Components of the Modern Forehand
What makes the modern ATP-style forehand: grip, stance, swing path, contact point, and follow-through.
Components of the Modern Forehand
David T. Porter, EdD
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The evolution of the forehand: huge changes in angular momentum and torso rotation.
How has the forehand evolved in the modern game? In this article, we'll take a look at some of the components, including momentum, torso rotation, and the use of the legs both for loading and recovery.
Momentum
One of the biggest changes in the modern game has been in the increased use of angular momentum. In the history of tennis, good forehands have always been hit with two kinds of momentum. Linear momentum, which is generated in a straight line, and angular momentum, which is generated by rotation on an axis.
Both types of momentum are working simultaneously in a good forehand. But we typically associate linear momentum with components such as stepping forward into the line of the shot and swinging the racket outward toward the target.
Linear momentum associated with stepping in and hitting through the line of the shot.
Angular momentum, on the other hand, is associated with the rotation of the body core and the racket arm around the axis of the spine. This is where we see the big change in the modern game. The players today are currently using up to twice as much body rotation in the forehand as in the days of wooden rackets and classical tennis.
How do players generate this additional rotation and momentum? It begins with the loading in the preparation phase.
Players are setting up in a semi-open stance or a fully open stance. The right leg is bent at the knee. In this loaded position, the weight primarily over the inside of the leg.
It is very important that the weight is not too far to the right, or the outside. Proper weight distribution over the inside of the leg is important for generating momentum, but also for the recovery phase, as we will see. This is because placing the weight on the inside of the leg allows you to shift or transfer it back from our right leg to left leg actually beginning the recovery as you hit.
Loading with the weight on the inside of the leg. And a line from back shoulder to front shoulder to oncoming ball.
Torso Rotation
In this loaded position, notice the line of the shoulders. The line runs basically from the back shoulder to front shoulder, and then to the ball coming towards him.
From this position, the player rotates his body forward in a semi-circle. Watch that the shoulders come around 90 degrees to the contact point, so they are now basically parallel to the baseline. The hips have rotated almost as much.
After the contact, the racket continues out toward the target. The shoulders and hips continue to rotate until they are now facing the target. The line now runs from the back shoulder to the front shoulder to the target.
In the old-style forehands, there was much less rotation forward to the contact. The shoulders rotated at most 90 degrees over the course of the swing.
The shoulders rotate 180 degrees with the line now from back shoulder to front shoulder to the target.
Compare that to the forehands we have been looking at. The rotations are basically doubled, reaching around 180 degrees. This is a huge change.
This increased rotation also affects the contact point. With the old-style swing, the contact point was even with the front leg, or a little in front. Now with the increased rotation and the shoulders fully open at contact, the contact point is significantly further forward
Load and Explode
Another big change in the modern forehand is that the players are leaving the court with one or both feet in the forward swing. The open stance loading of the outside leg and the increased rotation of the body through the swing cause the player to explode upward off the court and into the air.
It's important to understand that this is not really a jump. It's the natural result of the summation of forces as the energy passes upward through the kinetic chain. It's energy that you derive using the ground as the base for support. The forces modern players are generating are now literally pulling them off the ground and into the air.
Loading and exploding, with the landing on the left foot first.
I call this sequence: "Load, Explode, Land." This can be contrasted to the sequence in old style forehand which was "Turn, Step, Hit."
The angle of the leg is bent, which allows the player to explode into the shot. Then the players land in different ways depending on the shot and where they are in the court.
Unless the player is on the run, however, this landing will typically be on the left foot. This is why in the preparation phase, it's important to load the weight on the inside of the leg. It allows the player to actually begin the recovery as he is hitting, shifting the weight back toward the middle of the court as he swings.
The player loads with the right leg, explodes into the shot, and lands on the left leg. The proper loading controls the momentum so that the player explodes upward into the air, instead of continuing to move to his right.
When the player loads the outside leg, he should be ready to push off with the outside foot to start the recovery. In fact, players should take this last loading step with the idea that they are already pushing back to the middle.
The exception is when the player is stretcher wider and/or running for a ball. In this case, it's also possible for the player to land the other foot, that is, on the right or outside foot.
Recovery: a running step or a hop, then a crossover step before the shuffle.
Players do this in two ways depending on how far they must move to reach the ball. The first is when they are still able to hit off the outside leg, although they have not been able to fully load behind the ball with the weight to the inside.
In this case they take a hop step with the outside foot to control the additional momentum to the outside. In a more extreme case, the player will use a running cross step with the opposite or left foot, which is then followed by the hop step with the left.
Depending on where the ball is and how the player moves, the sequence of loading and landing can be "Right Foot, Left Foot" or it can be "Right Foot, Right Foot."
Recovery
After the landing, the player can take a shuffle step back to the middle, but the further out in the court he is, the more likely the recovery will begin with a crossover step. This turns the player in the direction he is moving. Normally the player will take one crossover step and this will be followed by shuffle steps to complete the recovery.
The crossover step will typically occur when the player has taken a hop or a running step and a hop. But all players are definitely in a better position to recover when they are able to set up behind the ball the ball with the weight loaded on the inside of the leg, and transfer the weight toward the middle to initiate the recovery.
David T. Porter, Ed.D., is the chairman of the USPTA Player Development Council, and the immediate past president of the USPTA. David is professor of exercise and sports science at BYU Hawaii, and the coach of both the men's and women's tennis teams. In 2002-2003 his teams won both the men's and women's Division II team championships, a first in NCAA history.David is a featured presenter on the USPTA's award winning Tennis Channel instructional show.
He has conducted clinics for players and coaches across the United States and world wide, including China and the former Soviet Union. During the summer months, he is tennis director at Camp Walt Whitman in Piermont, New Hampshire, where he has worked personally with hundreds of junior players at all levels of ability.
Source: tennisplayer.net archive — Components of the Modern Forehand.docx (John Yandell teaching library, 2002-2022). Extracted and rendered as HTML for Tennis Future Lab.