Junior Development:
Forehand Shot Making

Joe Dinoffer

Stroke technique is obviously critical in developing your forehand. But it amazes me how many people focus primarily on technique without realizing the forehand is not only a stroke, it's a shot.

What type of incoming ball are you hitting, where do you move to hit it, and where on the court are you trying hit it yourself? These are the issues every player must deal with on virtually every ball in match play.

Yet junior players sometimes work for years on their forehands without addressing these basic questions. Sometimes they never develop the ability to make simple placements and/or make repeated errors on certain types of balls that should be routine. Amazingly, you often see these exact problems with the forehands of adults at the club level who have played and even taken lessons for many years.

Training Shot Making

I feel that shot making must be trained from the beginning in player development. Developing court movement and positioning are the critical underlying factors that make this possible.

In this second article on build`ing the forehand, let's progress from the basics of the stroke to court positions and placements. Again, we'll use a developmental strategy that communicates to the student through imagery and feeling without a lot of verbal analysis.

I think there are 5 types of shots every player must be able to execute with confidence to have a complete forehand: It's not a coincidence that these types of shots correspond closely with the pro shot categories in Stroke Archive. The underlying principles are the same at all levels. The 5 categories are:

Positioning

In progressing from strokes to shots, it's critical that players learn to position correctly to the almost infinite variety of balls they will face in actual play. But when players first start to move around the court, in their anxiety to get the ball back, they often lose the feeling for the basic set up on the forehand and how to align to the ball.

Often they develop the tendency to take large cross steps to reach the ball, or move through the shot more than is necessary, or they tend to reach too much for the ball with the racket. Once these tendencies become habits they are very difficult to change.

The animation shows an incredibly powerful drill that helps players feel how to move and position to the flight of the ball. The player's arms are strapped to his or her side. Now the player must move and position to catch the ball with the hands.

This drill makes it literally impossible to reach for the ball. If the player isn't aligned behind the oncoming ball there is no way to make the catch. In addition, this drill automatically forces the player to take small adjusting steps around the ball. This is necessary to position precisely to make the catch.

Finally with the hands at about waist level it gives the player an automatic feeling for the proper contact height. Unless the player's movement is very precise, there is no way to catch the ball. The whole focus is on getting to the ball. There is no worry about hitting the stroke, because, obviously, there is no stroke.

Watch how you can simulate various shots and positions on the court by varying the throws. Again, rather than listening to an explanation, the player develops a kinesthetic feeling that positioning is critical. This in turn translates when you move to the actual shot patterns outlined below..

High Deep Forehands

Now the player uses the feelings developed in this exercise to guide himself or herself in position for the actual shot patterns. High deep balls are one of the first big challenges most junior players face. Watch the movement and alignment in the animation and how the player positions to create a comfortable height.

There is another key point in learning to deal with the high ball. This is to learn to return the shot with the same arc that came from the opponent, and at the same speed. A common mistake at lower levels is to try to hit a slow ball hard. Much easier is to maintain the same arc and speed. Once the player has mastered the elements in setting up and successfully controlling the shot, he or she can move on to hitting more aggressively and flattening the ball out.

Wide Running Forehands

The second situational forehand is the wide running forehand. The main issue here is to make sure the player times the split step well and then steps out in the direction of the ball with the outside foot or in the direction he or she is going to run. The step out is probably the more basic move when learning to move wide, but another option used by advanced players is the drop step, particularly when the player has further to go and/or less time.

Notice in the animation how the player is hitting open stance. This is very important to learn on the wide balls. It's the natural outgrowth of the ball catching and position exercise. By using the open stance set up you eliminate the tendency to reach and to cross step.

In addition, the player learns how open stance can be more efficient when it comes to recovery. Setting up open in this fashion eliminates two steps in the recovery process.

A related point is to hit the return crosscourt. This is a basic geometric strategy when you are pulled wide that protects your open court and minimizes your recovery distance to the center of your opponent's angles. (For more on this check out Allen Fox's articles on strategy and court geometry, Click Here.)

Inside Out and Inside In Forehands

In today's tennis the forehand is a dominant shot and one reason is the players are all getting around the ball at the first opportunity to hit inside out and also inside in.

The most challenging part of both of these shots is having sound footwork. To hit an inside forehand the player must move to his or her left, rather than to the right as is the case for wide forehand. It addition getting around the ball often entails moving backwards as well to the left.

Because of these differences, getting comfortable with the inside set up can be a challenge. But if the player already has an instinctive feel for aligning behind the ball, he or she will often develop a natural and automatic feeling for the right pattern and number of steps.

Watch the set up on the left outside foot. This is the same open stance positioning as on the wide forehand, it is just that the position is achieved with a different pattern of steps. This is true even when the player steps into the inside ball with a neutral stance.

Two additional points, when players are first beginning to hit inside forehands, they should wait for slower and shorter balls. In general, they should also wait for a ball closer to the center to hit the inside in, as it is very difficult to execute if the player is still moving to the outside.

Short High Put Aways

If you can put away short high balls in matches, it's a tremendous confidence boost, particularly in a tight situation or on a big point. You construct the point perfectly. Your opponent hits a short high ball to your forehand. You have a golden chance to hit a dominating winner. But can you execute?

Players tend to think of these as "easy" shots. But if that were really true, you wouldn't see so many players miss them so often, especially under pressure.

Here's a simple game to develop the short put away. You'll find that it is tremendously effective in helping players build the confidence to succeed with this shot in matches.

The player has to start behind a set of rubber throw down lines half way between the service line and the baseline. Now the partner sets the player up with a short high ball and then plays out the point.

The goal of the partner is to repeatedly set the player up. The goal of the junior is to hit as many winners as possible. After every shot, the player has to recover behind lines. Now play first to 11 points.

Now integrate the game into a more realistic situation. Feed the player one or two deep balls and then the short ball. Now play out the point in games to 11. The player's goal is to still knock off that short ball for a winner.

ide-T Set-up and Passing Shots

The Side T topspin forehand is one of the most underused shots in tennis. You do see it at the pro level, but not that often at club level or among the juniors where it can be even more effective.

The obvious opportunity to hit the Side T forehand is when the opponent is at the net and you go for an angled crosscourt passing shot. But an overlooked opportunity to hit for the Side T is when the opponent is on the baseline.

Hitting this sharply angled shot makes your opponent run wide and outside the lines, often setting up a winner into the open court. This shot was a key part of Andre Agassi's incredible ground game, and something Nick Bollettieri and Lance Luciani have also stressed in their Strategy Zone series. (Click Here.)

The key is not to hit the ball too hard, as the distance from the baseline corner to the sideline T is only 65 feet. This is almost 20 feet shorter than a shot hit to the deep crosscourt corner. It must also be hit with additional spin, particularly on lower balls.

Focused Practices

Now let's look at some ways to structure practices to work on all these shots. This idea is to reinforce the connection between a stroke and a shot placement. To do this set up a group of cones in the target area for the specific shot. Depending on the level of the player, set up enough cones so the player has a good chance of hitting them regularly.

I set up 15-20 cones to start and keep track of how many cones the player hits in each practice session. This keeps the player's interest by making what could be considered a boring drill--repetitively practicing hitting into certain areas of the court--into a fun game.

Decision Making

This drill helps players work on decisions regarding their placements, and also helps them evaluate their accuracy.

In the first variation we put numbered cones in each of the backcourt quadrants. The player calls out "Number 1" or "Number 2" before the ball bounces on her side of the court, indicating a decisive commitment to shot selection. In this second variation, the partner calls out the number. This forces the player to stay alert and also helps in developing disguise.

Finally, you can expand the drill placing cones in each of the 4 quadrants. The player again calls out any of the 4 quadrants, alternating dropshots to the short target areas and topspin drives to the deep ones.

A successful drop shot must bounce 2 times in the service box selected. The player gets 2 points for each successful shot and loses one point for each miss. The goal is to see how quickly the player can reach 11 points.

Grades for Focus

Another way to create focus and enthusiasm in practice is to assign grades for good execution. This involves players emotionally and gives them a tangible measure of their progress that builds confidence.

Create a target area that is appropriate to the player's skill level, for example a deep crosscourt. Start the grading process with the first ball they hit into the target area. Now see how many they can make out of ten. 10 out of 10 equals !00%, which is an A+. 9 out 10 is an A-, etc.

The variations for creating these types of drills are almost endless. You can pick any shot location, spin, and/or shot arc. The player can quickly establish a baseline grade that shows exactly where they are with a given shot, and then see concrete evidence of improvement as the grade score goes up.

Self-Rating

Advancing players also need a gauge by which to measure other factors such as swing speed and ball arc. The purpose here is to give the player a reference point to make their own adjustments.

Again the player rates themselves on a 1-10 scale. In the animation watch as the player works on various amounts of arc over the net. Number 1 is a low hard drive and number 10 is a high lob. Number 8 is an effective topspin looper, etc. Again the idea is to create a tangible way for the player to understand and execute the wide variety of shot patterns, spins, depths, and arcs it takes to really be a complete player.