To hit a tennis forehand properly, with spin, power, control, it is important to understand what preparation is required before you actually get ready to swing. Our prior articles explain these and are listed below in sequential order. If you are struggling with power, spin, or control on your current forehand , refer to the sequential list below to ensure you are preparing properly.
Forehand Grip: Semi Western Grip
Ready Stance:
Split Step
Unit Turn
Racquet in Power Position ( This article )
Step forward ( Closed Stance )
Step and twist ( Open Stance )
Racquet head drop below the wrist
Step forward and pull racquet with handle butt facing net
Make Contact with ball in front of your front foot/body
Follow thru with swing over shoulder, or across the chest around backside.
Leg swing to return to ready position ( closed stance )
To find the forehand grip, the forehand grip is a semi-western grip in my example. The semi-western grip is powerful because it places the racquet pointing down, which ensures when you make contact with the ball, you will instantly have access to spin and control. To find the Semi -Western grip, place your racquet flat on the ground, and pick it up as you see in the picture. That is the semi-western grip! It might be easier to pick up the racquet than to find the bevel on the grip. To find the correct bevel for the right handed player, you want to place your index finger knuckle pad and heel pad on bevel #4. For a left handed player, you want to place your base index finger knuckle and heel pad on bevel #6.
The Ready Position, Split Step and Unit Turn
The Ready Position is exactly what it sounds like. You are preparing yourself, ready to strike;
You are facing the net
Feet shoulder length apart
Knees slightly bent
Racquet in forehand grip, head slightly above your wrists
Eyes on your opponent
After opponent strikes ball ( example on forehand side )
Perform split step, a slight hop forward landing with both feet
When landing, right foot should be pointing towards moving to forehand side ( right-handed player ). Opposite for left handed player. Left foot pointing towards forehand side.
Perform the unit turn, left shoulder now pointing to the net. ( right-handed player ) Opposite for left-handed player, right shoulder pointing toward the net.
Racquet head drops below the wrist, racquet face is closed. Racquet butt end is facing net. Player is in closed stance. Ball strike takes place in front of front foot. Left arm extended as counterbalance.
You now have a roadmap to your tennis forehand. What’s next? Get out there on the courts and try this out. Be patient, it takes time to learn all of these steps, and then put it all together into one awesome forehand shot.
Leave a comment if you have any tips to add. Please like and subscribe if you got some value from this article.
At the beginning of every year I venture to try a new tennis racquet. I am currently playing with the 2016 Babolat Aero Pro Drive. This is the fluorescent green model and was a heavier version of the regular Aero Pro Drive that year, weighing in at 12.3 oz strung. Wow, that seems like a heavy racquet!!
I like the stability of the 2016 model, but it is a 2016 frame and I am sure it has lost some pop being that it is now 8 years old. I am an NTRP 4.5 Singles and Doubles Player and a full time Tennis Coach. I play 2 to 3 matches a week on top of a full tennis coaching calendar. I hit with a heavy topspin forehand, but can also flatten it out if necessary. I have a top spin one handed backhand and it is a little more challenging to flatten it out, but I will tend to slice for position off the backhand if I can’t get under the ball enough. I also have a pretty good slice serve and a moderately good kick serve. I can hit the big flat serve when necessary. I am giving you a point of reference for my game when I am discussing the test play of the Rafa Origin Racquet. The Rafa Origin is Rafa Nadal’s spec racquet, meaning it is the specification of his actual racquet. Here are the specs below.
I have highlighted 3 areas on the racquet specifications that really make this racquet standout from most racquets. On the balance, the racquet is only 1 point Head light, meaning the racquet carries a lot of weight in the head/hoop. The 1 point head light explains why the swing weight is so high at 371. As a comparison to my 2016 model, my racquet is 4 point headlight and has a swing weight of 327. The stiffness on the Rafa origin is 70, which means you are going to feel the shots as there is very little dampening in the frame. My racquet has a stiffness of 69, which is pretty close to the Origin. The big difference with the Rafa Origin to mine, and other racquets is the high swing weight of 371 and the weight of the racquet in the hoop area. In all honesty I have demoed this racquet twice. The first time the demo racquet had an unknown poly string and unknown tension. And while I really liked the racquet, I did feel it was a bit heavy and returned it shortly. But I was itching to play with the racquet again, and this time on my demo, I kept it a full two weeks and had the racquet strung with Babolat RPM Blast with 50 pounds of tension and 17 gauge string. I really wanted to put the racquet through its paces this time with my string and tension. After 2 weeks of play here is what I found. Forehand: Hitting a forehand with this racquet is pretty simple if you let the racquet take the lead, and don’t try to put too much arm into it. I have never hit a more stable, solid forehand, and every ball had power and depth. The more I played and hit with the Rafa Origin, the more comfortable I became. After about 5 straight days of hitting with it, my forehand felt great, but I couldn’t put the normal massive top spin on the ball, either hooking the ball in the corner, or inside out. The ball was flatter, but really jumped off the racquet with good power and depth. Backhand: This was probably the craziest part of my play-test. I could not miss my one handed backhand if I tried. I could place the ball anywhere, with any spin and the slice was devastating. The power and depth was again easy to find, but I had to really try to miss on my backhand side. The interesting part is normally when playing a match, if I get pushed deep on my backhand side, I will usually revert to a hard slice to put the ball back to neutral. But with the Origin, I found myself just hitting through the ball so easy that I never even used one slice on my backhand. Volley’s: The volley’s were mostly crisp and penetrating, but with the added head weight, I wasn’t as quick with variety at the net as with my old racquet. I like to make angle shots up at the net, and found it a little challenging to maneuver the racquet around the net. The volley’s had solid punch, but I was surprised the racquet, just with its sheer weight, didn’t provide a more solid volley. The overhead was fine, but again, getting the Origin up quickly for a volley, is a little more challenging with the added head weight. Serve: This is probably the shot I noticed the weight in the head the most. Because I take a pretty good size loop on my backswing, getting the racquet up to the power position and then to the head drop and swinging upward, I could definitely feel the weight of the racquet on this stroke. It wasn’t too bad on the flat serve, and when letting the racquet get out in front of you on the serve, the racquet again does the heavy lifting on the flat serve. It was on the slice and the kick serve that I started to feel some pain in my outer wrist. Because of the heavy acceleration required for a slice and kick, my wrist couldn’t handle bringing the Origin up and through during an excruciating match. But even before the pain, I wasn’t getting the crazy amount of spin on my slice or kick serve that I am used to. It was very similar to my experience with the forehand, where I could not get that crazy forehand topspin shot. Summary: There is a reason I demoed the Origin racquet twice. I really wanted to get the racquet! There is something almost magical when hitting with the Rafa Origin racquet. It is like you are trying to control a wild horse in the beginning, but once under control it is a smooth and powerful hitting weapon. I really loved hitting the ball with that racquet. I was even getting used to those wild colors. I can truly say, I have never enjoyed hitting a ball more than with that racquet. It was the last day for my demo and I chose to play a match with a speedy opponent. I was hitting with both depth and power on my forehand and backhand, and even without access to my heavy topspin, I was still dictating play with the heaviness and depth of the ball. It was during the second set that I noticed the pain in my wrist while serving. I tried to stretch it out, but it was still hurting. I switched racquets and won the match, but there was still some pain in my wrist. For the next few weeks it hurt pretty bad. After taking a few weeks off and a month of playing in a wrist brace, and taking it easy on match play’s, the pain is finally gone, after about 6 scary weeks. I will say that other play testers have also said the racquet plays heavy and their arm gets tired faster. I also have not seen anyone playing with the racquet out on public or private courts, probably for the same reason, it is just too darn heavy.
Only one man can hit with the Rafa Origin Racquet. And that man is the GOAT RAFA NADAL. Vamos RAFA.!!!
If you are a tennis player, you have surely spent time watching your favorite tennis player and trying to emulate some form of their game in to your own game. The Rafa Nadal topspin forehand is a shot of beauty and pure animalistic power. I thought I would take a look at my own forehand on video and for some reason I thought it might be a good idea to compare my forehand with the 20 time grand slam champion Rafa Nadal. The video details the beginning of what I believe will be a long but yet fulfilling journey to truly try to emulate the great Rafa Nadal topspin forehand. I only say trying because Rafa Nadal is a once in a generation player and no one on this planet can hit a forehand like him.
There were some interesting takeaways from the video that I found. My take back of the racquet took way too long making me hit the ball late. I was striking the ball at or even with my body, meaning I was restricting my own power and top spin by not getting the full momentum of my racquet swing. I also found I was not bending my knees during the racquet take back sequence meaning there was no use of my legs to coil and uncoil during the shot. This is also a major flaw in developing any type of repetitive power and a solid topspin forehand. Lastly my follow through was around my body, except Nadal’s follow through is more pronounced straight up above his head with a helicopter motion as his follow through. The last finding was my left arm was not distanced as far from my body as Nadal’s, meaning he is picking up even more power and speed with the “whip action” of the forehand.
More articles and videos will follow as my journey continues.
Are you lacking power and accuracy on your forehand and backhand. First check out my article on getting the right grip. I referenced an eastern grip for the backhand and a semi western for the forehand. Both of these grip types will ensure you have the racquet turned correctly to impart spin and power, but the grip alone will not generate consistent power on your forehand and backhand. To do that, you will need to generate power from your racquet take back which includes the shoulder turn and thereby the waist turn. Several aspects not reviewed in this article is the importance of the knee bend and utilization of your large leg muscles, arm, elbow, wrist, footwork, open or close stance to name a few. There are many coordinated actions that must take place to hit a clean, smooth, spinning and powerful ball. Today we are only looking at the take back and follow through.
See the slow motion video below as I take the racquet back on the forehand first and then the one handed backhand. I slowed the video down so you can see my non dominant hand, ( my right hand ), grabbing the racquet throat before I take the racquet on the backswing. As I take the racquet back, my non dominant hand gets pulled backward with my racket, forcing my shoulders and waist to to rotate or coil with the backswing. You can see my back at the top of the backswing right before I begin to uncoil for the forehand or backhand.
Just as important as the shoulder turn and waist coil on the take back of the racquet, is the acceleration of the racquet head as you uncoil your waist and step into the shot. If you look at the video again, you can see after the shoulder turn my non dominant hand comes off the racquet throat and swings forward creating more uncoiling action as the shoulders, waist and hips create a kinetic chain with your bent knees also springing up, causing the racquet to accelerate at the contact point creating an enormous amount of spin and power on the ball.
The last part of this article will focus on completing the swing. I can’t tell you how many players who do the first 2 parts of this swing satisfactorily but don’t finish the swing by not not following through. They actually slow the swing down or stop mid swing after contact! This will ruin all of your efforts of the shoulder and waist turn and the uncoiling of your shoulders and waist, only to stop the swing before completing the kinetic chain. All of your power and spin gains will be lost as well as the control aspects. Take one more look at the video and observe the end of the forehand swing. The racquet comes all the way across my body and finishes somewhere around neck high behind my head. The one handed backhand finish is even more pronounced with the racquet finishing high above my head racquet head pointing to the sky. The follow through is what will separate you from the pack. Please don’t try to force the racquet finish by flicking your wrist or twisting your arm. This will quickly lead to arm and elbow injury and not give you the desired outcome.
To find out more about the forehand and backhand swing, stay tuned for more follow on articles and videos. Also coming this spring is the Tennis Basics guide to better tennis. Available for free.
In the meantime practice your grip, shoulder and waist turn, uncoiling and follow through, and in no time at all you will see big improvements on your forehand and backhand power and spin.
RAFA NADAL’s Longtime Racquet with a wild new look!
The first time I saw this new Babolat Aero Pro Drive I thought “VAMOS RAFA”. The Racquet looks absolutely crazy. I think your game will improve from just how cool this racquet looks on the court. Rafael Nadal‘s racquet of choice, the Babolat Pure Aero Rafa is here. This racquet features the same cosmetic as the one he plays with on tour. The Pure Aero Rafa features the same specifications as the 2019 Pure Aero of which I am the proud owner of 4 of those racquets. The driving force for the Aero series is the Aeromodular beam construction for less wind drag and increased racquet head speed. The Pure Aero incorporates Babolat’s Cortex Pure Feel to make the response a little more arm friendly at contact. The tech comes from a partnership with SMAC, a company with long standing ties to the aerospace industry specializing in shock and vibration reduction. SMACWRAP, a thin viscoelastic rubber has been placed at the 3 and 9 o’clock positions of the Pure Aero for outstanding feel and comfort. Babolat added the CARBON PLY STABILIZER to improve stability. CPly Carbon was developed by Chomorat, a French industrial company, and added above the throat of the racquet for more precision and stability. FSI Spin incorporates an open string pattern with oblong shaped grommets for easier access to spin while the established Woofer grommet system enhances the interaction between the ball and strings. The Pure Aero Rafa is just over 11 ounces strung, 27 inches long, and features a 16×19 string pattern. This makes for a very maneuverable, arm friendly racquet that produces a lot of spin and accuracy on all of your favorite shots. If you are looking to add spin, power and touch to your game, look no further than the 2022 Babolat Aero Pro Drive. Be on the lookout for the new Pure Aero Rafa RHx12 bag!.
Here is a video of my top spin forehand and backhand using the 2019 Babolat Aero Pro Drive. You can see lots of top spin action.
