How To Hit The Perfect Tennis Forehand In 5 Simple Steps.

Hey everyone Simon here from Top Tennis Training and in this video I want to help you hit a perfect forehand in five simple steps. So the first thing we're going to talk about is the grips. Now if you use a western grip on your forehand you'll get a lot of topspin but it will be hard for you to generate the power so you don't really want to be hitting with the western grip. If you've got the eastern forehand grip which is much further around like this now I can generate a flatter shot and more power but I won't be able to generate the same topspin as the grip that we recommend which is the semi-western grip. Now the semi-western grip is like this from here I can spin the ball but I can also hit through the ball. So now you have your grip you're ready for step number one which is having a perfect ready position. Now if we look at Djokovic Federer and Nadal let's watch their ready position right now. So there you could see that all three players have the racket head higher than the grip level they're waiting with their forehand grip and this is because they want to hit their forehand. Around 60 to 70 percent of the court can be covered with your forehand especially if you're a little bit quicker you can even cover further into the backhand wing. So you want to wait with the forehand grip and you want to hit as many forehands as possible. So you're waiting with the forehand grip your non-hitting hand this is my left hand because I'm a right hander is on the throat of the racket like so or on the grip if I'm a two-handed backhand player. Some two-handers will still hold the throat of the racket as it allows to really pull back the wrist in that position. Either way is fine but just make sure that the racket head is higher than the grip because this is going to create that leverage right from the start of the stroke. Now what exactly is leverage? So leverage is force over the ball. The more force I have over the ball the more power I can get the more spin I can get the more control I can get on that shot. If I don't have much leverage it's going to be hard for me to generate power it's going to be hard for me to overcome the power of the oncoming ball and it's also going to be hard for me to generate the the top spin. So I want to have force over the ball and a great way to have this is by creating that leverage in the racket the wrist and the arm. Now notice that the racket is higher than the grip level because later in the stroke you want to reach a power position similar to this and once you're you're set up in this position this allows for a very quick unit turn a very quick shoulder turn and reaching that power position becomes much easier. If I start with my racket down here it takes a little bit longer to reach that position but by starting up here it's very easy for me to get into that power position. So step number one holding the racket head higher than the grip level like so in your forehand grip. So step number two to the perfect forehand now that you've seen that the ball is coming to your forehand you want to turn your left shoulder if you're a right-handed player. So my left shoulder is now turning to the oncoming ball or to the net. So that left shoulder what this will help me is with the racket preparation if I do nothing with my arm if I do nothing with my hand and I just turn my left shoulder now I already have the racket halfway back so right from the beginning I'm already halfway prepared for the stroke. So from the front it's going to look like this. So that left shoulder's turning I'm still holding the throat of the racket and this is going to help keep the right hand relaxed and loose. If I don't hold it there's going to be a lot of tension in my wrist because of the position of the racket head so by holding it it keeps my arm relaxed keeps my muscles loose and that's what I want to have. I want to have a loose arm, I want to have relaxed muscles so that I can generate the power later in the swing. So once you have step number one which is good ready position, step number two the unit turn the left shoulder turning sideways on and step number three is now reaching a perfect back position or power position. So the power position is where the left hand is across the body almost in line with the baseline if this was the baseline here my left hand is now across the body like this this is creating that great unit turn it's also coiling the upper body so my side of my obliques which are the side abdominal muscles by coming across with my left hand I'm now stretching and coiling the upper body to then uncoil when I open up for the stroke. So my left hand's across the body this can also help with the tracking of the ball my racket head is still higher than the grip which is creating that great leverage in the back position here and as you can see I'm not too close to my body I have a lot of space between my racket and my body a lot of players you'll see them hitting a ball from down here and they end up jammed up at contact because of the elbow being tucked in when they reach that back position so you want to have space between the elbow and the torso of the body so I don't want to be here I want to have a good space I'm not taking the racket too far back behind my body's line now a lot of the WTA players they will end up taking the racket further behind the body further behind the back so from the front you end up seeing the racket on the left side of the body here now this is because women in general are more flexible and also they want to hit the ball a little bit harder and they're not normally they're not as strong as the guys so to generate that same power they take the racket further back and it also changes the swing path so you hit a flatter ball when you're coming from behind the body this way so WTA players tend to hit the ball flatter whereas the ATP players tend to hit the ball a little bit more with topspin so what I would recommend is keeping the racket on your right side of the body if you're a right-handed player so you're keeping the racket out here if you're a right-handed player so left hand across the body racket head higher than the grip level and in that position now I'm very relaxed I'm not actually there's no tension in my arm or my wrist so in this position I'm very relaxed if I was to drop the racket head down here I would lose that same power and that leverage so by having the racket head higher I now have more space to accelerate the racket but without taking my racket behind my body's line and step number four is now generating good racket lag on your forehand so from this position because the racket head is higher than the grip I've now set myself up for a very good racket lag so from here the body starts to open up the coil uncoil motion starts to happen and then if I'm relaxed and very loose with my wrist and with my arm I should reach a position similar to this where the bottom of the racket is now pointing to the oncoming ball and let's have a look at Federer doing this Nadal doing this and countless others so there you can see all the players pointing the racket head like this some with more extended arms like Federer he has a lot of space between the racket head and the body some players are more tucked in with the racket a little bit closer to the body with the double bend in the elbow and the wrist either way they're still reaching that position where the bottom of the racket is pointing to the oncoming ball and they have the racket head lagging behind the butt cap of the racket so to achieve this we don't want to force it now a lot of players they'll end up going out and trying to force that position if you constantly force that position you're putting a lot of stress on your wrist and you very well may end up with a injury in that wrist now you want this racket lag to happen in a natural relaxed way you don't want but by starting the swing with your racket head in this position now you can see my wrist is already kind of cocked back in that starting position later in the swing it's much easier for me to then find the racket lag because my wrist is already slightly back if i started with my racket level with my hand and i take the racket back like this and now from here i want to then achieve this position it's much harder than if i start with my racket head higher and then just allow that racket to just lag behind the grip in that forward momentum so once again you don't want to force it you want it to happen naturally but by having step number one and step number three which is the perfect power position you're really setting yourself up for step number four the racket lag and step number five now you've made contact way in front of your body so if you're if you play with a bit more of a bend you might hit the ball somewhere here if you play a little bit more with the extended arm you're going to hit the ball somewhere out there you've hit the ball out in front you've found a nice contact point you've hit the top spin if you want or you flatten it out depending on the stroke now we want to have a good finish a good follow through a common thing that i see a lot of players doing is they'll do everything right in the backswing and as they make contact they slow down or they even stop so as they make contact they slow down and they don't finish the swing now let's take a look at some of the best players how they finish now there are many different ways to finish you can finish with your racket above your left shoulder like this you can finish across the chest you can finish much lower down by your left hip you can even do in the dowel finish where you go more like the lasso forehand either way you want to have a good follow through and the reason we have a good follow through is during the contact zone if i'm hitting the ball here from this position to this position i don't really want to be slowing down if i'm doing more for topspin shot i still don't want to be slowing down during the contact zone i want to be accelerating through the contact point if i'm stopping just after the contact point i'm going to lose the control of the stroke so by accelerating through i'm now forced to finish around my body either up like this or across my left shoulder like this now the other very important reason that we want to have a good follow through a good finish is if i constantly stop out here just after contact imagine the my elbow and my shoulder now over time if i constantly do that i mean i'm going to end up with an injury now by having that good follow through you're allowing the muscles to relax in a natural way and in a way that's healthy for them you don't want to be doing that quick stop here forcing the racket to stop in an unnatural way you want the racket to stop by reaching the so let's go over the steps once again step number one a good ready position with the racket head higher than the grip level which is creating that leverage right from the start of the stroke but also allowing the wrist to cock back slightly step number two the unit turn the use of the left hand the use of the left shoulder to start the preparation for the swing step number three reaching a good power position step number four creating that racket lag by allowing it to happen in a relaxed way step number five having a good follow through wherever wherever that may be so it may be across the body like so you might want to do more traditional up over the shoulder or you might want to do it slightly lower now inside our forehand blueprint course we cover all of these steps in much more detail and if you want to have more help on your forehand if you want to get more power if you want to have more top spin if you want to just have a better forehand in general technically and the result wise you can find that link below this video i'll leave that link to the forehand blueprint course there you can also watch some more free videos and if you want to join the full course you can also do that so thanks for watching the video i hope you've enjoyed it and i hope you have learned something new if you have enjoyed it please click that like button leave a comment down below as well and if you haven't done so already subscribe to the channel and turn on the notifications so you get our newest videos as soon as we release them see you soon guys all the best