Samantha Stosur's Forehand

[johnyandell]

Let's hear what you thought of Tom Down's second article on Sam Stosur - "Samantha Stosur's Forehand"

[TheWatcher]

I wonder about the shape of the swing--in the article there were examples of Stosur hitting much more through the target line than the way a lot of her forehands loo, at least on television. What does that say about her early coaching or on the this type of swing for women?

[DougEng]

Let's hear what you thought of Tom Down's second article on Sam Stosur - "Samantha Stosur's Forehand"

Great article! Very current, simple and straight to the punch, and great drills. I do the one-legged drill with forehands and serves as well (for initial loading since many players simply just switch over to the front foot). The soccer and beach ball drills are great. We used to play with wet tennis balls too. Forces you to hit through and deal with twisting racquets and literally heavy balls.

Doug

[stroke]

Greetings all :

To those that found Part 2 interesting (and readable) I thank you for the nice sentiments.

I apologize to those who found it too painful to read. John and I went to lengths to avoid this and in general it is much less technical than I would prefer.

To begin to understand how the strokes work, one must look at the mechanical properties of the body - these properties are complicated and come with some techno jargon which is hard to avoid - again, we try our best.

As to the cause of hand motion in the other thread, I thought it was emphasized that this motion results from integrated motions of the legs, torso, and shoulder joint. Both John and Don Budge explained this nicely.

Stroke - in the backswing, Sam accomplishes the descending portion of the hand path in the loop by at least partially dropping the entire arm at the shoulder joint (rather than only extending the elbow). This decreases joint range of motion to establish the pull which has implications to the early hand force in the forward swing and complicates type 3 arm positioning at contact.

Further, she allows the head of the racquet to drop below the hand prior to the pull - this causes the vertical component of her "flip" to be up rather than down - still, it is essentially type 3 as was Henin's.

Finally, I continue to try to connect the dots to understand the strokes - as pieces become more clear I'm always amazed about the adaptability, complexity, and elegance of the human neuromuscular-skeletal system.

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Last edited by BrianGordon


All, I thought you might all find this evaluation of Sam's Type 3 FH by Brian Gordon very interesting.

[10splayer]

Greetings all :

To those that found Part 2 interesting (and readable) I thank you for the nice sentiments.

I apologize to those who found it too painful to read. John and I went to lengths to avoid this and in general it is much less technical than I would prefer.

To begin to understand how the strokes work, one must look at the mechanical properties of the body - these properties are complicated and come with some techno jargon which is hard to avoid - again, we try our best.

As to the cause of hand motion in the other thread, I thought it was emphasized that this motion results from integrated motions of the legs, torso, and shoulder joint. Both John and Don Budge explained this nicely.

Stroke - in the backswing, Sam accomplishes the descending portion of the hand path in the loop by at least partially dropping the entire arm at the shoulder joint (rather than only extending the elbow). This decreases joint range of motion to establish the pull which has implications to the early hand force in the forward swing and complicates type 3 arm positioning at contact.

Further, she allows the head of the racquet to drop below the hand prior to the pull - this causes the vertical component of her "flip" to be up rather than down - still, it is essentially type 3 as was Henin's.

Finally, I continue to try to connect the dots to understand the strokes - as pieces become more clear I'm always amazed about the adaptability, complexity, and elegance of the human neuromuscular-skeletal system.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Last edited by BrianGordon


All, I thought you might all find this evaluation of Sam's Type 3 FH by Brian Gordon very interesting.

Good find Stroke, right on point. I have some theories as to why this is, but it would be great to hear the finer points from Brian.

[stroke]

Good find Stroke, right on point. I have some theories as to why this is, but it would be great to hear the finer points from Brian.

10splayer, as no less than Brian Gordon had pointed out, you have a good "handle" on the type 3 concept. I would personally like to hear your theories.

[stotty]

Stroke:

How do YOU teach girls to stop coming around on a curve, and curb excessive wrist layback? I teach a girl with these problems... her excessive wrist layback seems to be a major contributor in why her racket head appears at the other side of her body, though I am gradually getting this in check and better all the time.

I have taught do other girls to a type 3 with relative ease...as per BG's articles...but not all cases are the same, as you know.

I have been able to reduce her backswing with the help of a feeder as per your article (slot drill), but the body, shoulder and arm continue to rotate round locked together in a unitary movement, even when the swing is kept pretty much to one side of her body. I cannot seem to get her hitting arm to work independently. I thought by keeping the swing on one side of the body it would automatically solve many of the problems but this hasn't been the case. All I get is a reduced version of a type 2 but with still some type 1 elements in there. Do I then now need to focus on getting the racket head on the hitting side of the hand? What is the next logical /process route to unlock and get her hitting arm working independently?

I am keen to take this on because the girl's forehand isn't great in it's present form and it's worth trying the male version to see if I can get any success.

I found the one leg drill actually helped a little in getting her the arm to work independently, though I realise this wasn't the intention of the drill. She cannot tuck her body behind the ball so easily with the the one leg drill...so swings her arm a little more independently...if you get the picture.

I imagine you've coached a lot of talented girls and so have plenty of experience in the field (for me, as a club coach I get talented players less frequently; talented girls rarely), so wondered if you had any further advice for unlocking the body, shoulder arm unitary movement in order to gain independent use of the hitting arm? This is where her problem lies. I wondered parhaps if you use any off-court drills to encourage a type 3 in girls?

Another question I would like to ask is are you getting a lot of success with other girls you teach the type 3 to? Are you finding some simply cannot learn it and are better off with a Type 2?