Interactive Forum August 2013: Jerzy Janowicz: Forehand

[johnyandell]

Jerzy Janowicz: Forehand

The more things change in world class technique, the more they change...I mean in a cyclical way... Just when the experts have concluded you will be laughed off the tour unless you have a predominantly windshield wiper or reverse finish on your forehand, Jerzy Janowicz comes along and starts hitting monster winners with a short followthrough, and with very limited arm rotation. And look at the grip! So Eastern he makes Tim Henman look extreme. I see a lot more interesting factors as well. What do you see?

[johnyandell]

Quicktime version

Jerzy Janowicz: Forehand

[dimitrios]

Surprisingly little flex in the wrist.

[don_budge]

Continental...

Surprisingly little flex in the wrist.

The grip is surprisingly "weak"...it almost looks to be continental in some respects. To the weak side of eastern possibly.

Perhaps there is little flex in the wrist but I cannot but help admire the flex in the knees and the footwork for such a tall player...but I wonder how long the body can sustain that kind of strain. My knees are aching from just watching this thirty second clip. If I were Jerzy...my philosophy would be to keep the points short and get to the net.

[tcranenj]

Bent elbow - hitting on the rise

Jerzy's elbow it bent at contact and he seems to try to keep his forearm and elbow in line or slightly higher that the height of the ball at contact. Most players, with semi-western type grips, tend to have the forearm and elbow below the ball at contact. He also has a fairly deep knee bend during take back which turns into an explosion of upward movement during the forward swing which allows him to keep his forearm and elbow at or above the height of contact.

In many ways, I see Jerzy's approach being the start of a trend. Tennis players are getting taller and, the very good ones, look to take the ball of the rise. With the contact point being 3.5 to 4.5 feet above the ground, a more conservative eastern grip and a bent elbow would give you a bit more leverage if you're a good 6 feet or taller. I might describe Jerzy's grip as approaching the Australian grip. It's clearly not all the way to continental, but the alignment of his knuckles on the grip suggests to me that the knuckle of his forefinger is on top of the 3rd bezel (the one at 3 o'clock) and may even rest partially on the 2nd bezel (the one at 1:30).

Another reason why Jerzy's grip might be copied by other players is the speed of the game. With a Australian/Eastern grip, Jerzy doesn't have very far to get to his backhand grip or to a volleying grip. So, he'll always ready to get something on the ball from either side no matter how fast the ball is coming.

This forehand grip, along with his big serve and overall attacking style will make him a contender at Wimbledon and hardcourts for years to come. He'll be frustrated by a lack of consistent success on clay, but who cares! It's all about Wimbledon anyway.

[bloeb]

Bruin Ben

Like Rick Macci stated in his article you have to be relaxed.
If the wrist was more flexible and forearm relaxed there would be more racquet speed thru the hitting zone. A semi-western grip might help but only if he could get use to it. Great observations by others that commented! Thanks for your input.

[pracheesawant]

I have a feeling wrist position is overated when in a forehand, as long as it goes in sync with the forehand swing whichever you choose to opt for, the wrist position doesn't play as much part as the rest of the motion. What looks like a good forehand is when all parts of the body, esp the arm rotation, trunk rotation with the hip rotation are together. Janowicz makes good use of his entire body in a sychronous fashion. I don't find that with Djokovic's forehand, although his backhand is tremendous with good use of arm rotation with trunk rotation and body balance majority of the time.

[tntenniswhiz]

I have a feeling wrist position is overated when in a forehand, as long as it goes in sync with the forehand swing whichever you choose to opt for, the wrist position doesn't play as much part as the rest of the motion. What looks like a good forehand is when all parts of the body, esp the arm rotation, trunk rotation with the hip rotation are together. Janowicz makes good use of his entire body in a sychronous fashion. I don't find that with Djokovic's forehand, although his backhand is tremendous with good use of arm rotation with trunk rotation and body balance majority of the time.

What I have deducted from the discussions here is the wrist being laid back creates the final leg of what essentially is a whip like importation of power. This a small quote from an academic paper on that concept: ". It appears that this sequential motion is naturally preferred because of the mechanical advantage gained". This blurb just suggesting the whip is the most effective way to transfer power to an object. Does the wrist laid back not create more opportunity for the "whip" to gain speed? Then move through at it's peak? Just looking for things to support my perspective or get it shot down and start again!!! lol

[johnyandell]

Greg,

I tend to agree with the above. The wrist motion at times occurs and at times it doesn't. It's mainly a consequence of the other factors.

[sejsel]

Tennis - lower or upper body sport ?

Jerzy Janowicz: Forehand

The more things change in world class technique, the more they change...I mean in a cyclical way... Just when the experts have concluded you will be laughed off the tour unless you have a predominantly windshield wiper or reverse finish on your forehand, Jerzy Janowicz comes along and starts hitting monster winners with a short followthrough, and with very limited arm rotation. And look at the grip! So Eastern he makes Tim Henman look extreme. I see a lot more interesting factors as well. What do you see?

I see a lot of interesting things here... Not to elaborate any further on intricacies of the "simplicity" of Jerzy's forehand - there are some constants of the biomechanics in tennis strokes that will never be "obsolete"... there are seemingly many "styles" of performing (and finishing) the groundstroke, but - as John pointed out in his articles, there are some common elements shared by all top players, pros (and some others) that point out the essence of effective mechanics of the stroke.



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[sejsel]

Surprisingly little flex in the wrist.

It might have something to do with the grip itself. Interesting sub-subject would be - might be - how (and if, even though it might be at first considered as obvious that grips do that) the different grips on forehand correlate with the freedom in wrist movement during the (effective forehand) stroke.

As a side note - Michael Stich and his then new coach - changed Stich forehand grip ( so was the claim from comentators at the Eurosport channel, broadcasting his matches in Antwerpen), towards semi-western. The year might have been 1997. or +/- some year. I remember he really almost toyed with the opposition then, and have never seen him hit forehand like that before...

It would be interesting to quizz on who was his coach back then ?

[tntenniswhiz]

Greg,

I tend to agree with the above. The wrist motion at times occurs and at times it doesn't. It's mainly a consequence of the other factors.

The action of the wrist to which I was meaning to address was that which resulted in the butt of the racquet pointing to the ball if only for that fleeting moment and is the step right after the "flip". Isn't that present in Jerzy's motion?

Also wonder how many rotations are on the ball in comparison to the others we are have become aware of?

[sejsel]

Jerzy Janowicz: Forehand

The more things change in world class technique, the more they change...I mean in a cyclical way... Just when the experts have concluded you will be laughed off the tour unless you have a predominantly windshield wiper or reverse finish on your forehand,.....

...........

..........

Speaking of different styles of forehand, technique(s) and so on, reverse finish vs. "classic(al) forehand, check 55:16 - 55:45 in the following video (easy to see what on forehand):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5TmPAZ-c2JI

[johnyandell]

Greg,

Haven't counted his spin rates but bet they are pretty flat, ie, 2000rpm or less on average.

That butt cap thing is overrated in my mind. The diagonal of the incoming ball means it's different from forehand to forehand and sometimes never happens.

[florian80]

I believe this forehand technique is not suitable for the highest level of the game. Granted he does hit a solid amount of winners with flat shots but he really lacks the consistency because of his low spin rates.

Also many of the guys are surprised by this kind of a flat forehand but they will eventually get used to his style if he hangs around the Top 20 long enough and as a result he will hit less winners I think.

If he would use the "stretch-shortening cycle" more I think he would hit much better forehands and would be able to create more spin when necessary.

The end goal in my opinion should be to continue with those flat winner type shots in the right situations but add some heavier spin to his shots when necessary.

I don't think his forehand comes close to being a strength when he matches up against Top 10 players that hit huge forehands with heavy rotations.