Open or neutral stance

[jvinnell]

I am working with a coach to teach my daughter tennis. She has just turned 6 and rallies quite consistently in a mini court with larger softer balls. She can hit forehands in both open and neutral stance but seems to favour the neutral stance on her forehand most of the time on both short and deeper balls.

Recently I have noticed that she is getting cramped on the forehand especially on the deeper balls i.e she is contacting the ball to close to her body and was wondering whether the best way to try and fix this by keeping the neutral stance but getting her to leave more space or by getting her to hit the deeper balls with an open stance which would naturally help the spacing problem.

I will obviously talk with our coach but am interested in what people think

Thanks John

[airforce1]

IMO you should go with the open stance primarily, especially on short balls. I feel open gives more control and less readable by the opponent. Power should not be a major issue for a short ball as both stances give ample power.

Good luck with getting a consensus on this issue.