Racket butt pointing ball twice: two useful visual images in forehand

By Jose Li

Hit to contact and follow through are the two most important stroke motions in forehand. To effectively hit to contact, surely we need to pay attention to early shoulder turn, racket backswing, good position in the correct hitting zone and so on. The question is what is the stroke key as a visual image right before we start to hit to contact.

After studying tennis pros forehand stroke keys, one commonality is seen: they point the racket butt to the coming ball even the ball is just about to bounce to the hitting zone. This stroke key (shown in Fig. 1) is independent of racket grip and standing stance. This racket orientation was used by tennis legend 50 years ago when a combination of continental grip and open stance is seen in Fig.1 a. Jonny Mac used continental grip and close stance to point his racket butt to the coming ball in his forehand right before hitting to contact (seen in Figure 1 b). Ljubicic who uses semi-western grip with open stance, as a 3rd combination also points the racket butt to the coming ball which is very close to the hitting zone as well (Figure 1 c).

 Figure 1


Those tennis pros keep laid back their wrists to have the racket butt pointing to the coming ball even the ball is so close to their hitting zone. This type of stroke key is not an extreme case in pros circle, and has not been changed in 50 years. Is it too late to hit to contact if the racket head is still far back in forehand? To answer this question, we can think the other extreme case: backswing racket earlier with racket butt trailing the racket head like many club players contact forehand swing. We all know that it ends up with poor timing for poor ball control.

In a tennis book “visual tennis”, Yandell uses visual images to help players in building correct forms. If considering this “racket butt pointing to coming ball before hitting to contact” as a stroke key in forehand visual images, there will be a second question: when should we start to setup this stroke key if not too late or too early? In an article written by Ray Brown from www.easitennis.com, this stroke key was not regarded as an visual image, but considered as a motion: Brown mentioned “pull the racket butt” toward to the coming ball before swing to the contact. This “pull” motion allows pros to add more power and accuracy in forehand. This suggests that it is more important to decide how late to setup this stroke key than how early to setup this stroke key in forehand. Pros tend to hold this stroke key as late as possible: they normally hit to contact at last moment when ball is inside their hitting zone. That means they can leverage the racket for a 90-degree swing via forearm rotation with an effective shoulder forward drive. Compared with timing the coming ball from bouncing with early racket swing, pros just time the coming ball in the hitting zone with forearm rotation. In other words, this “delayed” racket swing via forearm rotation helps forehand control a lot.

As a matter of fact, there are two stroke keys showing racket butt pointing to the ball. One is before hitting to contact, which is discussed above. Another one is after follow through. In other words, hitting to contact then conducting follow through as a process has two checking points: one is in the beginning (racket butt pointing to the coming ball) and one is at the end of this process (racket butt pointing to the leaving ball). Remember these two checkpoints as two stroke keys can help conducting forehand hitting to contact then follow through more effectively. After hitting to contact, a “wipe car window” is described as a key motion in racket follow through (see an article written by Jeff Counts from www.hi-techtennis.com) . This process is believed to provide two valuable contributions 1) helps to generate topspin; and 2) reduces risk of arm/shoulder injury.

Figure 2 exhibits two visual images with racket butt pointing to the coming ball and leaving ball right before hitting to contact and after follow through in forehand. Shoulder drive forearm rotation motion can be clearly seen between these two stroke keys in the attached video clips (need to hit .mov file below).
 
                                                     Figure 2




To help players build these two key visual images in forehand, a useful drill with flash bar can be practiced (Fig.2). The visual images at two checkpoints before hitting to contact and after follow through are 1) using flash bar to light the coming ball; and 2) using flash bar to light the leaving ball. When both stroke keys are imaged, hitting to contact and wiping follow through are automatically conducted.

 

Figure 3 shows those two visual image keys before and after hitting to contact as a comparsion. 

 

 

So when we play forehand, do not forget those two visual image keys: need to use our racket butt

to point the ball twice: 1)1st flash bar action pointing to the coming ball; and 2) 2nd flash bar action

pointing to the leaving ball, both are done before and after hitting to contact.

 

Dr. Jose Li is a specialist to coach ADHD/Autism kids in tennis. He is a USPTA certified coach. You can find out more about his training methods at www.adhd-tennis.org