Tennis Forehand 101: Easy Step-by-Step Drills for Beginners | RCW Athletic Club Tennis Drill Series

We're going to like, just review the stroke a little bit. Okay. Cause I'd like to make sure that we kind of clean up a little bit every now and again, like a refresher of how we swing. Okay. All right. Just to kind of build that, that kind of that repetition. All right. So first thing I'm going to have you do is get your grip. Okay. And then I'm going to have you put your racket in front of you like this. Okay. All right. And all you're going to do is practice turning. Relax your shoulder. Relax. I don't want it in your chin. That's it. You're going to just turn. Okay. Ball doesn't have to go over the net. You're just practicing turning from your shoulder, kind of feeling comfortable turning from your shoulder. You want to keep the angle in your hand there. Nice and steady. Here we go. Just turn. That's it. That's all we're doing. We're practicing just a little bit of topspin. Good. Now, when you do this, right? So your thumb's here. I want your thumb to go all the way upside down. I want you to feel good rotation all the way through. Okay. All right. So you're going to kind of, you're going to get in front and just nice easy rotation. Good. That's it. Let it roll. Let it turn over a little bit more. You can get a good, good stance. Like you're going to hit the ball, right? Yep. In front of you. Yeah. Cause this is where turn, turn, turn, turn. There you go. And then put the racket in front of you. That a girl. Oh, that's a bad feed. Sorry. Here we go. And again, ready? In front of you. You're going to turn it. You know, work on turning. That's it. That a girl. Good. And it's going to feel a little trouble. That's okay. There's no need for that. Here we go. Ready? Turn. Nice and easy. Good. Let it roll a little bit more. Okay. One more time. Let it roll. Good. That's it. So see how that kind of helps us. So remember when we hit topspin, right, we're turning our racket over. So that's helping us practice kind of like feeling it. Now here's the secret though. Remember it's not going to go across the body. It's going to happen right in front of me. Right? So my arm is nice and straight out in front. Then it kind of continues on to the finish. Okay. So now remember what we talk about where we want to see the sunny side up. We want to see this side where the sun hits. We want that up. So we're going to set the racket here. Okay. You're going to turn your hips now, right? Remember what part of the racket comes forward first, the bottom, and then we're going to do that same thing. We're going to turn and finish. Okay. You ready? So start with the racket up here. Yep. A little higher. You're going to pull and swing. Go. Good. Now, can you do me a favor? Set your racket for me. So don't pull it back. Just pull it forward. Okay. So like, you're going to hold it right here. Okay. Ready? Go forward. That's better. Good. Go forward with your hips, not your feet. Okay. Ready? You're going to pull, go forward. Good. Excellent. So notice how your feet are moving, right? Watch, watch coach, right? Turn, turn and swing. You don't want to feel like you, you don't want to feel again. Ready? Freeze, freeze. See how that went over there. We got to keep it over here. This side of the body. All right. And go. Perfect. I want to see that. Are you ready? Here we go. Ready? And pull. That's better. Remember, turn. Don't throw the whole body at it. Just turn your hips. Okay. Try to turn your hips. Turn your hips. That's beautiful. You see how nice that ball was? That's the kind of forehand we want to be hitting. Ready? And again, just turn. Good. Let's not lay the racket back. So right here, right here. That's it. Don't let the racket go anywhere except forward. You went backwards. Silly goose. Yes, that's it. So you got it. And what move, what, what move did you do right there that made the racket go forward? You turned your hips first. You didn't try to move your arm first. Okay. Does that make sense? Ready? Okay. Arm up out here. Good. Feet right in the right position. There we go. So notice like, let's go out here. Let's get a little farther away. Right there. Ready? Now turn your hips and go. Turn. That's a girl. That's it. I want you to practice turning your hips. Arm out a little farther. Good. You got three more of these. Turn your hips. Yeah, there we go. And again, turn the hips. Yes. Good. One more time. Arm out. Turn the hips. Turn them. Excellent. Now we've been practicing our set, so we're going to just refresh. Okay. So what's our set look like? Elbow up. Bend it. Bend it. Relax. Relax. Sweetheart. You got to keep your shoulders down. Shoulders down. Elbow up right there. Correct. Okay. And then from here, where do you go? And you push this back, right? Okay. So show me that again. Set your racket. Now pretend like this elbow is back here against my hand. Push it. Bring it back against my hand. Bring it back. Bring it back. Bring it back. There you go. Cause that helps you turn your body. Okay. So your elbow goes back and it helps you turn your body. So you go here. Now the elbow stays still. Relax. Let go. Let go. Push. Yes. So everything stayed on the right side of our body, right? Okay. All right. You showed me you got it. Now show me. Okay. So elbow back. Yep. Push the racket out. It's out this way. Yes. And turn the hips. That a girl. Excellent. Let's do it again. Elbows up. So see how you're looking through the strings at me? I don't want to see. I want to see your eyes. Okay. All right. Ready? Push the racket out this way. Towards my hand. Towards my hand. Good swing. Excellent. Set. Push towards my hand. Where's my hand? There. So I want you to go out that way. Ready? Now turn your hips. Beautiful. Excellent job. Ready? Set it. No set first. Elbows come up. Good. Push to my hand. Yes. Twist. Excellent. No. Well, very good. Let's go two more. Ready? Rackets up. Turn. There you go. Push to my hand. Yes. Pull. Beautiful. Good. Now I'm going to drop the ball. Let's see if we can do it all together. Ready? Push. Pull. Good. Excellent. Now when you push, don't flip this one back. Just keep it out to the side. Okay. Set your racket right there. Good. Ready? Push to my hand. Pull. Beautiful. Excellent. Let's go again. Set. Push to my hand. Pull. Oh, got a little close. That could be my fault. That one probably my fault. Ready? Set it. Push to my hand, which is wait, my hand. There you go. So you want, you push it, right? You want to keep the elbow here and just straighten, straighten your arm. Does that make sense? Okay. Let's do that one more time. Ready? Set it. Elbow up. Push to my hand. That's a girl. Go. Yeah. Look at that forehand. That was nice. All right. Ready? I'm just going to use my hand as a reference. Set. Set your racket. Okay. Ready? Push. Pull. Okay. And one more time. Ready? Set your racket a little bit. Yep. Ready? Push. Pull. Beautiful. Good job. Nice work. Now, last thing we're going to do to refresh. I'm going to feed them from that side. All right. Ready, Noel? So we're going to set the racket. Elbow up. Yes. Push. Pull. Beautiful. Nice job. Remember we want to stay in the legs for balance. That was excellent swing. Push. Pull. That's a girl. Very nice swing. Excellent. Ready? Set. Push. Pull. That's a girl. I love it. Set. Push. Pull. Amazing. Very, very nice. Ready? Set. Push. Pull. Good. Now remember when I'm here, I don't want to loop, right? I just want to hear and then nice and solid out. That's it. Ready? And again. Set. Push. Twist. Excellent job, Noel. You're doing phenomenal. Set. Push. Good. Excellent work. Set. Push. That's okay. You're doing a great job. Here we go. Ready? Set. Push. Twist. Yes. Good. You're going to give me five more. Okay. Ready? Push. Now see the balance. So right. Like that's the goal for us is to have really good feet. And then we turn our hips. We don't want to throw ourselves at the ball. Okay. Ready? And again, come up two steps for me. Ready? Set. Push. Good. Excellent. Very nice. Keep that body turned. Keep those hips turned. Yes, Noel. Excellent work. Great swing. Two more. Set. Push. Now we don't want to step across, right? We either step in or we hit ourselves open stance. Right? Good. Beautiful swing. One more time. Ready? Set. Push. Good. I don't like this one. So I want us to go out, right? Out with the right foot in with the left foot in means towards me. Okay. In means towards the net. Okay. We don't want to step across. Nope. That throws us off balance. Okay. So in, so try to go out there, practice, go out. Nope. Right foot out first. Now step towards me. That's what I want to see. Okay. All right. I want to see your, I want to see you go out and then step towards me. Okay. Out towards me. Good try. Good try. Let's do it again. You're doing great. Ready? Set. Out. In. There it is. Good job. One more time like that, please. Okay. Ready? And that's what we're looking for, right? We're looking for that nice solid swing. Start to finish. All right. Okay. Very, very good. Quick sip of water. All right.