Kyrgios forehand

[chrislewit]

https://youtu.be/r82Mj0Nptz8

Here is some great slow motion footage of Nick Kyrgios practicing forehands.

Specifically, I would like to focus on the role of the left foot and stepping in—or lack thereof.

I believe that players lift their left foot to play heavy—to slightly increase the angle of approach of the racquet to the ball. Lifting the left foot slightly tilts the shoulders backward and causes the racquet pathway to the ball to rise more steeply. This helps the player kick the ball up with more spin and shape.

You often see clay court players lean backwards slightly with the shoulders and lift the front foot and leg to create more “effect”, or spin, on the ball.

This is in opposition to the traditional method of teaching players to step in and transfer weight from back foot to front. That approach creates a lower trajectory ball and reduces RPM. I know many coaches stress this weight shift when teaching groundstrokes, but they may not realize that they are inadvertently reducing RPM.

Notice how Kyrgios leans slightly backwards when hitting heavier and steps in when driving the ball with a more linear trajectory.

Coaches are often too quick to label the former as “lazy or sloppy”. It doesn’t look right to their classical eye because the traditional transfer back to front is not evident.

My point is that leaning back and lifting the front leg is not necessarily lazy. It could be lazy footwork, but it’s also a function of the tactical intent to play with more spin and height—and the technical goal of producing more RPM by increasing the racquet angle of approach to the ball.

Other technical areas to observe:

Kyrgios often finishes with the racquet low at the end of swing—often around his bicep or lower down by his hip. We are seeing this more and more with top professional players, including next gen female players—Anisimova and Sabalenka for example. Keep an eye on that trend.

Moreover, notice how—when necessary—he finishes around his head, in what I call a reverse or hook follow through style. I believe we should teach these finishes to our students as well.

As I always say: Over the shoulder follow throughs around the neck are dying—doomed for extinction!

Also, notice how Kyrgios maintains a whippy and loose arm. How can we develop this elasticity in our young students?

I believe we should actively train and develop elasticity. It should be a primary area of concern when building groundstrokes. I see the majority of kids coming out of ROG U10 mechanically stiff and tight.

Please coaches—no more stiff swings coming out of U10!

Please share your thoughts and join the technical discussion.

If you like talking technique, please consider following my blog at ProdigyMaker.com or my Sunday FB Live show and podcast, The Prodigy Maker Show.

Chris Lewit
ProdigyMaker.com

[stroke]

Hard not to be a fan of the super loose arm on the forehand of Nick and Sock. I have seen it documented the Sock hits as many RPM's on his forehand as Nadal. Never seen the numbers on Nick but I would think he is right there. And when Nick goes for a flat type forehand, he hits it as hard if not harder than anyone of tour. Nick and Sock have a very similar type forehand.

[stotty]

All valid points from Chris. But when do you commence teaching these things; lifting the left foot off the ground and such like? Is there still a case for teaching old fashioned fundamentals then introducing modern methods later? Traditionally, that's what has always happened in the past. It's hard to teach these things straight off the bat because they can go horribly wrong whereas traditional methods tend not to. I think it's a case of choosing the right time to filter these thing into a player's game. It's hard to ditch traditional coaching.

stroke, I am not sure Rafa's RPM's are what they once were. Both Rafa and Fognini had the same RPM stats in their recent match in Monte Carlo. It used to be Rafa's RPM's were way higher than everyone else's.

[stroke]

I did not know that about Fognini matching Nadal's rpm's in Monte Carlo but I am not surprised. Fognini's forehand looked about as good as I have seen in that tournament. And so compact at that.

[johnyandell]

Kyrgios can hit some amazing forehands. Racket tip points forward like Thiem. Backswing stays on the right side. But he doesn't load much on the back leg and his extension is usually truncated. He makes up for that with his incredible fast twitch wiper. Most forehands he hits semi open and I agree with Chris that consciously transferring the weight to the left foot isn't really part of the modern forehand.
One problem with this footage like almost all YouTube is that it's practice and depending on the level of intensity--not much here--not a great basis for evaluating reality.

[nytennisaddict]

to me, there are 2 goals i think about during a groundstroke.
1. generate rhs
2. get the racquet to contact
the more i can make my larger muscle groups responsible for (1), the more my smaller muscle groups can be focused on (2)
so if i can get to a location in time to step in (weight xfer), then my arm/hand can focus more on getting the racquet to contact
but if i'm late, and and leaning back, etc...then my arm is doing double duty of navigation to contact and generating rhs... which, for me, definitely leads to more errors/less accuracy/less than optimal shot...

my $.02 (largely based on my coach, alan chandronnait, a couple decades ago)

[doctorhl]

Ben Hogan( loose and long rotation) versus Tiger Woods( compact, stack & tilt). Can someone give names of pro players with similar oppositional baseball, cricket swing styles? The astute coach like Stotty can most likely look at body type, conditioning, footwork, etc. in determining when, how, and if the coach should nudge a developing player to attempt to move from the traditional to the extremes of elongated versus compact. The best coaches seem to be able to harness the beginner’s natural style toward the traditional style for initial success, then gradually loosen the harness to let the innate style blossom.