1. Choose a Grip.
Rest assured that all three grips above are fine to use and are effective in generating topspin, power and for controlling the ball. Fun fact: Roger Federer uses the eastern grip, Carlos Alcaraz, the semi-western, and Kei Nishikori’s grip is Western. But as far as you are concerned, experiment and choose the grip that feels most natural and comfortable to play with (I personally adopt an eastern forehand grip). And oh, it is imperative to not have a “death grip” on your racket but a loose enough grip that enables you to do the following easily:
2. Get in “Ready Position”.
The “ready position” is our home base for groundstrokes (both forehand and backhand), our neutral launching pad which we begin and return to after execution. Always keep loose, place racket at center (and with a comfortable distance from the body), legs spaced wide apart (slightly more than shoulder width), eyes facing front (and alert) and body weight leaning slightly forward.
3. Split Step-Turn Shoulder.
The split step is your launch (i.e. hop, jump) and should always be paired up with the unit (body) turn which is essentially your “wind-up” to hit. You may think of the two movements as conjoined twins, when one goes, the other must follow. This close interdependent regard helps ensure early preparation – and getting into the habit of it – so that you hardly feel rushed to hit your shot. When turning, you must ensure that your belly button faces the side (to get a good coil) and also feel a comfortable distance devoid of tension between your elbow and body when you execute the unit turn.
4. Drop Racket-Turn Hip.
Here we encounter another twin pairing (and two more to follow) but let me begin with the former. “Drop” is an appropriate term (as opposed to lowering or bringing down the racket which implies more of an active force) to employ in getting the racket down as it means exactly that: dropping. This rather passive action should allow you to loosen your hold on the racket and “let go” so that gravity can have its effect on your racket to aid in your racket drop. The “dropping” of the racket minimises tension and enables you to swing the racket head fast and easy (which is the cause for explosive power, spin, and control as well). However, you must turn your hips the moment you initiate the racket drop. Arm and hips are a unit that must work together to ensure an “easy” effortless forehand.
5. Contact Ball-Look
The racket face should be roughly flat-facing upon contacting the ball which is akin to giving the ball a “high-five”, or more precisely a “mid-five”. If you find that your contact is not as such then it is very likely that you have too tight a grip (and in which case, you may revisit point 1 above). Upon and after contact, it is crucial to look and maintain “eye contact” with the area of contact for a tad longer before breaking away (quite naturally to look at the ball flight) to ensure head stillness. This will maximise power, control and balance through your shot. But how long to look? As a rule of thumb, be neither a creep nor overly coy: look until the verge of your follow-through right before the catch (see gifs below).
6. Follow Through-Catch
Extend your arm and racket through your shot after contact, follow through till around shoulder height and – this is important and quite often neglected so – catch the racket with your non-dominant arm. Doing so not only makes your forehand look complete and whole (therefore contributing to the aesthetics of your stroke) but also optimises your body rotation and ensuring good balance after you hit the shot.
7. Recover
The forehand has to come full circle and back to our “home base” which is our ready position, so recover well by keeping balance, light on your feet and ready for the next shot.
Congratulations for reaching the end of the article! Here is the full forehand shot:
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