Forehand Quick Fix

If you’re coaching mostly recreational players, you can look for an error on the forehand which plagues many players and one that can be easily identified and fixed.

Many players lose power, as well as the ability to hit down the line, by letting their elbow come out (similar to a roundhouse punch) rather than keeping the elbow in (similar to a karate punch) through the stroke. When the elbow bows out too early, the player ends up trying to generate power only with the arm, losing the important contributions of the legs, hips and trunk.

Hitting an effective forehand should be similar to throwing an effective punch — using your legs, hips and trunk first. This allows the person throwing the punch to keep most of his or her body weight into the punch by leading with the hips, rather than the upper torso.

Even with the “windshield wiper” forehand, the elbow is in prior to contact. Regardless of what type of forehand your player uses, the elbow should close to the body at contact, as demonstrated by these photos below.

Watch your players hitting forehands,and identify which have more of a “roundhouse” forehand, where the elbow begins to come out early, with the racquet head ending low, below the hip, instead of high, above the shoulder.

Have your players hit a variety of forehands down the line, crosscourt and up the center of the court and you’ll notice that it is easier and more natural for players who use a “roundhouse” forehand to hit crosscourt, and more difficult to hit down the line.

Using the Forehand Technique Drill will let you show all of your players the contribution that keeping the elbow in during the stroke makes to power and direction on the shot, and will help them turn a weak forehand into a weapon.

One trick you can use is to have the player take her racquet back and stop, where you then place a coin on the player’s racquet. Tell the player the coin can’t fall off her racquet until she hit the ball. This is an exaggeration, but she’ll get the feeling of how early she may be turning the racquet over and how it feels to have the elbow in contact.