Two Handed Forehand !!!

[Gregory Diamond]

Lately I tried to find last errors in my two handed forehand. Two problems had to be solved. Left hand helped at the beginning of the stroke but a moment later blocked the movement of right hand. The solution turned out to be pushing the left elbow to the left. Much more important was the second problem. My right elbow at the end of the stroke was too low comparing to Peng Shuai forehand. I couldnt find solution for four years. I tried everything but to no avail. Yesterday I analyzed it once more and found the solution. I had to change the grip to much more closed. The left thumb should be on the part of the handle parallel to the strings. Then the head of the racket is much more closed at the beginning but in front of the body the strings are facing in the right direction. You can see it all in this video. At the end of the match we raised the net to force us to use more topspin. The last thing I should improve is bending my knees more when I try to hit low ball.

[nytennisaddict]

Lately I tried to find last errors in my two handed forehand. Two problems had to be solved. Left hand helped at the beginning of the stroke but a moment later blocked the movement of right hand. The solution turned out to be pushing the left elbow to the left. Much more important was the second problem. My right elbow at the end of the stroke was too low comparing to Peng Shuai forehand. I couldnt find solution for four years. I tried everything but to no avail. Yesterday I analyzed it once more and found the solution. I had to change the grip to much more closed. The left thumb should be on the part of the handle parallel to the strings. Then the head of the racket is much more closed at the beginning but in front of the body the strings are facing in the right direction. You can see it all in this video. At the end of the match we raised the net to force us to use more topspin. The last thing I should improve is bending my knees more when I try to hit low ball.

my 2cents
you dont initiate the swing with your legs and power the stroke with your core, and you don’t extend out and through contact.

I’d imagine throwing the racquet at the ball. medicine ball throwing is really helpful in simulating the feeling to strive for.

once you can get your body (particularly legs and core) working together to power the stroke, you can leave the arms to focus solely on getting the racquet face to contact in a way that generates more topspin, that will help control the shot when you start swinging out more.

im guessing that you have trouble generating your own pace with right ratio of topspin to control the shot. that said 2hande give you much more face control, so you probably rely more on placement/depth/consistency, waiting for opponent to make a mistake or possibly approaching to finish at net.

[nytennisaddict]

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To get back on thread, I really don't know why anyone would need to use a two-handed forehand, with rackets these days being so light and easy to wield. The big weakness to me is it is harder to run around and hit inside-out and stuff like that. It kind of handcuffs the whole situation.

guessing 2hfh develops from childhood when the racquet is big/unwieldy. also kids and adults alike can find immediate success in controlling the racquet face with 2hands.

i’m a fan of teaching beginners 2hfh to get the body working together l then later transition to 1hfh (eg after they get consistent contact).

[don_budge]

guessing 2hfh develops from childhood when the racquet is big/unwieldy. also kids and adults alike can find immediate success in controlling the racquet face with 2hands.

i’m a fan of teaching beginners 2hfh to get the body working together l then later transition to 1hfh (eg after they get consistent contact).

Try having them start with the Pancho Segura grip configuration. For the right hand two-hand forehand...with the left hand use the thumb and index finger only on the bottom of the grip and grip on top as normal with the right hand. This is an excellent teaching gimmick for all of the reasons you have noted. By engaging the "free" hand in the two hand stroke you teach the student how to engage the left hand side of the body plus the left hand will restrict the backswing somewhat which is a good thing.

[Gregory Diamond]

my 2cents
you dont initiate the swing with your legs and power the stroke with your core, and you don’t extend out and through contact.

I’d imagine throwing the racquet at the ball. medicine ball throwing is really helpful in simulating the feeling to strive for.

once you can get your body (particularly legs and core) working together to power the stroke, you can leave the arms to focus solely on getting the racquet face to contact in a way that generates more topspin, that will help control the shot when you start swinging out more.

im guessing that you have trouble generating your own pace with right ratio of topspin to control the shot. that said 2hande give you much more face control, so you probably rely more on placement/depth/consistency, waiting for opponent to make a mistake or possibly approaching to finish at net.

I dont agree with you. In most cases my back leg goes to the front just after the stroke. It is because I use my body to accelerate the ball. I am not too strong and I have an injured right wrist so on such fast surfaces when the ball is really fast I have to block the ball. It looks as if I stopped the racket just after the contact with the ball. The real reason is that the ball stopped my movement. That is why I am much better player on clay. But I agree that I rely more on placement/depth/consistency. I am a very good runner so I dont have to hit too many winners to win a match. The longer we play the worse for my opponent. The surface in this video is carpet with quartz sand. It is too fast for me.

[stotty]

guessing 2hfh develops from childhood when the racquet is big/unwieldy. also kids and adults alike can find immediate success in controlling the racquet face with 2hands.

i’m a fan of teaching beginners 2hfh to get the body working together l then later transition to 1hfh (eg after they get consistent contact).

Thanks for your input.

I can see how the two-handed forehand once evolved in eras gone by when rackets were heavy and junior rackets barely existed. These days there is hardly an excuse under the sun for using a two-hander, with super light rackets and mini rackets for kids, and what not.

I can see the logic of, initially, teaching a two-handed forehand to a beginner, although I have never used this method in my work. I used to know a coach who taught the two-handed forehand exclusively at the beginner stages. He certainly seemed to believe in it.

I did love Segura's forehand. He and Gene Mayer are the only players in my book who made the shot work to a super level

[nytennisaddict]

Thanks for your input.

I can see how the two-handed forehand once evolved in eras gone by when rackets were heavy and junior rackets barely existed. These days there is hardly an excuse under the sun for using a two-hander, with super light rackets and mini rackets for kids, and what not.

I can see the logic of, initially, teaching a two-handed forehand to a beginner, although I have never used this method in my work. I used to know a coach who taught the two-handed forehand exclusively at the beginner stages. He certainly seemed to believe in it.

I did love Segura's forehand. He and Gene Mayer are the only players in my book who made the shot work to a super level

i have some students that have a terrible time controlling the racquet face
i'm a big fan of macci's formulaic fh... split, unitTurn, table, flip, contact, followThrough, recovery.... isolate the parts, and put them together...
the "flip" part of that formula.... folks (especially kids, but also uncoordinated adults), really have a hard time, pulling the racquet from a close position (even slightly closed), to contact... inevitably their hand flops open (and the ball flies over the fence)... putting the offhand on the racquet to keep the racquet "on the right plane" really helps alot of folks... (often immediately evident when they hit a 2hbh)

i'm guessing many folks who start this way, eventually find it very comfortable (think beginner that only has 2-3h max a week to "practice" which is really just playing sets)... and never make the transition to a 1hfh (from my own experience, any "major" change has taken me 3-6mos of playing 10h a week to change - and most rec folks don't have the disposable free time to invest in the change.)...

[nytennisaddict]

I dont agree with you. In most cases my back leg goes to the front just after the stroke. It is because I use my body to accelerate the ball. I am not too strong and I have an injured right wrist so on such fast surfaces when the ball is really fast I have to block the ball. It looks as if I stopped the racket just after the contact with the ball. The real reason is that the ball stopped my movement. That is why I am much better player on clay. But I agree that I rely more on placement/depth/consistency. I am a very good runner so I dont have to hit too many winners to win a match. The longer we play the worse for my opponent. The surface in this video is carpet with quartz sand. It is too fast for me.

ah, true... i was confusing it with your bh, where your leg kicks back vs coming around...
that said my main observation is that you don't see to extend through contact... which you confirm (eg. blocking on a fast surface)

not sure what you mean by "the ball stopped my movement"... it's only 2.5oz.

[Gregory Diamond]

ah, true... i was confusing it with your bh, where your leg kicks back vs coming around...
that said my main observation is that you don't see to extend through contact... which you confirm (eg. blocking on a fast surface)

not sure what you mean by "the ball stopped my movement"... it's only 2.5oz.

Fast ball has a great momentum p=mv and it is enough to stop the movement of my racket. I am not too strong and using two hands I dont accelerate the racket to great speed. What you see in my backhand has the same reason. When I am late or the ball is too fast my racket almost stops just after the contact with the ball....I watched Sofia Kenin and saw that she finishes her strokes almost only using hands without rotating her body. In next match I will be testing this technique.

[Gregory Diamond]

Great improvement in my two handed forehand. This video was recorded yesterday. I tried to copy two handed forehand of Alison Ramos. I am publishing video about Alison Ramos here. The greatest problem in two handed forehand is that left hand blocks the movement of right hand. It turned out that to solve this problem one of the fingers of left hand shouldnt hold the racket. Bartoli, Hradecka and Kucova dont use forefinger of left hand. Alison Ramos dont use the little finger of left hand. She places it over forefinger of right hand. I tried technique of Alison Ramos in this video and it helped a lot. But still I had problems with low fast balls. Once more I analyzed her forehand and noticed that there is a difference in grips. My right hand was too near the end of the handle. When I moved right hand one centimeter in the direction of the head of the racket two things happened. My grip was stronger and the strings were more closed. Two greatest problems were solved only because of the little change of grip. I am sure that tomorrow it will find proper two handed forehand after 4 years. Then I am going to record a lesson of two handed forehand so that other people didnt waste four years to use that technique.

[Gregory Diamond]

[nytennisaddict]

Great improvement in my two handed forehand. This video was recorded yesterday. I tried to copy two handed forehand of Alison Ramos. I am publishing video about Alison Ramos here. The greatest problem in two handed forehand is that left hand blocks the movement of right hand. It turned out that to solve this problem one of the fingers of left hand shouldnt hold the racket. Bartoli, Hradecka and Kucova dont use forefinger of left hand. Alison Ramos dont use the little finger of left hand. She places it over forefinger of right hand. I tried technique of Alison Ramos in this video and it helped a lot. But still I had problems with low fast balls. Once more I analyzed her forehand and noticed that there is a difference in grips. My right hand was too near the end of the handle. When I moved right hand one centimeter in the direction of the head of the racket two things happened. My grip was stronger and the strings were more closed. Two greatest problems were solved only because of the little change of grip. I am sure that tomorrow it will find proper two handed forehand after 4 years. Then I am going to record a lesson of two handed forehand so that other people didnt waste four years to use that technique.

my $0.02... you're getting too micro about the pinky finger, or no pinky finger...
the key you should be noticing about alison, is that he really extends out and through the contact... vs. stopping the stroke in a bunty way.
she's solid though, thx for posting her vid.

[Gregory Diamond]

I was forced to play doubles but I dont like it.

[Gregory Diamond]

I tested next changes to my two handed forehand. This time I tried to keep racket perpendicular to forearm( after watching forehand of Serena Williams) all the time. Great improvement but my right elbow still is too low and strings at the end are facing backwards. They should be directed to my left side. It means that probably I should change the grip of right hand to more closed. I am going to try it today.

[Gregory Diamond]

I want to test new great changes in my two handed forehand but in Poland we are not allowed to play tennis now. We are at war with corona virus. We are winning this war. My advice to all of you. Stay home, wash your hands and keep distance form other people . That is what we are doing here and we are winning. Poland is now one of the safest countries to live in the whole world.