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Tennis Forehand Hitting Arm Positions video
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The position your arm and racket are in when you hit the ball -- your hitting arm position -- is critically important. You need to establish this position prior to contact and maintain it into your follow through. |
Full Body Text:
One of the keys to hitting an effective forehand is having the correct hitting arm position at contact. If we look at Frank Salazar at his point of contact on the forehand, you can see that his arm has two bends in it. First, his elbow is bent, and second, his wrist is laid back. This arm position is very typical on the pro tour, and John Yandell of Tennisplayer.net has coined the phrase "The Double Bend" to describe it.
Let's rewind this video of Frank to the completion of his preparation and watch what happens with his hitting arm. Frank drops the tennis racket down, and as he begins his forward swing, he gets set in the Double Bend position; he gets his elbow bent and his wrist laid back. He is going to keep that arm position set as he swings forward to his contact point. Into his follow through, Frank still maintains the same hitting arm position.
This is critically important to good forehand technique, so let's take another look. The tennis racket drops down and Frank sets his hitting-arm position early. The relationship between his arm and the racket does not change from this point until Frank is well into his follow through with the racket virtually pointed at the net. He swings from the shoulder, and the racket and arm swing together as a unit.
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Comments (2)
Tennis Forehand Hitting Arm Positions bend or straight?
Hello Will,
Thanks again for the great info provided in your videos. During the video that explains the hitting arm positions, you mentioned that some players do bend more and others hit with a straight arm, but you would not mention the pros and cons of it in this video. Will you explain this differences? I am looking forward to listen about this issue.
Many thanks.
Fabian
2008-12-02 8:33 am
Forehand- stepping in versus open swinging
1. I would step in on short balls where I have plenty of time and hit OPEN when I don't have time(when the ball comes deep/fast).
2. Stepping in allows more power to come from your lower legs. When hitting open, the power has to come from your swing?
3. Whereas I normally swing from the side when I hit the ball in an open stance, I've noticed that stepping in affords me another alternative to swing underneath the ball and follow through linearly (versus a windshield wiper motion with the side swing).
4. I've also noticed that hitting open with windshield wiper rotation gives me much sharper angles than stepping in and hitting...I think partly because the momentum and direction by stepping in is straight forward?
Other notes:
Hitting high forehands: - Maybe add a note that if the ball bounces to high (out of your comfort zone) you could opt to "slice" down on the ball versus trying to topspin up on the ball?
I'm not a pro (like you)...just a 3.0-3.5 player with the only instruction comming from your site :-) but this is my 2-cent take from playing for a while (curious on your response). This site just keeps getting better with your details.
2008-09-15 12:07 pm
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