InterActive Forum: Fernando Verdasco Forehand

[EricMatuszewski]

Fernando Verdasco Forehand

What are they teaching in Spain?

This month, we take a look at another world class Spanish lefty who has either been trained to, or whom has decided himself, to get his elbow joint close to zero degrees (upper arm nearly in-line with forearm) while approaching the ball on his forehand.

The clip frozen from the rear really makes me think of Rafa.

I wonder who these guys were trying to model when they trained themselves to do this?




Side View 1





Side View 2





Rear View

[EricMatuszewski]

Quick Time Movies



Side View 1






Side View 2






Rear View

[jeffreycounts]

This forehand really shows what I was trying to get at in my last article. He lifts his entire arm to the ball. I think you have to look at this forehand as being a classic lever lifting to the ball. You see levers in the one hander, the straight armed two hander and clearly in these straight armed forehands.

Focus on his arm and ignore the hand and wrist. Watch how the arm lifts all the way to contact.

Also, as I talked about in my last article, the shoulders open first. This creates a stretch effect.

Combine the lifting lever with the shoulders opening first, the inside out motion into contact, the extension through contact, the rotation of the arm and hand, and you have a heck of a forehand.


Interesting, in Side View 2, there is absolutely no wrist movement coming into the ball. None. In the bottom video there is quite a bit.

These are sweet vidoes!

[vmiller]

I wonder who these guys were trying to model when they trained themselves to do this?

First it was Fed. OK, this guy is amazingly intuitive and has adopted a unique forehand style.

Then Nadal? OK, maybe it is just coincedence. Afterall , he'd be the standout number 1 if Fed wasn't around.

Now Verdasco? Something's up and I have the same question Eric! I wonder if this is soon going to become commonplace for big forehands.

Although all these guys hit big topspin, I believe Verdasco grew up playing on hardcourts in Madrid. I'm wondering if topspin has a role in the evolution of the straight arm forehand and if it originated from clay courts.

There must be others out there hitting this way. Does anybody have additional examples?

[BrianGordon]

Then Nadal? OK, maybe it is just coincedence. Afterall , he'd be the standout number 1 if Fed wasn't around.

It is no coincedence, and there are some very good mechanical reasons why - I hope to lay out the entire scenario down the road if John can stomach the required translation to English - Brian

[johnyandell]

Music to my ears...

The other interesting thing is that Philippoussis was (is?) also straight arm. I used to think that must be a flaw since he was the first and only one I'd seen. Luckily I kept my mouth shut about it.

Then Srichaphan appeared and he did (does) the same. So it is I must assume some legit technical variation and it'll be great to explore that with Brian!

[michaelm704]

Modern Forehand

Rafa's idol, Carlos Moya, seems to be a heavy influence on his fellow Spaniards including Verdasco and Lopez. Maybe Shrichiphan went along for the ride.

[johnyandell]

The difference is though that Moya has a classic double bend hitting arm structure.

So we have players across a range of grips and continents with the straight hitting arm. My bet is that this didn't come from another player or coach--but from the intuition and feel of the players.