Horizontal shoulder adduction is the key to hitting a simple, effective, fault tolerant forehand. Design your swing such that you can adduct your shoulder, and have that adduction move the racket back-to-front through contact.
I’ve never taken a forehand lesson from a guy standing in the woods, wearing jeans, and who doesn’t have a tennis racquet. But there’s a first for everything 😂
There is a dude in a tennis club I played in the past who has an amazing forehand. I watched him in the warmup, playing in the box, standing almost frontal to the next, hitting this amazing effortlessly forehands, and I couldn’t tell why this forehand was great. Until I saw this video. He does exactly what you said. From the baseline he can hit a lot of winners as this would be the most natural thing in the world. In a club tournament he was a break down in the third set against me (I like to destroy my opponents with drop shots and lobs and so on), but he eventually won. Thanks for the video.
This should be mandatory teaching before ever hitting a ball, or a system of drills before hitting in practice or a match!! You surpassed all the “great” teachers in ten minutes! Congrats! I am a 73yo 4.5
Just tried it today, this has significantly transformed my forehand with consistency. I was able to get a lot of pace without much backswing. The natural finish check point worked really well. Thank you coach!! Hope to see more lessons for one-handed backhand and serve as well!
Yes! Very, very true. During mini-tennis, you're essentially just practicing the end of your swing, because injecting velocity with the earlier links obviously wouldn't work.
Just found your channel. You are saying some things that I have not heard anyone else in tennis say. And these things sound logical. I think your channel is going to take off.
This was just what I needed. I purchased your book a couple years ago and it helped me rebuild my forehand from an old school side on, drive from the legs thing that never quite worked for me, to a more open stance swing from the hips that's been going a lot better. But I guess either this part never quite clicked just from the text, or maybe I lost it somewhere along the way (I've tacked on a bunch of things since, for better or worse). I was mostly just focussing on the hips and keeping everything else loose, and I could hit some good shots but not as consistently as I'd like (not recently, anyway). I just had a hit after watching this, and it feels like things are falling into place properly now. As an aside, those of us already familiar with your work will know to value your instruction regardless of format. But if you did want to do a bit more with the channel, reach a few more people, the same content would probably go a little further if you were actually on a tennis court, and maybe hit a few balls at the end. Just a thought. Either way though, thanks for the video!
Awesome, that's exactly the gap this video is designed to fill. This presentation is a new, more technical way of explaining the "Forehand Contact" section of the book. I wrote the book years ago, and I'm happy I started with Forehand Contact, because I still believe it's the most important section, but since then I've refined both my understanding of exactly what's happening through contact, and also the best way to deliver that explanation to other people. Really great to hear that it had the intended effect. As for your other comment - we've got videos planned where you'll see Alexa, me, and our students hitting with various analysis on top of it. Stay tuned!
You Sir are a genius. Your book and webpage are transformative and now a RU-vid site.... (please please help by adding Fault Tolerant one handed backhand data.. Please
I like how rublev probes… he makes this crazy claw with his hand at the end of his straight and sideways non hitting arm and then exhales with bweeahhhh. I think that extended non hitting arm also relates to your hopping on one leg drill.
I’d love to see a video explaining the same stuff for the one handed backhand ie the swing characteristics. Sounds like arm aBduction and external shoulder rotation this time.
Coming here as a big fan of the blog and the book! Great videos so far! Have you ever done anything or would you consider doing anything about a "fault tolerant" backhand? :)
Thanks. Most of the fundamentals apply equally on the backhand. Figure out where, in front of you, the swing is comfortable. Design your grip in such a way that your string angle is consistent through that zone, and then probe the ball into that zone. On the backhand, there's the 1-hander, the 2-hander, and then within the 2-hander there are off-hand and dominant-hand primary swings. It's harder to write about, because there's so much more variety. I'll ask Alexa exactly how she hits hers, and maybe write an in-depth article on that particular swing style, since she has one of the best I've ever seen.
Would you say that a person with poor posture, one where the shoulders are more internally rotated at rest, would struggle with their ability to adduct as you show here?
Great video! This further explain what you wrote on the book and website about fault tolerant forehand! So is that we should let our elbow pass the hip before starting the shoulder adduction? Also, do u have any suggestion to help developing the proprioception of elbow passing the hip? Thanks!
Yeah, great question. The main thing is probing the ball into the right spot. Learning how to swing at the ball out in front of you, rather than letting it get on top of you. This will naturally force the better version of the swing. I might make a follow-up video showing exactly what I mean.
@@FaultTolerantTennis Thanks and really looking forward to your video explanation! Tried to play mini tennis using what u suggested, it really makes the stroke much more clean and more quality. So when we play rally in baseline, is that actually unit turn and acquiring power in kinetic chain are actually subordinate to making a clean contact point? Thanks!
One thing I’m beginning to notice is…. At contact … the arm should set you up so that through contact your hitting HAND is positioned in the exact same configuration as it would be if you were catching the ball without a racquet. When I get to and maintain the Catching POSITION. GOOD THINGS HAPPEN. THOUGHTS?
If that works for you, awesome, but the racket is long, so you shouldn't literally be catching the ball, as far as spacing goes. As far as your palm orientation, that will depend on your grip.
