palm down on forehand-value

[ralph]

John,

Lately I have been dwelling on the value of turning the palm down from the point the butt points to the ball to contact. Looking at videos and pictures, I have noticed the pros seem to have the racquet face in a very pronounced downward position, even Federer with his milder semiwestern grip. I have been forcing myself to turn the racquet head down, and I have noticed a very different feel at contact - a more "grabby" sensation. As a coach, too, should I be drilling my players in this racquet position or should I just let what happens naturally occur depending on the grip? I am talking about experienced players. Thanks!

Ralph

[oliensis]

Taking the palm-down idea further, Djokovic points the hitting face of his racket 180 degrees away from the net on the backswing, which then leads to a palm-down position as the racket starts to come through the swing.

I've found that using this "racket face away from the net" backswing forces me to turn my shoulders just a bit more as I'm loading on the forehand (with the hips following the shoulders in more turned load...and the legs following as well in a deeper "sit" position) and then, when the legs explode, and the arm comes through the swing, the racket face naturally ends up in a solid hitting position, with swing path that generates topspin and depth pretty naturally. For some reason using this key during the backswing helps me to torque legs, hips, trunk and shoulders all the way through the stroke, with my right hip ending up basically toward the net on the follow-through, and when all that stuff is moving well, then the hitting structure of the arm can remain basically little-changed, with the racket moving through efficiently, and finally leading the rest of the body into the end of the follow-through.

Back the '70s (when I played highschool tennis on hard courts with a continental grip and a 13 1/2-oz racket), this would have looked really weird, but, now it seems pretty main-stream.

[johnyandell]

This is a really interesting issue. There is no doubt that the various players all close the racket face to some degree on the backswing, but the key issue is when.

I actually wrote a detailed article about this in the advanced tennis section:

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/avancedtennis/john_yandell/building%20_the_modern%20_forehand/building_modern_forehand_backswing_page2/building_modern_forehand_backswing_page2.html

My opinion is that it tends to happen naturally. Years ago when I was doing the Visual Tennis instructional video, I tried to take this totally out of my backswing and just stay on edge, interestingly I couldn't.

The other question is whether you should try to make this happen and basically my opinion is no. There's an example of why I think that's true in the article.

[ochi]

John, here is maybe why it happens...

Taking my arm back, relaxed or tensed, muscles and ligaments seem to rotate my arm until my palm is facing down. However, this did not happen just now when I took my left arm back. Perhaps it's because my right arm is much more developed (and tight) than the left.

Anyway, there's no need for me to add this to the things I am supposed to do for my forehand. Which is sort of Oscar Wegnarian, no?

[johnyandell]

Not really.

[ochi]

I was thinking about Wegner's advice -- don't think about where your arm goes on the takeback, and don't think about what your feet are doing, because, like an infielder, they'll do what's needed, or should. Wegner dismisses plenty of tennis platitudes in his latest book. I like his approach.

[johnyandell]

we'll agree to disagree on that point!

[ochi]

OK, might as well.