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Forehand
| One-Hand Backhand | Two-Hand
Backhand | Serve |
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Ready position The key here is that your racquet is up a bit. Not so high as to block your view. But you want it to be up when you turn your shoulder. Also, your hands should be away from your chest a bit and your elbows up. Think of it as a Two-Headed Monster. You're head and the racquet head are at about the same height. | ||||||||
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Shoulder Turn As soon as the ball approaches your forehand, it begins pushing your racquet back. Pretend a long arm extends all the way from the ball to your racquet, and that will get you turning quickly. At this point, you don't do anything fancy with the racquet. You just turn your shoulder by hopping on your feet. The racquet stays up in that Two-Headed position, a little higher than in the picture. | ||||||||
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Racquet Back and Down That long hand on the ball continues to push your racquet in a Capital C shape, giving the stroke a continuous loop motion. The racquet goes down fairly close to the ground (lower than in the picture) and below the point of contact. Also, the strings are closed a bit (looking down at the ground). | ||||||||
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Point of Contact Here's the most important step. Imagine a big glass window out in front of your body. At the point of contact, the racquet strings are flush against the window. That requires your wrist to be laid back a bit. In fact, you should keep that same laid back position the entire stroke, so that your wrist doesn't move until the follow through. Also, the racquet handle is parallel to the ground and your waist has turned into the shot. | ||||||||
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Follow Through If you look at the position of the strings, you'll notice something unusual. After the point of contact, the strings are up behind the player's ear and they've flipped over! The edge of your racquet that was lowest at contact is now highest. This creates a brushing sensation, and adds topspin to the ball. | ||||||||
| Remember that big window in front of you, the hitting plane? A baseball swing would smash through that window, and that confuses new tennis players. With a topspin forehand, pretend you want to brush that window rather than smashing through it. In other words, you want your strings to rise through the hitting plane and flip over. | |||||||||
Breton
Bay Golf and Country Club |
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