WHY you should use a straight arm on your FOREHAND 

Ive mastered the straight arm, tons of spin, tons of power, tons of consistency! The racquet isn’t a factor anymore, I can use any racquet, any strings, my ball is solid Day in Day out !!! 💪🏻💪🏻💪🏻

Thanks, you are a good coach. Like the way you teach.

The last 3 months i have been working on my forehand. As well as some of your vision guides, I've specially been working hard on the footwork. Especially the open stance and you know what...my issue was I was being lazy and hitting with a bent arm for a while without realising! I used to mishit and sometimes get a dodgy wrist. So I experimented with another tennis club member. He said, "give yourself room". 8/10 of the forehands that I gave myself "room", were stroked with umph, precision and margin for error. The ones I was getting too close, bent arm, were going to the net. I think after doing a lot of footwork training, I realised that straight arm forehand is more natural to me. Meaning I didn't have to think and I auto-pilot when I get my footwork sorted. Vision, footwork and then the arms in the order helped aid my failing forehand.

Bent arm and especially finding support at the elbow on the torso is what I suggest to most amateurs, especially female players. Straight arm needs a lot of timing and physical strength for the arm, any mess up with the timing, a straight arm will not find the support and exert unnecessary force on wrist. Federer and Nadal looks amazing with straight arm, but that hard training and talent are not most people can copy with.

Straight arm forehand is best advice ever, I just transfer my game to straight arm and ball just goes wild and no arm pain. But yeah, timing is the key and fast footwork of course. thanks for these great coaching videos!

Bent arm vs. straight arm mostly comes natural. Changing is almost always going to be counterproductive. It is possible as Federer used to hit with more of a mix of straight and bent. Even so, he wasn’t going from pure bent to pure straight. Straight arm is more difficult to make work. Nadal and Federer aren’t great because they have straight arm forehands. They can be effective with straight arm forehands because they are great. The big advantage of a straight arm forehand is being able to be effective with a lower racquet drop. BTW, both forearm supination and shoulder external rotation are present in either method on the take back and lag. Bent arm typically is easier to control, but the hardest hitter on tour, Basilashvili, uses a bent arm. Congratulations, you’ve just set some players back a long way based on your intuition.

really clear and useful explanations. Many thanks.

Hey! Great video and I really like your teaching style, the "I believe this because of X but noone can know for sure"-type of honesty and thinking is the way to go on complex topics! Now, for some more speculation! So one factor in doing a forehand is for sure predicting where the ball will go and have good footwork to move to the right spot to be able to hit the ball in a good position. I for example as a hobby tennis player do that somewhat well I'd say because of athleticism and footwork but I could get way better with more tennis specific experience which I don't have super much of. However, since a bent elbow can be bent to varying degrees and compensate to a degree for non-optimal footwork, could this work better (in terms of immediate resuts) for someone who doesn't have perfect footwork+ball prediction, while a straight arm forehand is more dependant on distance berween body and ball being right so it requires better footwork+ball prediction to deliver good results? Or does the straight arm forehand also have some sort of "built in flexibility" in the technique so that one can adapt with the body even when footwork failed? I tried today and bent elbow is definitely my natural way of doing the forehand, straight elbow felt either powerless, weird or unnatural - at least the way I was able to do it today..! Anyway, since I can't really do the straight elbow variation I also can't really answer my own question by just trying it out! :)

Do you think it’s possible for you to show us as an example while you are playing how you do these shots that you’re trying to explain to us? Would help a lot. Just like a few demonstrations when you are being fed some balls by another person from the other end on the forehand or backhand? Then like after analyse what you are doing in relation to what you are saying? No slow motion. Like a real time segment?

i think djokovic's form is the best to follow for armatures. it's awkward to keep straight arm in the whole forward swing like federer, at least that limits your hitting zone. given armatures cannot set up for right spacing, it's very hard to to. however, if you apply extension concept, or extend your elbow through and after contact, you will see many player's arm close to straight after contact and that has many benefits. anyway, djokovic's form is good for everyone normal like us.

This is a great analysis. I have always had a bent arm and always wants a straight arm. I think the straight arm is quite rare because it requires you to had really strong footwork and setup, even at a developmental stage. With the racquet further in front, you are robbing yourself of time if you don't have the prop skills. That said, I think the straight arm has more potential for power and spin. See Nadal, Federer, DelPo, Alcaraz, Verdasco. What are you thoughts on switching techniques after you've played competitive tennis for 10 years?

It seems to me a bent arm with an extra segment to accelerate in its kinetic chain would be more adaptable to errors in tracking but an extra link increases chances for errors as well. IMHO, the farther in front you can make contact and still have forward momentum and adequate margin of error in your strike zone, the easier it is to track the ball to contact as the angular velocity out front is smaller than hitting later. It’s a trial and error as you say. A few important variables that only the individual can figure out on his/her own. That said, I think there are limits to each method just from a physics and biomechanical perspective which only a live coach can truly help us to correct.

It's not a question of choice of the player, the body will take care by itself. Bent or straight is a more a question of style, it's not a fundamental element. Try to force yourself to have a bent or straight arm and It'll impair the quality of your forehand.

Doesn’t it also depend a lot on what grip you/they use?

This was excellent. I hear what people are saying in the comments, but I actually prefer the straight-arm version.

You missed the huge wrist extension in Federer’s forehand contributing to the lag. No?

I have a natural straight arm. But is it true that it is more prone to injury? I get nervous second-guessing myself if I should force the bent arm on myself to avoid injuries

Should just do what feels more natural. People’s body structures and muscle memory and coordination are different. It’s gonna be bent arm for most people. Can handle more weight, it’s easier for timing and last minute adjustments. Straight arm’s advantage is more power and maybe less bad habits. Using fed and Nadal as the gold standard doesn’t make sense to me for bent vs straight. Most of the best FH’s ever were bent arm and most pros are bent arm. Kyrgios is extremely bent and absolutely ridiculous FH. Straight arm also requires more wrist and shoulder mobility IMO

Which style of forehand do you use and why?

Fed, Nadal, Verdasco …. 3 greatest forehand’s of all time, all straight arm, no arm injuries

First and Straight arm!

When I use a straight arm, I get more speed on the ball with less effort.

Isnt't there also forearm pronation with the straight arm forearm?

It’s really simple to me. Whether you hit with a straight arm or bent arm is 100% biomechanics.

Great content. I am going for straight arm.

you sound so zesty