Suggestions for dealing with high forehand?

[rosheem]

From the Scott Murphy article:

"The difference is that the racket only drops far enough in the loop to get slightly below the actual height of the oncoming ball."

I am having trouble with the high forehand, whether it is a short floater or a deep, high-arcing ball.

It feels like my racquet head is too open as I approach the ball, and I end up having to really turn over the ball with my hand and racquet at the last second.

The result is that my ball is too high, too deep, and has too much arc.

If I were to make a perfectly honest assessment, I would say that the true reason I am struggling on this ball is just lack of practice. I have probably hit 100 balls at a height between my knee and my waist for every 1 ball I have hit between chest and shoulder level.

Anyone have any suggestions? There are probably some examples in previous videos I have posted. I will take a look at provide a link if it is requested. However, I know this is a very common issue so I'm guessing you all have seen it before.

Thanks!

[rosheem]

4/4 Grip

I forgot to mention that my grip is about a 4/4.

Index knuckle on 4 and heel pad between 3.5 and 4.

I feel like grip might be the main issue here. With this grip, if I do a high loop and stop the loop when the racquet head reaches about shoulder height or so,
it is nearly impossible for me to close the racquet face. I notice that the face way more open in the 'slot' on these high balls, whereas it closes more on lower balls. To be specific, the face is probably 90 degrees to the court (perfectly vertical) at the back of my backswing. It might even be open slightly beyond thins. And once I establish this position, I tend not to think about it much, so when I take my forward swing, the racquet is open to the same degree just prior to contact.

The funny thing is that in my mind, I feel like the face is more closed than it really is. I can do a shadow swing of a high ball, freeze it at any point in the forward swing, and then look at my racquet face. I am surprised at how open it is...my mind thinks it would have been more closed.

[airforce1]

Are you sure you are hitting across the ball enough on these shots?
Once I figured this out (using open stance), I have had no net or depth problems on attacking these high Fhs. It has worked very well for my students as well.

[rosheem]

Airforce,

Thanks for the tip.

Could you elaborate a little bit on "coming across the ball" and how it helps with the high ball?

I'm pretty sure you are talking about it in the same way the Wegner/MTM folks instruct, but I just wanted to double check.

If you were to slightly mis-hit this high ball off the trailing edge of the frame, exactly where on the frame would the ball hit? This really helps me get an idea of the path of the strings across the ball.

On a side note, one thing that I've noticed is that I have a tendency to really plant my right foot very early on these slow, high balls (think load-explode). As a result, I am often lunging forward before contact, which makes it so much harder to control the energy of the stroke and the racquet face. I am also doing the opposite of what the old 'system 5' instructs...I think my backswing gets longer as I get closer to the net.

I just need to improve the timing, footwork, balance, swingpath, rotation, and grip.

Other than that, it's perfect !

(Actually, I don't try to individually tweak each of those elements. Instead, I experiment with different cues that will produce different feels, and those elements tend to fall in line as I get the right feel for the stroke)

[airforce1]

Yes, your step is key. If you can step more to open stance than step to net, it will facilitate your pull up and across, but does not sacrifice power as the racket changing directions and accelerating across gives great power.
System 5 may work here as your backswing can shorten some, but the overall swing can be pretty big as you arc up and across the contact.

Standing the racket on the handle, i would spec that a mis hit would catch the frame at about 4 oclock (relative to the contact pt intention) due to the arc in the swing. Does that help?

I would suggest starting this practice with very medium power, which you can very quickly raise, as you will gain a feel and connection with this shot that almost breeds overconfidence. It almost feels like a basketball dunk, where the net is the big wide rim of the basket and you can really pinpoint where you want to place the ball. Very unreadable, as you can take a dtl Fh type set up, and pull that to heavy cross ct angle in the blink of and eye. So actual shot speed is not really needing to be very high. You will find your speed where it just works for you.

[rosheem]

Great explanation. Thanks.

I can't wait until it feels like a slam dunk.