Developing an ATP Forehand:
Part 2: The Forward Swing

Brian Gordon, PhD

In the first article on the ATP Forehand, we looked at how to create the "dynamic slot," the key technical element in the early forward swing that top players use to turbocharge their forehands.

Now in this second article let’s look at the rest of the forward swing. What happens between the creation of the dynamic slot and the contact point? The answer is surprising and may change your views when it comes to the hotly debated role of the wrist in the modern forehand.

First a brief review. The dynamic slot creates a turbocharging effect because it brings elements of the stretch-shorten cycle into play in the shoulder muscles, and to a less important extent, in forearm muscles as well. The use of stretch-shorten cycle elements causes a significant increase in the ability of the muscle to produce force.

(Click Here for Part 1 and a more detailed explanation of the stretch-shorten cycle and how it works.)

This is why the dynamic slot is instrumental in maximizing racquet velocity in the professional game. But it is a relatively simple technique that can be developed by players of all ages and levels.

It is important to note that, when done correctly, players do not create the dynamic slot through conscious muscle manipulation. The dynamic slot occurs as a result of the correct positioning of the arm and racquet in the backswing and at the start of the forward swing.

By creating specific positions during the preparation and the backswing, any player can create the dynamic slot naturally. If these positions are established, when the hand pulls the racquet forward toward the contact, it causes the racquet and hitting arm to "flip" into the dynamic slot, a motion that is dramatically demonstrated in Tennisplayer high speed video.

The creation of the dynamic slot is what distinguishes the ATP style, or what I call the Type 3 forehand, from the Type 1 or Type 2 forehands, forehands that are more common on the women’s tour and in junior tennis. (Again for more on the differences in the three types, Click Here for Part 1.)

Three Dimensions

My insight into the intricacies of the ATP style forehand, has resulted from years of quantitative research utilizing 3D motion capture technologies. This has allowed me to measure the biomechanics of literally hundreds of players.

I believe that 3D analysis is necessary to address the critical questions about the forehand, and about all the other strokes as well. This is because the critical movements in tennis happen far too fast for the naked eye to see. Even high-speed video, while visually powerful, gives no insight into how the muscles are actually functioning or a quantitative way to evaluate the differences in the types of strokes.

My research helps provide a new set of answers to questions that could not be previously addressed. But what the 3D research shows is only the first part of the story.

The next step was designing a methodology for teaching the techniques to developing players. This methodology was developed over the last two years through my collaboration with renowned developmental coach Rick Macci at his academy in Boca Raton, Florida.

Rick and I call this teaching system, Biomechanically Engineered Stroke Technique, or B.E.S.T. for short. We consider the B.E.S.T. system a breakthrough in understanding how to create world-class fundamentals.

As I noted in the first article, Rick will himself be doing a new series of original articles on Tennisplayer talking about his interpretation of the research and how he has incorporated it in teaching and training at his academy. This will compliment my articles which attempt to outline more of the theoretical basis.

On to Contact

So what happens in the forward swing after players attain the dynamic slot in our system?

To understand this, it is helpful to separate the forward swing into two distinct parts. This is because completely different things are happening in the two parts.

These two parts in the forward swing are divided by what I call the transition point. So what exactly is the transition point and where does it occur in the forward swing?

The transition point is the exact moment when the tip of the racquet becomes laterally aligned with the butt (grip) end of the racquet. Put into simple terms, this means the point in the forward swing when the racquet is basically perpendicular to the baseline.

Why is this important? The transition point in the ATP style forehand marks the transition from a largely linear acceleration of the racquet to a largely rotational acceleration of the racquet.

It marks the point when the racket starts to rapidly rotate forward toward the contact point. On the ATP style forehand this rotation occurs primarily through the movement of the wrist joint, as we shall see.

The precise location of the transition point in the forward swing is very important. It can vary substantially, and this has a big impact on how the player creates rotational acceleration, even at the highest levels of tennis.

The role of the transition point also differentiates the Type 3 forehand from Type 1 and Type 2 forehands. In the Type 1 or Type 2 forehand the transition point has little meaning.

This is because without the dynamic slot, the linear acceleration is less evident and dramatic. As the player starts to move the racket toward the contact, the swing is much more curved. Without the more linear dimension in the early forward swing, there is no dramatic transition to rotational acceleration.

Pre-Transition

Why is this transition so important? To really understand, let’s look again at the first, relatively linear part of the forward swing.

The dynamic slot and the characteristic backward rotation of the racquet, or "the flip", has two important effects.

The first is the counter-rotation of key arm segments. These include backward or external shoulder rotation, forearm supination (the backward rotation of the forearm), and also, the wrist lay back.

The second effect is the orientation of the shaft of the racquet. The flip aligns the shaft of the racquet closely with the force that is generated by the pull on the grip by the hand.

The counter-rotations of the arm joints are occurring during most of the first part of the forward swing. This is where the mechanisms of the stretch-shorten cycle come into play.

As discussed in Part 1, if the muscle groups opposing the counter rotations are contracting eccentrically (to slow the counter-rotations), then elements of the stretch-shorten cycle are engaged. This in turn will enhance muscle force production at the key arm joints (particularly shoulder internal rotation) in the second half of the forward swing.

This mechanism makes a major contribution to the creation of racquet head speed, specifically, vertical racquet head speed, as we will see.

The amount of flip also determines the extent of the counter-rotations and orientation of the shaft of the racquet as the forward swing progresses. This variation in the flip is critical in controlling the amount of spin on a given shot.

For example on a shot intended to have more topspin, the racquet flips further, so the racquet head drops further below the incoming ball, pointing down at the court on a diagonal. Conversely, less flip is associated with a flatter shot.

For a player who understands this, controlling the flip allows him to access his full range of topspin levels—the more flip the more spin. Meanwhile the forward racquet head speed contributors remain essentially unaltered.

The racquet orientation aspect of the dynamic slot is important to development of horizontal racquet head speed in the forward swing. As noted in Part 1, the hitting arm set up at the end of the backswing allows the hand to track a relatively straight (forward and slightly lateral) path towards contact, especially in the first part of the forward swing.

From the latter part of the dynamic slot to the transition point, the flip of the racquet aligns the racquet shaft closely with the direction of the hand path. This allows the racquet to follow the hand as it tracks the relatively straight (forward and slightly lateral) path towards contact.

This means that over a large portion of the first part of the forward swing the racquet is being pulled linearly grip end first. This is why there is a period of relatively linear acceleration.

This more linear path simplifies racquet acceleration compared to more the more curved paths in the Type 1 and Type 2 forehands. It does this by minimizing the rotational tendencies of the racquet as the hand pulls on the grip early in the forward swing. We will discuss how the rotational acceleration works in greater detail below, as well in future articles.

In the ATP style forehand these rotational tendencies of the racquet appear later due to the more linear nature of the early forward swing. We can see this in the high speed video, as the racquet follows along directly behind the path of the hand.

While you can see that the forward motion is on a slight curve, the arc is quite flat. Again, what that means is that much of the acceleration in the first part of the movement to the contact is essentially linear.

Post-Transition

So that’s the first part of the movement to the contact--from the dynamic slot to the transition point. Now, let's talk about what happens post transition in the second part of the forward swing.

During the second part of the forward swing the counter-rotations of the hitting arm joints are reversed by the joint musculature into their intended directions. In the Type 3 ATP style swing, the reversal from external rotation of the shoulder joint to internal rotation of the shoulder joint is the most critical sequence.

This happens after the transition point and in fact closer to the contact. Because the shoulder musculature was eccentrically stretched (or pre-stretched) during the counter-rotation, it can now produce more force when rotating the joints in the intended direction.

In Part 1, we saw that a distinguishing feature of the Type 3 swing was independent motion of the hitting arm. In the Type 1 and to a lesser extent in the Type 2 forehand, the body and arm rotate as a unit.

But with the ATP style swing, the hitting arm is pulled through the trunk rotation through independent use of the shoulder muscles, rather than simply rotating with it. This means the arm is positioned well in front of the body at contact.

With this contact position, the upper arm segment is also pointing more forward. At contact in the Type 3 swing, a line drawn from the shoulder joint to the elbow joint points more toward the net and less downward when compared to the Type 1 and 2 swings.

This positioning of the upper arm means that as the shoulder internally rotates it causes the racquet to move vertically.

The net effect is that the neuromuscular enhancement created in the dynamic slot is realized as enhanced vertical racquet speed at contact. And vertical racquet head speed is, of course, the source of topspin.

The beauty of this is that the enhancement of vertical racquet speed is independent of the sources of forward racquet speed. This clean partitioning of forward and vertical racquet speed allows them both to be optimized concurrently.

In other words, the trunk rotation and independent forward motion of the hitting arm at the shoulder joint on the ATP style forehand contribute fully to forward racquet head speed regardless of how much shoulder internal rotation is used to generate topspin.

This partitioning is cleaner in some arm configurations than others. A straighter arm (more fully extended elbow) allows more dynamic shoulder external rotation (counter-rotation) during the flip into the dynamic slot.

The result is even greater neuromuscular enhancement of the shoulder internal rotation near contact. The straighter arm configuration also allows the orientation of the upper arm near contact to be even more forward (parallel to the court) than if the elbow is bent for any height of incoming ball.

This makes the straight arm forehand more effective in creating vertical racquet head speed. This is a primary mechanical difference between the "straight arm" forehand and the "double bend" forehand.

A bent elbow during the racquet flip into the dynamic slot creates somewhat less shoulder external rotation and more supination of the forearm. You can see this clearly by watching the angle of the biceps in the animation comparing Federer and Djokovic.