was a little shy of parallel to the baseline, or put another way, as he turned it didn't quite reach perpendicular with the sideline.

So we looked at Novak Djokovic, who has a grip similar to Sam's, and used that as model. Novak hangs on to the racket for a while longer than many pro players in his initial turn but then he straightens and stretches his arm to an ideal model position, again with the arm parallel to the baseline and perpendicular to the sideline.

We had Sam model that physically. We had him do this eyes open and eyes closed. And I asked him to create an internal mental image of this position and the feeling that went along with it.

Then I asked him to use the image like a blueprint. Visualize it with his mind's eye. Project the image into space, and then cover the image with his actual arm and racket as his motion started.

Subtle difference but a big difference! His shoulder turn increased a substantial increment. There was instantly more velocity and more depth!

But the one thing we could still see his motion was, and again, this was relatively minor--but obvious--was his torso was slightly over rotated at contact. Rather than being essentially parallel to the baseline, his rear shoulder came around somewhat further.

So now we turned to what happened to his left arm in the forward swing, after the stretch across the body. That arm actually was swinging around and ending up behind him, and this I think was what was causing the over rotation.

Once again we turned to Novak as a model. I showed Sam how Novak pulled his left elbow in toward the torso and how his hand pointed forward toward the net.

Once again I had Sam create this position physically and then created the internal mental image/feeling as told him to again use this as a mental blueprint. To his credit Sam immediately incorporated the change.

The result was that he had made two significant incremental changes in his forehand motion. The motion looked better, the ball was bigger and more consistent, and most importantly Sam could feel the changes, was happy with the changes--and so was Miles.

A final step was to have Sam write down these new keys as he had experienced them. Some players I have to dictate to in this process, but not Sam.

I handed him a pad and a pen and he took over, writing down exactly what we had worked on and how to key it. He even drew some diagrams.

So the results were super positive. It's one thing to look at video. Miles is going to keep an eye on Sam with his own high speed video as he works the changes in practice and in matches and report back to me. I think there is going to be palpable improvement!