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Forehand
Dr. Jose Li (www.adhd-tennis.org)

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Lesson 1: Manage mind and arm first

The average ball flight time for an 80-mph forehand is about 1.3
seconds. At the end of the flight time, when the ball bounces forward,
the receiver needs to respond to the ball by:

 reacting (human beings' reaction time is about 0.2 seconds)

 acting in multitasks (e.g., grip change, hit zone setup, and ball strike).

The mind's path in ball striking follows the "3C" sequence. In about a 1-
second time span, as a process: Consider (requiring sound judgment),
Converge (requiring good habits) and Concentrate (requiring discipline).
Below figure illustrates my converging mind pyramid, which explains the
mind target in a dynamic fashion.

In the last 1/200th of one second (~5ms) at contact, when the ball is fully
compressed, our eyes cannot see the ball on the sweet spot, but our minds
can "see" the ball impacting the racquet by imagination and sensation. If our
eyes are busy to radar everything (called "bouncy eyes") on court, our mind
cannot guide to time the ball right.

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Tennis play is done by arm and hand with the racket. However, arm and
hand are “trouble makers” in most cases. Let us fix these “trouble makers”
first.

“Great Wall stance” is about the arm/racket position to receive ball at

contact in forehand. This stance with two 90 degree bents between arm and
racket focuses on the shape of hitting arm to support the racket contacting to
the ball. It serves two purposes:

1) Keep the racket face vertical; and 2) support the ball hitting to the
sweet spot of the racket.

The “Great Wall” is a kind of buzzword reflecting the key meaning of this
stance: the body support has to be as stable as the Great Wall!

To achieve those two 90 degree bents with desirable orientation of your

racket relating to the forearm, the two common instructions are:

(1) Relaxing muscles in upper arm and shoulder, too much tension with
tight muscles cannot achieve 1st bent (in arm).

(2) Keeping the wrist “laid back” and locked at contact for forming the
2nd bent (in hand/racket).

You can see the “GWS” is nothing new but highlighting the importance of
the body stability behind the ball at contact.

Let us create a visualization image in our minds with this “GWS” shown
below:

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Tennis is NOT about swing racket to the ball simply because of one reason:
tennis is NOT baseball! In high-level tennis, skill of “waiting” the ball is
even more effective than “chasing” the ball.

In Chinese martial art, “standing still and straight” is taught first before any
movements are taught. Swim coaching also starts with body balance
instruction first (see shark fin stance photo below). Stance, Stance and
Stance.

That is why we should learn this static stance first in forehand.

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Lesson 2: Contact, the core of tennis
Great Wall stance (GWS) is for a solid contact between racket and ball.
The contact is the “core” of tennis. Every thing is for THIS moment, which
normally takes ~ 1/200 seconds. We address arm/hand position first, than
to racket/ball interaction at contact.

Understanding racket/ball interaction can make learning new forehand more

“meaningful”. Below photos show this kind of interaction right before and
after the contact as well as in the forehand contact.

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Those three factors controlling forehand quality, the pace (mph), spin (rpm)
and ball striking angle are determined after contact. When we know how to
make the right contact in play, we can make our shots more powerful and
controllable.

In forehand, there are 7 stroke keys in a hitting sequence: body turn, align
racket cap to the ball, pull the racket, contact, lift and push the racket, wipe
and follow through finish.

I believe that the contact stroke key should be taught first. Other stroke keys
are just designed for making better contact in a more repeatable fashion. Our
tennis coaching should follow this logic path.

What else can we learn from this contact stroke key?

From high-speed video visualization analysis, we can study how tennis pro
hits to contact. There are two important features in this contact phase:
a) Racket and ball meet vertically at contact; and
b) Ball is compressed at racket sweet spot.
It happens in 5 ms, or 1/200 second, which cannot be clearly seen by human
eye. Below photos show this critical moment (taken by 210 fps digital
video): Ball is compressed!

It can “stick” to the racket for a prolonged time. This is a simple concept for
improving control. The question is how to get ball compressed?

If we look at those forehand shots generated by tennis pros, we can find the
following commonalities:
a) Racket in vertical orientation

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 b) Hit ball on “sweet spot”

“Vertical and sweet spot contact’ is easy to say, but difficult to do.
“Vertical” is the only 1 of 360 degrees the racket orientation needs to be
positioned; and sweet spot is only small portion of racquet face. To meet
both requirements at the same time, it is even harder! The most common
coaching is: Look the ball at contact!

Wait a minute; can Federer really see the ball at contact?

Does it make sense to look the contact to see what really happens during the
contact in 5 ms? The answer is yes as long as your mind (not your eyes!)
is on the ball during the impacting. For most of players, it is easier to look at
the ball than mind the ball at contact.

Federer does see the ball at contact (with his mind). If other players feel the
ball by their minds even though they do not look at the ball, they still can hit
a clean shot.

For a better contact, a pro normally trace the coming ball with his eyes up to
the hitting zone. I believe that Federer gazes the ball at contact not because
he can see the ball in 5 ms. His secret is that he keeps his head “static” at
contact so that his whole body maintains a stable position.

This static head position at contact is Federer’s signature post.

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Lesson 3: Seven Stroke Keys in
Forehand
The seven stroke keys in forehand are:

a) Body turn; b) align racket cap to the ball; c) pull and torque the racket;
d) contact the ball; e) lift and push the racket; f) wipe/brush and g)
follow-through

I summarize those stroke keys in a pyramid based on 3 critical concepts

addressed in lesson 1 and 2: mind, stance and contact

Jose's forehand coaching system (TM)

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At beginner level, I coach forehand as “1-2-3”: turn - contact - follow
through
At intermediate level, I add 2 more keys in forehand as “1-2-3-4-5”: turn –
point – contact – wipe – follow through
At competitive level, all 7 keys need to be addressed as “1-2-3-4-5-6-7”:
turn – point – pull – contact – push – wipe – follow through

Remember, contact is most important stroke key. Other stroke keys are
designed for achieving a better contact.

Below I create two drills to practice forehand for improving pace, timing and
spin control:

Level 1 drill: focusing on leg stance and body weight transfer.

Level 2 drill: focusing on shoulder turn and hand orientation.

Level 1: hit high ball with pace (80mph) in forehand

turn contact follow-through

In this level, basically just follow Dr. David Porter’s instruction as: load –
explode – land, which are done in keys: turn – contact - follow through

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In the load mode, body weight is on the inside of outside leg. In the explode
mode, jumping helps to hit ball at high zone. In the land mode, body weight
shifts to another leg. Two distinctions are a) body is always in balance in
these three modes; and b) body weight moves forward to help generating
power. There is a wrong perception that open stance forehand only
addresses body angular move rather than linear forward. If you use the
yellow “+” as a reference, you can see the body moves forward “a lot”!

Level 2: hit high ball early with pace in forehand

point/pull racket butt contact windshield/wipe

In this level, timing is added into consideration in training. Rather than

swing to the ball, which has poor timing, racquet cup pointing and pulling
toward the ball “until the last second” is the key.

Shoulder turn is the main element in this level. 180 deg turn can be seen:
front shoulder “eye” the coming ball before contact; and back shoulder
“eye” the leaving ball after contact. The follow-through has two key
elements: a) racket windshield with a wiping motion; and b) shoulder turns
the 2nd 90 deg.

In shoulder only turns 90 deg to the contact (without 2nd 90 deg turn), hitting
arm has to go around the head to provide energy outlet.

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Lesson 4: Catch and Throw
When ball is compressed, you can throw it forward with better control.
However, a ball might not be easily compressed if not hitting to the sweet
spot. Swing too much leads to mis-hit. Baseball type of swing is very
harmful here. If you do like to think any synergy between baseball and
tennis, try to link baseball receiving rather than batting to this “catch” in
contact.

So forget about “Swing back then Swing forward” to the ball, try to use
Great Wall position (stance) to “Catch then Throw” the ball. Better
contact can be trained by simply changing the mindset, the way to think
about the contact. In any sports, imagination is needed especially in speed-
oriented sport. When hitting to contact, imaging the “Lacrosse” as a
“Catch” and “Frisbee” as a “Throw”. If you use western grip, Frisbee throw
is a good drill.

Below photos show how Federer does his free forehand by “catch and
throw”: he does not swing his racket backward then forward!

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Below drill is to help to “forget about swing” and achieve “catch and throw”
in forehand:

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 Forearm rotation contact brush/push
Catch Throw

Trunk (hip) internal rotation is under looked in forehand instruction.

However, this part is the “core” in kinetic chain as a linkage between legs
and upper body. It does the critical job to generate power. Adding topspin
requires extra energy (inverting spin and increasing high rpm). Trunk turn is
the key!

When we say, “hit the ball”, it does not mean, “swing to the ball”, it means
“rotating the forearm to catch the ball at sweet spot”.

To generating topspin, no racket “roll-over”! Instead, “brush the ball up and

push the ball forward” do the job. This job can also be called “throwing the
ball” (after catching).

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Lesson 5: Topspin forehand

Professor Howard Brody, author of “Tennis Science for Tennis Players”

tried to quantify the margin of errors by using a term called “vertical angular
acceptance”, which is defined by the angle difference between two ball
trajectories limited by net height and baseline. He studied the correlation
between the forehand speed and margin of error (shown in a figure below).
Fastball tents to have fewer margins of error. Practically speaking, the
vertical angular acceptance has to be >= 5 deg for most of players so that the
margin of error can be manageable.

Topspin is the major solution to improve the margin of error without

compromising ball speed.

Tennis racket and ball contact is the primary source to generate spin. Does
racket “roll over” at end of contact practical in topspin forehand?

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300 years ago, Newton saw that a tennis ball (not the same tennis now)
“struck with an oblique racket" would curve with spin.

Borg was one of the first top players to use heavy topspin on his shots
consistently. Borg used to discribe his topspin forehand as following:

“…I snap my wrist upward in a sweeping motion rolling the racquet face
over at the end of contact and carrying the racquet over my left shoulder on
the follow-through often so it is pointing directly behind me. The secret of
my forehand is dropping the racquet head below the ball so that upward
swing can produce wild topspin. No golf hip forward. I do sacrifice depth by
my heavy emphasis on spin, but I think consistency is more important, not
hitting over the base line nor hitting into the net…”

Racquet face rollover sounds like a secret weapon in Borg’s topspin

forehand.

That “rollover” effect at the end of contact is considered to “prolong” the

contact between racket and ball. However, it not commonly seen in

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Federer’s topspin forehand at all. It might be seen in Ping Pong table
tennis, but not practical in tennis.

The most common topspin stroke key is “brushing up + pushing forward” at

the end of contact to right after the contact. See photo below:

Actually, the more tilting down your racket, the worse in net clearance. If
the racket is tilted to 90 deg as the extreme case like “rollover”, the ball
trajectory will look unfavorable, which totally defeat the purpose of topspin
advantage in forehand.

We can consider the racquet tilting as the early form change in the follow-
through phase after contact (not during the contact). For instance, the racket
is already tilted when we do “windshield” motion. In other word, the
racquet face is tilted very late rather than during the contact. However, we
normally do not call it as racket “tilting” or “roll over” as an extreme in the
follow through phase AFTER contact. In this phase, our eyes might be
fooled that some players are doing racket “roll over” since the ball striking
speed is so fast. Their racket is already out of contact of the ball. The
racquet face orientation moves like we are wiping the car window in
forehand follow-through simply for one biomechanical reason: kinetic
energy needs an outlet after firing the strike on the ball.

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Lesson 6: Racket orientation
Below photo shows a common racket orientation seen in recreational tennis.
What is wrong with this racket orientation?

Power comes from the body kinetic chain in forehand. The ball striking
comes from the forearm rotation impacting to the ball at contact, not from
the simple racket swing. Racket swing does not provide the power. It
messes up accuracy and consistency as well.

We know big racket swing (back and forward) does not help timing.
Actually, timing the contact is very difficult when both racket and ball are in
moving towards to meet the desirable location and angle. The practical
solution is to rotate forearm rather than swing the racket impacting the ball.
By doing this, let racket more close to the coming ball then do striking: we
have more time to act. The key instructions are:

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 (a) Let hand and racket butt leads the racket (racket head is
trailing) before forearm rotation to the contact
(b) Our body can be in the “load” mode early, but hold the forearm
rotation until last second to trigger impacting the ball.

Based on these new concepts to improve timing for accuracy and

consistency in forehand, we address the following stroke key as “point and
pull” of the racket butt.

After studying tennis pros forehand stroke keys, one commonality is seen:
they point the racket butt to the coming ball even the ball is just about to
bounce to the hitting zone. This stroke key is independent of racket grip and
standing stance. This racket orientation was used by tennis legend 50 years
ago when a combination of continental grip and open stance is seen in below
photo.

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To help players build visual images in forehand, a useful drill with flash bar
can be practiced (see photo above).

In the game, players normally point the coming ball with the racket butt until
the ball is so close to the racket butt. They do not rush to rotate the forearm
hitting to contact until last moment. This type of “delay” helps players to
have better control: aligning, pulling and then hitting to contact at sweet
spot.

How about the racket orientation after contact, e.g. in the phase of follow-
through? Let us discuss the racket orientation in “reverse forehand”.

If Nadal hits high ball forehand in the clay court, you will see lots of
“reverse forehand”. His racket is just turning around above his head rather
than around his shoulder after follow-through. This is his way to deal with
high ball (or far ball) when his body is not in perfect balance position.

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High and far ball can put the receiver in a defense position at an
“emergency” condition. This player might not have time to adjust your
footwork well, e.g. no time to put your weight on the inside of the outside
leg in the open stance. From biomechanical point of view, if the body is not
in a good balance position when hitting a high or far ball right after contact,
it is very hard to have shoulder turned (I mean the 2nd 90 degree shoulder
turn). If using normal follow-through with the shoulder turn, the player
might fall down the ground when body is not in a balanced position.
However, the kinetic energy after hitting to the contact has to find its outlet.

The major differences between open stance forehand and reverse forehand
are highlighted in terms of kinetic chain (shoulder in green/trunk in grey vs.
hitting arm position in the follow-through phase) in the photo below.
Without 2nd shoulder/trunk turn, it is relatively easier for player to recover
quickly to deal with next return. Reverse forehand might not be over-used in
forehand routine since it is still considered as an “emergency” shot for most
players.

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Without turning the shoulder (after contact), Nadal is simply facing the net,
but having his hitting arm turning a circle above his head. That is why lots
of “reverse forehand” is seen on his forehand when he tries to hit high and
far ball. Below photo shows how Nada hits high ball hard with heavy
topspin. He does this with good reasons. He is forced to do “reverse
forehand” not for the purpose of generating more power.

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Lesson 7: Footwork in forehand
What is Federer's top secret in his forehand? Not the way he hits the ball,
but the way he approaches the ball...

It is his footwork making THE differences: Federer experts his power from
the ground up.Grace stems from player’s awareness of feet and the way
movement flows from there: move easily in balance… like a ballet dancer,
gliding above the court…

Artful footwork means: - using crisp, tiny and deliberate steps

- using long, loping strides
- move more laterally, than vertically on court

Elevate lateral move flexed leg push abrupt heel-toe weight transfer jump to hit

Federer's footwork: artful and efficient (from Geoff Macdoald, New

York Times 8/31/09)

Two phases in approaching the ball: 1) reaction and 2) action

1) reaction: - when his opponent start to hit the ball, Federer elevates
(1st body reaction)
- when deciding forehand or backhand, Federer start lateral
move on his foot (2nd body reaction)
2) action: - positioning for the shot by flexed leg push
- mantaining good body balance by exaggerated heel-toe motion

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 - smooth weight transfer and jump to hit ball by kinetic chain

Using boxing to explain the role of footwork in tennis is a very interesting

approach. Mike Agassi, an Iran's former boxing champion, passed down his
boxing instincts and techniques to his son, producing world tennis
champion, Andre Agassi.

“Explode” is commonly used in modern tennis. In open stance forehand,

three phases “load, explode and land” are used in coaching forehand. This
body “explode” is relating to racket “acceleration” by kinetic chain. I will
use a separate chapter to go through this topic in depth.

What can a tennis player learn from boxing? A lot! I just highlight one:

In boxing, no one-punch winner, random punching without setup can

exposure your weakness here and there, creating anti-punching opportunities
for your opponent. In tennis, we do not count on one “winner” point to win
the point to avoid unforced error. Both sports need mental strategy and shot
(or punch) setup to win the point. In boxing, the "one-two combo" is a
nickname of jab and cross combo. See photos below.

Jab Cross

Boxers usually learn this combination before any other. The jab is designed
to get the fighter in range while effectively blinding the opponent and hiding

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the cross, which is a longer punch that will be slipped if thrown on its own.
The key strategy is to setup 1st punch for the 2nd punch, and use “combo”
rather than one punch to win the point.

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