Old School Forehand Versus Modern Forehand

If you're of a certain vintage, then you learned to play tennis with the classic linear forehand. You took the racket back early, played mostly neutral or closed stance, and followed through toward the target.

The modern forehand clearly looks different. It involves different grips and the use of more rotational force. The effect is far more spin, control, and angles.

There are really 2 issues to discuss here.

The first is the advantage of the modern forehand versus the classical for the club player. The second is how to hit the modern forehand and retrain yourself.

Let's start off with the first issue. As I see it, the classical forehand can be very effective at the club level if hit well. It is especially effective if your opponents are hitting a ball that doesn't bounce too high as the classic forehand is hit with a conservative grip ( eastern or continental).

However, if you're a bit of a old-timer and you're playing younger players who have grown up being taught the modern forehand, you may find that it becomes very difficult to handle the high bouncing balls produced by the modern forehand.

And, you may marvel at the ease of which the modern forehand players can destroy high balls.

So, the classical forehand may or may not be an advantage depending on whom you're playing.

The second issue is the technical differences between the two and how you can retrain yourself to hit the modern forehand.

The modern forehand is what is referred to as a multi-segment forehand as opposed to the single segment classical forehand. What this means is that in the classical forehand the entire arm from the shoulder down moves as a single block.

On the other hand, in the modern forehand, there is a movement of multiple segments including the shoulder. elbow, and wrist.

There's also far more rotation involved in the modern forehand.

Here are 2 resources to get you started in exploring the differences:

A short video illustrating the differences

A second video illustrating the differences

Until next time,


Glenn Sheiner M.D. - author of Insider Tennis Strategies Top Tennis Tactics For Playing All Different Types guaranteed to make you a smarter tennis player and take your tennis to the next level. Also, check out the world's top tennis humor screensaver
Tennis Cartoon Screensaver. You can download a trial version for FREE.

Technorati Tags Tennis