What is the modern Forehand?

[tennis4you]

I agree with most of what Brett Hobden is saying in his article about the modern forehand, but most players need to learn the basic forehand first before they move on to shot variations like he describes. Every variation he talks about is a variation of the basic forehand and those variations are hard to learn when you don't have the fundamental shot in your game.
tennis4you.

[Bungalow Bill]

I agree with most of what Brett Hobden is saying in his article about the modern forehand, but most players need to learn the basic forehand first before they move on to shot variations like he describes. Every variation he talks about is a variation of the basic forehand and those variations are hard to learn when you don't have the fundamental shot in your game.
tennis4you.

Yes, I agree with you from a technique perspective but his perspective on tactics etc. is very good.

There are some key differences IMO in the way strokes where taught and how they are performed today. Many of the differences went unnoticed for a long time until they were "packaged" as new or modern. The Western grip was used a long time ago by several players but was popularized within the last decade or so. Hitting with topspin was also around a long time ago but became a staple shot the last couple of decades. So nothing is new under the sun, but we are getting better at the way we market and present things.

I do however believe that instruction has improved and still has a ways to go to be able to define and isolate the basics of what the modern forehand is doing and how to achieve it with relative ease.

For me the biggest difference or highlight is the way the elbow moves throughout the backswing and forward swing.

To keep things simple (and therefore not exact), the elbow moves kind of in a circular pattern. It goes up and back and when the player is ready to bring the racket forward, the elbow is brought down and forward to initiate the shoulder rotation ( I would suggest loading a side view of Blakes forehand to see the actually pattern the elbow is making).

The then elbow passes fast near the side of the body (rib cage area) and gets out in front before it slows down which allows the shoulder rotation to accelerate. Once the shoulders start to become parallel to the net, the lower arm comes through taking on the momentum. It is a chain of events that only video can describe so if my sequence of words isn't quite right, look at the video to fill in the blanks.

During the intial elbow movement and when it connects with the shoulder rotation going forward, the arm sort of falls into place or flops back, you can see clearly a stretching of the wrist area as the arm is flung forward in a sudden change of direction mode. This prepares the wrist release that will be used right before contact.

Basically, the modern forehand is all about acceleration and using the bodies ability to transfer energy as one part is slowing down the other part speeds up.

So you can say: The elbow motion connects to the shoulder motion, the shoulder motion connects to the arm motion, the arm motion connects to the wrist motion and BANG - modern forehand.

I have been doing studies on James Blake both through John's excellent videos and through my own trial and error on the court. I dont have quite the same motion he has so it took a little balls fed slowly to adapt my forehand to his.

The modern forehand is not very difficult if things are isolated around the movement of the elbow. The other important area is the double bend position that is achived when the arm is thrusted forward and the wrist is "forced" back into a laid back position.

So again, the key thing to notice is how Blake brings the racket forward. The first part of the body (isolating the upper body motion) that begins this trend is his elbow. The shoulder rotation will follow very soon as the elbow comes up near the side of the body. It goes through and bang.

I beleive that getting the elbow in front of the body as the shoulder rotation accelerates helps tremendously in allowing you to not overrotate, keeping the head still in the zone, maintaining your balance, achieving tremendous force that is aimed into one spot - the contact zone.

If you want to try this, do this. Learn to control different muscles of the arm and relax others. In other words, can you tighten your grip but relax the upper arm? Can you squeeze the muscles of the fingers but keep some elasticity in the wrist?

Now obviously, you dont want to squeeze the handle real tight for your strokes. However, this exercise will help you be able to control your arm muscles. Many people will tighten their hand but also tighten the muscles near the elbow making both the wrist area and the elbow area rigid (old way of hitting). The wrist loses its elasticity and the elbow area sort of becomes locked.

At first you need to hit balls that are in the strike zone and fed slow to you. Learn to relax certain muscles and tighten just the hand for a firm grip. There will be some firmness in the wrist area being so close to the tightened area of the hand but there still should be some elasticity for the wrist release and "let go".

Now, allow your upper arm and elbow to move freely up and around similar to a pros backswing like Blakes. Keep the grip relatively firm but remain relaxed in the other areas. When the elbow begins to pass through accelerate your shoulder rotation and let it go while releasing the wrist as soon as you make contact or slightly before if you are good with your timing.

Use Blake as a reference to help explain my lack of time to illustrate better in this thread.

[thereallovebone]

For me the biggest difference or highlight is the way the elbow moves throughout the backswing and forward swing.

To keep things simple (and therefore not exact), the elbow moves kind of in a circular pattern. It goes up and back and when the player is ready to bring the racket forward, the elbow is brought down and forward to initiate the shoulder rotation ( I would suggest loading a side view of Blakes forehand to see the actually pattern the elbow is making).

The then elbow passes fast near the side of the body (rib cage area) and gets out in front before it slows down which allows the shoulder rotation to accelerate. Once the shoulders start to become parallel to the net, the lower arm comes through taking on the momentum. It is a chain of events that only video can describe so if my sequence of words isn't quite right, look at the video to fill in the blanks.

During the intial elbow movement and when it connects with the shoulder rotation going forward, the arm sort of falls into place or flops back, you can see clearly a stretching of the wrist area as the arm is flung forward in a sudden change of direction mode. This prepares the wrist release that will be used right before contact.

Basically, the modern forehand is all about acceleration and using the bodies ability to transfer energy as one part is slowing down the other part speeds up.



.

That is the best description I have ever heard on how to hit a forehand correctly.