My tennis forehand is weird now.?

Question

Recently, my forehand has not been the same. Instead of the ball going deep and low, my balls start hitting the frame and go up. I think the problem is that i'm hitting the ball too close to my body and my arm is not straight when i hit. I use a semi-western forehand grip and do a windshield wiper forehand. My coaches tell me to hit through the ball more but I can't seem to do it since im use to hitting it closer to my body. How can I correct this?

Answer 1

Move back more, and use a closed stance to step into the ball (watch Federer's closed stance on youtube and you'll see what I'm talking about.)

Answer 2

Make sure that you are using your feet correctly with this. I seem to always find that when i have troubles hitting forehands, my feet are messed up and im not leading off one foot to get power into the ball. ask your coach to watch your feet to make sure everything is working together. i would also suggest making sure that the ball is about at your waste line before you hit it to get the best swing. move back, foreward, or side to side to fix this!

Answer 3

This is a very common problem.  In fact you know exactly what to do to fix it and you know whats causing it!

Cause: Windshield wiper swing

Result:  Often hitting the bottom frame of the racquet

Reason: Because you are "pulling away/off" of the ball to quickly.

Your coach has it dead on, you need to drive through the ball NOT OVER IT.  This is actually a really easy fix.

Solution:  First off, make sure you are hitting the ball so that your arm is relatively straight, generally this means you need to be hitting the ball low.  So fix that.  

Hitting through the ball- This is very easy if you take my advice.  Image that instead of hitting ONE ball over the net, you need to hit three balls over.  Meaning, you must extend your arm towards THE NET and through "3 balls" before you finish your follow through!

Keep in mind you must keep your follow through low for all this to work.

Hope I helped

Steve Viglione

USPTA certified Pro

Owner-TopspinSports.com