Cross Court Forehand

[evikshin]

Hi John,

I have a few random quandries which I'm hoping you can help me out with:

1) When hitting cross court forehands, should I coil my shoulders less on the back swing, and open up my shoulders more on impact, in order to send the ball cross court? I've noticed that Agassi sets up with his shoulders slightly less open when he's hitting a cross court forehand (particularly when he's trying to hit a cross court forehand from the deuce alley). However, Federer seems to maintain the same amount of coil regardless of what forehand he's hitting. Should the direction of the ball be controlled by the shoulders, or the angle of the hand?

2) This is somewhat related to #1, but when hitting a sharp cross court angled forehand, should there be more hand action? If so, what kind of hand action?

Sorry for the rambling, but these thoughts have been tormenting me as of late.
Best,
Evan

[johnyandell]

I wouldn't change the turn. Besides you don't decide until after the turn sometimes which way to hit. And I don't think that player consciously vary the roatation of the shoulders and hips to control direction.

The problem is likely in your set up, but again impossible to really say without seeing it. You need to get the back foot behind the ball. The netural stance step if you take it is toward the target.

See the Bob Hansen articles on setting up.

After that it's about the hand. The swing has to be on an arc that is in the direction of the target area. The wiper or turning the hand over is the way to vary spin and break off the angles.

[evikshin]

Hi john,

thanks for the reply. you said that the neutral stance step should be in the direction of the target. this makes sense intuitively, but do would this telegraph the direction that I'm going to hit the ball ? in other words, can opponents read where I'm going to hit the ball based on my foot work prior to hitting the ball?

Thanks

evan

[johnyandell]

Well, Agassi, Federer, let's see just about every player that steps in does it. The shift in the angle is pretty slight. Yeah you probably can get some clues from stance if you are Jay Berger and/or are really aware as he advocates. It's so far up the food chain you'd need ATP points to have to worry about.