The Forehand

I'm going to link three videos from Fuzzy Yellow Balls, also known as FYB. FYB is a collaboration between Will Hamilton and Adam Sieminski. Will is the frontman of the videos. He presents the material and does the talking. Adam handles the photography, and is behind the scenes. You also see Frank and Oliver, who serve as additional examples, but don't have speaking roles.

Here are the links:
Step 1. Pivot and Shoulder Turn

Step 2. Shoulder Turn

Step 3. Swing Forward to Contact

Although Will, having played college tennis, is far more skilled than me, there are a few things he doesn't point out, which I'll add to augment the videos.

First, I want to point out perhaps the most common "error" in tennis, and it affects forehand, backhand, and volley.

To illustrate the idea, which is difficult in text, I want you to do the following. Stand up, with your arms to the side at shoulder height. If someone were to look at you, you'd look like a cross. Now imagine holding your racquet in your dominant hand and having that racquet also point to the right, thus making your arms seem another two feet (plus change) longer.

Notice that the racquet is an extension of your arm. In fact, some people like to point out that pros act like the racquet is an extension of their arm.

But that's all wrong.

Pros create an angle between the racquet and their forearm that's almost 90 degrees, and this angle is maintained pretty much from the time the begin to swing their racquet forward.

There's another thing a lot of pros do, though I don't know how important it is.

Pay attention in the first video to how Frank prepares his forehand. His racquet face is tilted down before he begins to take it back. If you look at Safin, Monfils, Federer, and Djokovic, they have the racquet pointed straight up. Thus, if their racquet were like a mirror, and you were facing them (the net would be at your back if you stood between the net and the player), you'd almost see your reflection in the racquet.

Frank, meanwhile, points his racquet mostly down, so the mirror would reflect the court.

The purpose, I believe, is to get the player to think about the 90 degree angle between racquet and forearm.

The second thing that Will does, but doesn't point out (he may do so in another video), is what happens to his non-dominant hand. Since Will is a lefty, the non-dominant hand is his right hand. For me, it's my left hand.

The left hand is used to cradle the throat of the racquet. By having it there, as you pull the racquet to the side, you will turn your shoulders.

The other point I want to make is in the third video.

This is the swing up to the hit. Again, Will demonstrates it, but I believe it's not quite said out loud.

You want to rotate the body just as the racquet is dropping down. Your arm is going to be very relaxed. As you rotate (counter clockwise or to your left for a rightie, and the opposite for a leftie), the racquet is going to move in the opposite direction.

To illustrate this (again in words). Imagine your arms out at your side with the racquet point out in your right hand, like the cross I mentioned earlier. Now imagine rotating counter clockwise (to your left). If your wrist were relaxed it would begin to bend backwards, and the racquet would start to bend backwards as well.

To give a better illustration, imagine you were holding some streamers or a thin strip of cloth about three feet long. As you turn counter clockwise, the streamers would be following your arm, but behind it. Although a racquet is rigid, you can think of it doing the same thing.

The torso turn from sideways to the net, to facing the net initiates the middle part of the swing. As you drop the racquet down, your body should rotate, causing the racquet to drag behind you, and then you should begin to pull your arm forward as the ball gets closer to you, as a reaction to dragging it.

That is, initially, as you rotate, the arm is relaxed and the racquet arm is now trailing a bit, but as you continue to rotate, you will begin to pull your wrist forward and accelerate to the ball.

Most pros, for a very long time, have the racquet at a 90 degree angle. Another way to picture this is to aim the butt of your racquet to the ball. Even pros back in the day (Chris Evert) who hit flat strokes, did this. The butt of the racquet is at the bottom usually with the company logo at the bottom.

You want to point the butt of the racquet towards the ball, and start to accelerate the wrist (and butt) towards the ball. Meanwhile, your torso is still continuing to rotate.

At some point, when the ball is near, your arm will cross in front of your body, and the racquet will quickly move from pointing to the back fence to pointing to the side fence which means the face of the racquet is now parallel to the net.

This is starting to be part of the windshield wiper movement so many pros use. You want to initiate the windshield wiper motion as the racquet is starting to go from pointing to the back fence to pointing to the side fence, and continue on, ultimately with your forearm in front of your body, and eventually the racquet wrapping to the left side of your body.

Will has pointed out to me that the windshield wiper movement is not tacked on at the end, but initiates a bit earlier so that it flows naturally.

Let me summarize a few of the points I've made:

• Imagine the racquet is like a mirror. With the aid of the left hand, you want to show your opponent his or her reflection. The racquet should be held in front of you, slightly to the right (for a rightie).
  
• As you turn the shoulder, your non-dominant arm will move across the body parallel to the baseline. Will points this out well in the video. This emphasizes the shoulder turn.
  
• Eventually the mirror that you showed to your opponent begins to move to the back fence and reflect that (Djokovic in particular, likes to do this). The racquet head from the first three steps goes from about head height to a little above head height (your head, that is).
  
• Then, the racquet begins to drop down from behind, and starts to point face down.
  
• Before the racquet is all the way down, start to rotate counter clockwise.
  
• Your relaxed arm will start to drag behind.
  
• The butt of the racquet begins to point to the ball, with the racquet and forearm at 90 degrees.
  
• Begin to accelerate the racquet butt towards the ball, again continuing your body rotation.
  
• As you accerlerate and turn, the ball will be fairly close, and the arm will start to move forward and arc as part of the windshield wiper movement. The racquet is still basically at a ninety degree angle (actually closer to 120 degrees), but because your arm (and in particular your forearm) is starting to point forward, it still manages to contact the ball perpendicular.
  
• Continue the motion until the the racquet ends up to the left side of your body. At this point your shoulders will be pointing somewhat to the left. Note that your feet will have to adjust to allow this entire movement to take place.
  

Key things I feel I've added. Major point is the 90 degree wrist angle, and the torso leading the swing of the racquet as the racquet swing reaches the bottom, and also the butt pointing to the ball. Minor point is holding the mirror to your opponent, and keeping the butt pointed to the ball for as long as you can, before starting the windshield wiper movement. Finally, relax, relax, relax.

Like I said, Will's videos are fantastic, and learning these strokes is really hard, and requires a lot of element come together in concert, and lots and lots and lots of practice.