forehand-power-sources
Slicepong asked 4 years ago
Hi Dan and Tom. How are you? I wonder if you could give a synopsis on how to get optimal forehand power. I know in your videos on this subject you talk about getting the whole body involved, and your “adding power to your forehand” vid was very helpful. Should it feel effortless? It seems I’m working too hard on my power forehand; in other words, it’s effortful, not effortless. I’m getting some lag, some whip, I just don’t feel I’m quite there. I spent years on my tennis forehand, so I know what effortless power feels like. It was not anything great, but I felt it was optimal for my level…… What do you think of lowering the upper body low on the coil? Many coaches advocate this, and I have practiced it, but I feel it makes the shot laborious. After much off the table practice, this is my forehand: quick jump with both feet to a nearly 90 degree turn using core, so all the weight is on my left glute, deep coil of upper body whilst my bat arm has effortlessly rotated back from the core turn, then exploding toward ball with my glute, hips, and upper body, trying to get lag as my bat catches up. My weight transfers from left to right as I strike the ball, uncoil upper body and try to land on balance with knees still bent. It’s decent but arduous. Is there things I can do to make it smoother and more efforltess? You guys look like you could hit your excellent forehands all day. Mine tires me quickly. I understand you’ve spent many years honing your shots, but how about a hack for the hackers? Thanks.
Tom Academy Coach answered 4 years ago
Hi Slicepong, I think what’s really good is you obviously have a good understanding of all the technical elements from the way you talk about it and you are trying to be relaxed when bringing these elements together. The shot shouldn’t feel like a lot of effort for sure, perhaps not quite “effortless” as to need to bring in some power from the body and legs and of course this does require some feeling of energy release, but you should definitely be quite relaxed during the shot for sure. Getting to tense or trying to hit the ball too hard has a bad effect on timing and also the ability to accelerate quickly through the ball.
For me what is key is the areas you’ve mentioned using the core rotation and weight transfer and legs to create that whhip effect with the arm, this is key to generating power, you need to use the larger muscles like the legs and core to allow the arm to be more relaxed and move quickly. A quick hack to think about that I like to use on different shots is thinking about it in two parts, so part one rotating the body back, weight transfer back and also back swing then part two is uncoiling the body transferring the weight forward and swinging through the ball etc. But what you want to think about is a small pause between part one and two, of course this is a very quick pause as the time is limited, think about a spring being squashed and then the energy released as you let go off the spring.
This helps with timing and efficiency, I’ve found many players can become more effortless by trying to get this idea in their head. Other than that to be honest it sounds like you are doing all the right things, so just keep up the training and really just exaggerate the relaxed arm and whipping through feeling! I hope that helps. Tom
SlicepongTom, thanks for your incisive and thorough comments. I will try the two part strategy. I’m sure that will help my rhythm. You’re right. It can’t be too effortless. In tennis I grunted a bit and am doing it now also. The grunt is often used as a timing cue, and also helps with relaxing, since breathing is rather important. I notice Dan grunt often, although I haven’t seen it with you. Thanks for the pep talk. I have been working a lot on the forehand. I guess I shouldn’t expect a Drinkhall forehand. Nice to know I’m on the right track. Appreciate it.
No problem at all, you definitely need that balance of being relaxed but still putting the energy into the shot. You’re definitely on the right track and I’m sure with practice and thinking about these points you will see improvements! ?
