Your Strokes:
Amber Park Forehand
Analyzed by John Yandell
One of the most debated and misunderstood aspects of the forehand is the angle of the racket face during the backswing, especially in later stages of the backswing, as the racket comes down and moves into position to swing forward.
If you read the internet message boards you’ll see that many self-styled experts argue that “patting the dog” is a critical position in this phase of the motion. By that they mean turning the face of the racket down toward the court surface, as if you were “patting a dog” on its head with the strings of your racket. Get it?
How valid is that argument? Should every player strive to “pat the dog”? And if you should pat the dog, when should you pat the dog and for how long? These are questions that apply at every level of play. But let’s address them in this article by looking at the forehand of a Southern California junior player, Amber Park.
Don Brosseau, well-known teaching pro and Tennisplayer.net contributing writer, (Click Here for his articles), sent in some great high speed video of Amber’s forehand. Don shot this video with his new Casio camera, which is a great option to use in teaching. (Click Here for more info on the camera.) What it shows about Amber’s forehand is very interesting.
Don wanted my opinion on why her forehand was inconsistent and lacked power and spin. I think the answer lies in her extreme “dog pat” position, and more specifically, how long her arm and racket stay in this position compared to the top players. If you look at the timing of this position in relation to the rest of her swing, you can see that it is causing fundamental problems in her motion.
A Little Background
There is no doubt that the backswing itself is one of the most complex and mysterious motions in tennis. You can see all the amazing permutations in the backswing articles in the Advanced Tennis section. (Click Here.) It’s true that most of the top players close the face at least partially as the racket descends from the top of the backswing. Roger Federer for example usually turns the racket face all the way or nearly all the way down. As does Rafael Nadal. Both are pretty much full dog pat.
But does this mean that all or most top players reach the same extreme position as the backswing moves down? Nope. Many players with great forehands, for example, Andre Agassi and Fernando Gonzales, aren’t close to full dog pat. The angle is more like 30 to 45 degrees. So if there is some huge advantage in the dog pat, it’s hard to say what that might be, although maybe future high speed filming and/or 3D studies can say more.
In my opinion, the real question is not the degree of dog pat, but what happens afterwards in the overall pattern of the swing. No two backswings are alike. But they all serve the same purpose--to deliver the hand and arm to the correct hitting arm position at the bottom of the motion, as the racket is starting forward to the contact.
And yes, the racket face is usually partially closed at the bottom of the backswing. But it’s certainly not full dog pat. This angle is an independent factor. It’s primarily a function of the grip style (Click Here.) In fact, some of the players who close the face the most in the backswing, like Federer, also have the racket most on edge at the start of the forward swing—and vice versa.
Typically, you see the arm and racket fall into the critical hitting arm position as the butt of the racket is squaring up to and pointing toward the opposite side. This is what positions the height of the racket head slightly below the ball, so the player can swing through the ball but still on a sufficient upward incline to generate topspin.
The timing of this move is critical. When you look from the sideview, the player sets up the hitting arm while the hand is still well behind the edge of the body. The tip of the racket is also pointing backwards, and usually angled slightly behind the player. The hitting arm position is therefore well established at the beginning of or very early in the forward swing.
This transition to the correct hitting arm position during the start of the forward swing happens across the grip styles, with or without the dog pat. It’s similar for Federer, Nadal, Agassi, Gonzales—and everyone else.
The Amber Story
With that background info, we are n ow we are in a position to understand what is going on with Amber’s forehand. Watch from the rear view how she reaches full dog pat as the racket starts down. The problem is that she stays in this position far too long. As she moves into the forward swing she never establishes the hitting arm position and the face is still completely closed.
And look at the angle of the racket tip—it is actually pointing in the wrong direction, to Amber’s right, instead of straight back or behind to her left. This definitely reduces her ability to swing to the ball from the inside out.
If you look at the side view, you can see the other negative impacts of the extreme dog pat on her forward swing. Again you can see how long the face stays closed and how long it takes her to reach the hitting arm position. As we saw, top players achieve this position when the hand and racket are still behind the plane of the body. With Amber her hand has already come forward to the middle of her torso!
Amber is so late creating the hitting arm position that she often can’t get the level of the racket head below the ball. When you see this, it’s not at all surprising that she has problems controlling the ball, hitting topspin, or generating pace.
The Solution?
The obvious solution is to set up the hitting arm position earlier, but there is also a related, underlying problem to address first. This is the timing of her turn, and also its shape.
Players with good forehands stretch the left arm across the body, pointing at the side fence. This guarantees that the shoulder turn is maximized. This happens usually just as the ball is bouncing on the court. At this same point the racket is at about the top of the backswing. We've seen this time and again, but you can read more about it by Clicking Here.
Amber doesn’t make this position consistently. At the bounce, she often still has her hands together on the racket. And even after they separate, the left arm still doesn’t stretch fully across the body. This slow, incomplete turn could also be contributing to her timing problems in establishing the hitting arm position.
The solution? I think these issues have to be approached one at a time. It’s too much to think she can correct everything at once. First she has to establish the full turn position and just practice coordinating this with the bounce. She has to practice this without even hitting the ball, just hitting the full turn and stretching her left arm, seeing where the ball is, and then just letting it go by, until the timing is right.
Next she needs to correct the hitting arm position itself. In my experience that is impossible in the context of taking a full backswing. Again it has to be done independently and not in the context of trying to hit the ball. So what I am suggesting is that she learn to set up the correct hitting arm position first. Once she is in this position, Don can feed her the ball and she can get the feel of the correct forward swing. I’m certain it is going to feel quite different and she is going to need a lot of reps from this starting position to master this new feel.
Justine Henin is a great model here, and seems to have a similar grip to Amber. Look at the position of her hitting arm: elbow in, wrist back. Her hand is well behind the front edge of the body, and the racket face is only slightly closed.
Amber needs to develop the same timing in creating this position. She needs to be very careful not to close the racket face any further than Justine. In fact I’d suggest trying to keep it completely on edge as an overcompensation.
From here the other change will be learning to really hit up on the ball. I suggest trying to hit soft looping topspin balls and paying careful attention that the ball is really rotating significantly in the air.
Once Amber can do all this successfully, obviously, she wants to put the motion back together. The question will be whether she continues to close the face somewhat on the backswing—and if she can keep the old tendency of closing it too much for too long from coming back.
Again, probably the best approach is for her to visualize that she is actually keeping the racket on edge as it comes down in the backswing. She should also visualize dropping the arm and racket into the new hitting arm position. She should imagine that this occurs before the start of the forward swing, with the hand still well behind the edge of her body.
The reality is that Amber will probably still close the face somewhat on the way down, which is fine. But imagining that is on edge could be the key to helping her eliminate the extreme tendency and getting the hand and the racket into the right position at the start of the forward swing.
Hopefully, this analysis will help Amber, and Don will send us some video in the future of her new and improved forehand!
