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Tennis: Forehand Close Stance-weight transfer

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Bill, Newly qualified coach

DESCRIPTION

Player stands behind the baseline. Coach faces the player. Coach throws the ball. Player hits forehand/backhand and moves the right/left leg forward. Player’s goal is to get to the service line without any additional steps.

1-2 full repetitions (to the service line) per set

Coach can line up all the players next to each other and work only with one while others imitate the same movements without hitting the ball. After the full set all players move one spot to the right and start over. To make this drill more interesting 1 player can hit with the coach, some players can imitate the shots and others can work together and replace racquet with a medicine ball (throwing and transferring the weight).

COACHING POINTS

Weight transfer is one of the most important aspects of any stroke. Proper use of all body parts (kinetic chain) consists of creating and releasing this energy at an appropriate time. If the body stores the energy but it is not transferred into the ball, the whole process is wasted. Coaches should pay close attention to the rules of biomechanics to develop effective and injury-free strokes. Top pros show this ability every time when they attack the ball so we can see that they finish the stroke with the body landing forward in comparison to the pre-shot position.

In this drill player works on a weight transfer. Releasing the energy by moving the body forward is a primary step to possess powerful and consistent strokes. Generating the pace only from the racquet is an easy step to overworking one body part, missing more balls on the long run and having chronic injuries. This simple move can be also practised without hitting so coach has to encourage players to work on this aspect at home.

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OFTEN USED WITH...

Forehand hitting cross court from 3 zones:

Coach feeds 3 balls to the player's deuce side down the line. Standing on the base line, the player moves to their right to meet the ball on their forehand side. The player then returns the ball hitting forehand cross court to the corner of the deuce side between cones. he/she then moves back to the centre of the base line. The coach then feeds the next ball on the players deuce side service line. The player moves foreward and returns using a forehand cross court short to the corner of the deuce side. Player then returns back to the centre of the baseline. Coach then feeds the third ball a few feet beyond the net. Players moves to meet it and agins, using a forehand cross court shot, returns the ball beteen the cones set up on the cross court shot side.

Movement

Forehand Attacking:

Up to 4 players can be involved.

The aim is to encourage players to progressively attack on the move.

Coach feeds 3 balls to each player diagonally across the court. Feed 1 to the centre of the court, feed 2 slightly wider to the centre of the service box, and feed 3 wider towards the tramlines of the court.

Players should use good footwork to get feet in the correct position around the ball to hit an inside out forehand straight back down the court.

The drill should be continuous so as player A hits feed 2, player B is hitting feed 1.

Forehand Drills

Forehand behind the sideline:

The player starts on the singles sideline. The coach tosses the balls behind the doubles alley and into the alley. Player's goal is to move behind the sideline and use close stance to hit forehand.

Forehand Drills