Tennis-Forehand Ground Strokes

Frankie Dell: Hi! I am Frankie Dell. I am a Professional Tennis Instructor. You are watching ground strokes. Next, I am going to show you how to prepare for the ground strokes. We are in our Ready Position. We see the ball it's going to be a forehand. First thing we do is pivot and turn our shoulders at the same time. Pivot and turn my shoulders. This will start the racquet coming back, but don't think of it as taking the racquet back yet. Just think of it as turning your shoulders. The racquet would be up, sort of bit it look like a U, pivot, turn and this arm should be out in front. Pivot, turn your shoulders, arm out in front.

If you can't remember to keep your arm out in front, I tell some of my students to point to the ball that's coming to you. Point, pivot, turn your shoulders, point. Now you can start to take the racquet back a little bit more. Pivot, turn your shoulders, point, now the racquet comes back but this is about as far back as I wants you to take the racquet. I shouldn't see this, that's too far. It's hard to time the ball when you are way back here. You eventually going to meet ball here, that's a long way to go. So keep it simple. This is far enough. That's a lot easier to time the ball and that's as far back as you really need to go. You will get enough power just by coming this far. So again, pivot, turn your shoulders, point. Take the racquet back a little more and that's how you prepare.

So we have prepared ourselves for the oncoming shot. It's at this point we have to decide are we are going to hit it using a Open Stance or a Neutral Stance. So we are here. We are ready. I am going to choose to hit it with the Neutral Stance, so I am going to step out toward the net and now you are ready for your Forward Swing. Your forward swing should be a low to high movement. So here we are prepared, we dropped the racquet down and it comes up high. Step low to high. Step low to high.

Now between the low and the high is where you are going to make contact with the ball. Step, low, contact right here, high. Low, contact high. You see how the racquet is in front of me. You always want to hit the ball in front of you, not beside you and certainly not behind you. Step, make contact, high. Low to high. Now you are ready to follow through, which we will look at in just a minute.

So now we have made contact with the ball, out in front hopefully, but you have to finish the swing. Remember, I said it earlier it was a low to high movement. Low high. The high part is your follow through. Contact, follow through. If you don't follow through, the ball cannot get it over the net. Here to here. Some people have trouble with the follow through. They think that this is enough but it's not. All the way up.

If you can't remember to follow through, maybe you can think about catching the racquet with your other hand. Catch it or what I tell some people point your elbow to the ball you just hit, point or if it helps maybe you can check the time on your watch. If you are wearing a watch, check the time. Check the time. Let's see if you follow through. Point your elbow. Catch my racquet. Point my elbow. Check the time. You must follow through.

1