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Tennis Lessons / Forehand / Step 4

Follow Through

How To :

1. Extend out in the direction you are hitting the ball.

2. Continue to rotate your upper body.

3. Turn your forearm and wrist over as a unit -- the motion is very similar to pretending you have a watch on and are trying to check the time.

4. Finish with the racket across your body in a smooth and relaxed motion.

Figure 1: Frank swinging to contact

From his contact point, Frank extends out in the direction he is hitting. At the same time he is also continuing to rotate his upper body. Once he has extended out, he turns his forearm and wrist over – checks the time on his imaginary watch – and then finishes with the racket across his body in a smooth and relaxed motion. In fact, relaxed could be the best way to describe the follow through. You want to make your follow through as relaxed as possible. Don’t try to force yourself to stop moving.

A key concept is that the follow through allows your entire body, not just the racket, to decelerate. For example, your upper body keeps rotating through contact because you do not want to stop turning once you make contact with the tennis ball and are facing the net. This would force you to slow yourself down before you hit.

How high Frank finishes – in this case, WHERE – depends on a number of factors that are beyond the scope of this article. It is worth understanding, however, that the type of shot you are trying to hit will dictate how you follow through.

Common Errors:

Trying to follow through a specific way.

Trying to follow through by your waist or over your head (like Nadal) doesn’t work. The reason someone like Nadal finishes over his head is because of what’s going on before and up to when he hits the ball. For example, you cannot hit a flat forehand but try to follow through as if you had just hit with heavy topspin.

Read Forehand Swing Path »

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