Unlock Effortless Forehand Pronation

All right guys, welcome back to the channel. Today I'm going to help you to develop that effortless pronation like we see from the pros. I've got a great training exercise to get you to feel how to rotate your arm so that that pronation happens naturally. Once you can do that you can get on court and get that same feeling as you're hitting your forehands. Let's get into it. Now before we get to my exercise that's going to help you to naturally pronate, I want to cover a subject that I've seen other coaches cover and I don't think they've got it right. I don't know if you've heard this but there'll be some coaches out there saying that the rotation of the arm happens after contact and you basically just have to keep things still coming through contact. But if you look at this video here you're going to see that the wrist lays back in that lag part of the swing, that lag stage. So the body's turning, the arm's moving forward, the wrist lays back. Now we've got about a 90 degree angle between the forearm and the racket. But if you take a look at contact that angle is far greater. So there's been some release of the wrist and that release is going to happen all the way through after contact. So we are releasing the wrist as we rotate the arm. So if you're holding on to those angles coming through the contact point and after the shot you think you can release it, it's too late, it's not going to happen. Again your body turns, your arm moves forwards, the wrist lays back and then from that point then the wrist releases and you can let the racket work effortlessly through the strike and all the way around your body. So a big part of being able to effortlessly and naturally pronate is understanding how to release the wrist. But I also want you to have that feeling of how to rotate your arm, what that path should feel like as you're rotating your arm and the racket all the way around your body and we can do an exercise to try and get that feeling. So I'm going to do a demonstration now to show you what I'm talking about when I say that pronation should happen naturally. If I was to swing something heavy like this around my body, this is a gardening tool, big clump of metal at the end, if I swing this around my body I would naturally rotate my arm to make this thing feel as light and as comfortable as possible. I don't have to try to flip it or do anything fancy, it is going to naturally rotate if I just listen to my body and allow this heavy thing to guide me in the right direction. If I was to hold on to it like this or try to flip it like a lot of you do on your forehands it's going to feel ridiculously heavy. So try to grab something heavy like this and swing it around yourself, don't get injured, find the right weight. I must say that on the take back here because it's got so much weight it sometimes drops into a position that isn't quite like how you'd hit a forehand, as you come through the imaginary contact point it's perfect for this because you'll find that as you come through here the arm wants to rotate and that's that natural pronation you're looking for. Get that feeling and then pick up your tennis racket and feel like you're doing that same movement as you're hitting the forehand. Obviously because the racket is so much lighter you can do so many things but get out your own way and allow your body to do what it naturally wants to do.