Your Strokes:
Fred Bye Forehand

Analyzed by John Yandell

Every month in Your Strokes, we'll analyze the stroke of a Tennisplayer.net member and suggest a framework for improving it, by comparing the key parts of the stroke to model positions drawn from high level pro players.

This month we'll take a look at the forehand of Tennisplayer charter member Fred Bye, a dedicated recreational player and 4.5 league player from Maryland.

It may be a cliche, but it's still true. "A picture is worth a thousand words." And in tennis it's overwhelmingly important. That's why on Tennisplayer, we've avoided features like "Ask the Expert" or "Ask the Pro."

After years of experience I have come to the conclusion that it's virtually impossible to diagnose technical stroke problems without actually seeing the stroke in question. I know these because I've had the opportunity many times to film players who have previously written me with complex technical questions. I have found that the player's description of the problem virtually never matched what the video camera actually saw. Because of this, I feel a lot of time and energy can be wasted in email and message board exchanges. In fact, some probably create more problems than they solve.

Fred's forehand is a case in point. Fred initially wrote me after reading some of my articles on the modern forehand. He was focused on developing more power, and his questions focused on his hitting arm position, what I called the "power palm" position in one of the articles. (Click here.) He was convinced he was not setting up the hitting arm correctly, and that this was why his forehand felt muscled but still lacked power.

When I actually looked at his forehand on video, I saw that he was right, but that the issues with the hitting arm position was clearly secondary to more fundamental issues. These were problems with his unit turn, and the extent or completion of his preparation. Until they were addressed, working on the hitting arm would be futile and counterproductive.

This was something I would have never have determined from Fred's emails. Since Fred wasn't aware of these issues himself, he couldn't ask me the right questions by email, and no amount verbal input I could have given him would have helped. We could have exchanged emails and had a profound discussion of the critical role of the hitting arm in the modern forehand and done absolutely nothing to help his stroke.

So that's the point of Your Strokes. I believe that video analysis is the only valid starting point for the diagnosis and treatment of basic stroke problems. In this section, we'll take a look at what is really happening in your favorite (or least favorite) strokes. For more info on how you can submit your own stroke video for analysis, Click here.

Let's explore what we actually saw in Fred's forehand, and compare it to some appropriate model positions. Since Fred ended up actually coming to San Francisco to work with me, we also have video of his forehand after we went through the video analysis process, so you can also judge his progress for yourself.

I've written in detail about the role of the body in the preparation, how it starts with a unit turn with the feet and shoulders, and completes with a characteristic position with the shoulders fully turned and the left arm stretched across the body. This is how all the top players start their motion. It's also one of the easiest elements to emulate for players at all levels. But surprisingly, it's the number one problem I see when I film players at all levels--club players, elite juniors. I've even seen it with tour players in the top two hundred in the world.

This was the case big time with Fred. We began by looking at video of some of his forehands, all filmed in match play. All of them lacked a full turn. Sometimes he did come partially across his body with his left arm, but other times he left arm barely moved, so that his shoulders were even more open to the net.

The animation shows an example of one fairly typical forehand. Note that his preparation appears to start well. The shoulders, arms, and racket start to rotate as a unit. But this gets derailed. His hands separate and his left arm stops moving across. Once his opposite arm stops, it kills the shoulder rotation as well. And once this turning motion stalls, it's too late. There is no way to catch up. The preparation is doomed to be incomplete. This was the root of the problem Fred experienced. Since he wasn't fully coiling his body, he couldn't maximize his natural power. And the stroke felt tight a muscled because he tried to compensate for this with his hand and arm in the forward swing.

As we have seen in our analysis of high speed footage (Click here), top players, reach a characteristic full turn position with the shoulders turned somewhat further than 90 degrees (or square) to the net and the left arm stretched across the body and parallel to the baseline. Agassi is a perfect example, but you see the same thing in Federer and all top players.

At best, Fred completed only about half to two thirds of this preparation move, and frequently it was less.

From this restricted turn, it was very difficult for him to achieve the correct hitting arm position. But contrary to what he initially believed, the hitting arm wasn't the root of the problem, it was a consequence of his problem with his turn.

Fred only gets about half the turn of the top players. But this is one element that players at levels can easily develop.

Especially with a compact backswing, the body turn completes the bulk of the racket preparation as well. Once Fred's shoulders stopped rotating, this was impossible. Any additional motion of the racket had to come from the independent movement of the arm.

In an attempt to position the racket, Fred dropped his arm down until it was almost straight, then closed the face until it is pointing at the court. In talking to him, it came out that he had picked up the belief that closing the face was the key to topspin, something we found was not true in our study of the backswings of the top players (Click here.) In fact it made the problem worse. With a limited turn and this awkward hitting arm position, Fred had very limited leverage. Fred tried to compensate by jamming his elbow into his side and bringing his racket up on edge as it moved to the contact point. But the result was that his forehand was now quite cramped in the forward swing.

So the first thing was to address the turn issue. Once that was improved, then we could take a close look at the other factors in the sequence of the motion, especially the hitting arm. This sequential approach is important because correcting an underlying problem will sometimes correct or reduce other problems automatically without a lot of further analysis. And this was what happened for Fred.

Because Fred actually came to San Francisco to work with me, we were able to review his forehand together, looking at it side by side on my laptop compared with a model image of Agassi. Once he saw the difference, we went to the court, and I asked him to develop a model for the new turn position both physically and mentally. We did this by constructing a series of simple checkpoints. Fred then learned to master model the turn by conforming his motion to the checkpoints. As he worked, I asked him to practice the turn physically with his eyes open, and then with his eyes closed. This translates the technical information from words into the language of imagery and feeling that the body needs to actually learn.

This physical and mental modeling is critical. Until Fred had a reasonable feel for the motion without the ball, there was no point in hitting balls. Once he had a first take on the model, he could start to hit in controlled drill.

At this point it becomes a question of gradually moving his old motion toward the model positions in increasingly challenging situations. I call this process "successive approximation." Depending on the severity of the problem and how open the player is to developing new mental imagery, it can move quite quickly. But it's still a process that has to play out over time and repetitions. Very rarely do you see the old pattern or tendency instantly disappear. Typically, the player will move one or two increments at a time toward the new checkpoints. Eventually, he gets close enough to the model that the stroke is functional on a consistent basis at one level. Then it's time raise the level of difficulty a notch.

So how did Fred do? You can judge for yourself looking at the "after" animation. In my opinion, he made an amazing adjustment in his first move. The key was the left arm--by keeping it moving and then extending it across the baseline like Andre. This forced him to complete the turn.

Once the turn was complete, Fred found that this naturally facilitated his ability to set up the correct hitting arm position. He was able to complete a direct, compact backswing with very little additional motion, ending with the racket face only slightly closed and a much more natural spacing between the body and hitting arm.

Note that Fred shoulders are fully turned and that his left arm is stretched across his body.His forehand now actually incorporates the key elements in the preparation modeled by top players.

Because he was so open to the process and worked hard to master the physical and mental components of the model, it also happened quite quickly. Fred achieved this fundamental change in basic controlled drills in only a couple of hours of oncourt work, going back and forth between the video imagery, modeling the swing, and hitting balls according to the model.

The next step for Fred is to work in increasingly more difficult controlled and then competitive situations. For example, by going up a level of difficulty, say to live ball backcourt points, then practice points starting with serves, followed by games, then sets, practice matches, and finally competition such as USTA league matches. At each stage, he will have to monitor the stroke. Undoubtedly his forehand will breakdown and the old tendencies will reemerge as he goes up in levels of difficulty.

Some players find this very discouraging. However, it's an inherent part of the process. If players understand this, they can control their frustration when it happens, and even see it as a sign of progress in their overall development. The key is to recognize when it happens. Once the stroke starts to break down, the player should drop down to the more basic levels--going back to controlled feeding and doing additional video analysis. Once the key positions are again conforming to the model, he works back up the ladder to more difficult situations. This basic cycle can repeat itself over and over.

The important point to understand is that it's a process, and that the player will probably have to work up and down many times to solidify the stroke in competition. Even then, it's never set completely in cement. In fact, being able to rework the stroke over time (years even) in comparison to the model is probably the biggest benefit of the whole video analysis approach.

So that's it for now for Fred's forehand. Again click here if you want to fin out what it takes to submit your own stroke for analysis on Tennisplayer!