Your Strokes: Rohan Gupta Forehand

[don_budge]

Explanation…Part 2 The placement of the feet

Could you better explain why you prefer the square stance? '

When you talk about determining the shape of something as ethereal as a forehand swing you had better pay attention to the base from which it is swung. The swing starts down below as the shamanic Ben Hogan suggests and it works it way up the body.

The consideration with respect to modern tennis is this...if you design and build your swing on open or even semi open stance you are limiting yourself to one option. Heavy topspin. Having the ability to apply heavy topspin is obviously an asset...but the ability to flatten the stroke out enhances ones chances of hitting for depth and penetration. In order to hit this kind of ball you will need to be able to perform your swing on a platform of a closed or neutral stance. Which comes first the chicken or the egg? In this case it must be the closed and neutral stances with an eastern grip because as you are finding out...once you go western you can never go back.

This being the case there is only one player in the game today from which to emulate. His name of course is Roger Federer...The Once and Future King. When he leaves the game the void is going to be so immense that you will hear a giant sucking sound as the air makes leaving a giant balloon. The vacuum that his absence will create in the professional game will be as profound as the difference between a world with cell phones...and one that was without.

Once again...it is the "Forehand Not Gone" video. A beautiful work of art that I never tire of seeing or listening to. Even the words of the song ring in my ears to haunt me as a message to all of those beautiful women that I loved...and lost. A wistful tear can form in my eye when I think of them. But oh well...I am, or rather was a tennis player. Past tense...like them. Of all people I should realize that love means nothing. It is the irony of life in the end...at the end of the night. Good old Ferdinand.

Where was I...oh yes. Roger Federer hitting from less than perfect position. Because the base of his swing is built on the foundation of a closed or neutral stance he is compelled to swing his forehand with his feet, body and racquet lined up when he begins his move forward to the ball. Hitting from a less than perfect position...is an art. I am sure that you will agree with me when you look at this video. This is a beautiful enigmatic piece of work courtesy of John Yandell. Who is the artist of the song...btw John?

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/music_videos/federer_fh_not_gone/index.html

In the music video "Forehand Not Gone", Roger Federer is hitting four forehands from less than perfect position. Notice though that he dutifully attempts to create perfect position at the moment of impact.

fh 1...backing up, left foot plants first and as he swings into the ball the right foot is backing up in line with the front

fh 2...moving to his right, right foot plants first and left comes swinging into line as he swings into the ball

fh 3...backing up, left foot plants first and right foot slides backwards into position as he swings into the ball

fh 4...backing up, left foot plants first and the right foot slides backwards into position as he swings into the ball

In the video Roger is swinging at four forehands and in three of them he is running around his backhand to his left. Since his momentum is carrying him to his left he plants his left foot first to assure himself that he has ample room to make his swing yet at the same time his right foot is backing up to bring himself into alignment with the ball. You see also that he must make a last moment adjustment by taking to the air to create just a bit more room to make his swing. Yet his head and body are perfectly still at the moment of impact.

In the single ball that he is moving to his right, at the last moment he plants his right foot a bit forward towards the net from his left foot as he tries to take the ball a bit earlier and at the same time his left foot is moving towards the ball so that at the moment of impact he is in as close to proper alignment with the ball as humanly possible.

The music video is simply a perfect example of how the forehand should be played when perfect position on the ball is not possible. Normally when I am watching Federer in a match, I like to watch just him without taking my eyes off him to watch the ball or his opponent. Coincidentally, I heard Rod Laver suggest the same thing. For instance, in the music video one can really appreciate the grace and perfect balance that Federer has when he is in the moment of truth...and that is when he has his body aligned to make his move on the ball from “get in position”. Even when he is actually in the air, off the ground, he is somehow able to achieve nearly perfect stability as he is swinging and this is evidenced with the still positioning of his head. He has the ability to achieve the Hoganesque lower body movement to the ball to initialize his swing...even with less than perfect position.

Another absolutely stunningly, brilliant music video...John. Catchy tune, too. The music coupled with the maestro's footwork and low center of gravity create...poetry in motion. Be still my beating heart!

More explaining...

[don_budge]

The Direction of the Momentum...

Regarding balance...if you push me form the side while I am in a fully open stance it will be much more stable than the square stance. So it all depends where the push is coming from in terms of balance.

Actually you have answered your own question. In my demonstration of pushing I have you pushed from the front and not from the side because…isn't all of your momentum going into the ball and in the direction of your shot?

How many shots do you play to the immediate left of you? Not many I hope. So it isn't where the push is coming from…it is where the ball is coming from and going to...for that matter.

By the way…it looks to me as if your stance is open. All of the time. This is your default stance…one might say.

[don_budge]

As John was saying…not everybody plays like Federer

Early on in this discussion John made a comment to the effect that not everybody will play like Roger Federer…I believe that I was talking about your grip. The same can be said about the philosophy of footwork.

I am firmly grounded in the classic school of tennis when it comes to teaching and coaching. That being said…of course you can see that Roger Federer hits from an open stance a good deal of the time. The speed of the game necessitates this. But his default position is in a slightly closed stance or possibly neutral. I believe that it easier to transition from neutral to open than vice versa.

Roger's default setup for a forehand…the gold standard

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/strokearchive/pro_men/roger_federer_09/rf_forehand/rf_fh_center/rf_fh_center.html?RFFHCenterNeutralStanceFront.mov

The same is philosophically true for teaching the grips. I teach an Eastern forehand and the student has the option to strengthen that if they choose down the road. It is quite doable. But to go from Western to the weaker Eastern is a bit more troublesome.

Philosophically it appears to me that you are firmly entrenched in the modern coaching paradigm of playing tennis…strong forehand grip, two handed backhand and probably venture to the net once in a blue moon. That's ok with me…but at the same time it won't hurt you to hear from the other side of the coin. As a student of the game you should be aware of different facets of the game and you should probably do some tinkering around with it as well. At any rate…have a great time with it all. Trust me…it is a great road to travel.

By the way this is only the tip of the iceberg regards my thoughts on footwork…let it suffice to say.

[johnyandell]

DB Rohan,

While I am a proponent of square stance especially in teaching, it is incorrect to call this Roger's "default" set up. It's his set up for certain balls--principally lower and closer in. You can count the number of netural versus open stances in the archives and see neutral is a rarity.
The overwhelming stance preference of Roger and all other elite players is semi open. And this has become the default as well in high level junior tennis. The reasons are ball height and torso rotation.
In basic teaching neutral stance I feel is critical--and the Spanish topspin coaches like Bruguera use it too. But that has to evolve to semi-western to hit high level technical modern forehands.

JY

[eaglesburg]

I worked on my forehand today. The extra shoulder turn really does add noticeable power! Would you consider this forehand technically sound or does it still need a little work?

https://youtu.be/FbljAHJmi68