User:Ptrguy/sandbox

Oscar Wagner has this cover with his teaching at MTM, so I'm not going to get into details about the modern forehand, but the idea is to keep it simple, students and coaches can make this game more difficult then it needs to be.

The game must be kept simple, for the mind to be able to adapt to it.

Speaking of Oscar, I maybe wrong on this, but it seems like he should have been playing a larger role in USTA junior training(are whoever was in charge), I'm not sure what happen there, but if I'm them, you have to get this guy on your team, his teachings and concepts for the game are focused on simplicity and moving in a natural way, then relying on FEEL, okay I admit it here, I stole that one from him! But more coaches need to be stealing these great coaches concepts!

images Coaches need to study the great coaches and see what makes them great, thats learning how to coach the modern way. You take what has worked in the past and you adapt it to your coaching style.

The modern forehand means you need to be able to do it all. Whether it's the over the same shoulder buggy whip forehand or the over the the hips follow through, you have to be able to adjust your swing on the fly or your balls will be flying out.

The reason is simple.

The rackets are too powerful.

Tennis players are hitting balls from different position all the time in a match, we talked about this in another post, the faster the ball, the more compact your swing has to be,  the great Vic Braden said " The time a tennis player has to react to the ball is 3.0 seconds or less, I heard that years ago, so it has decrease even more since then right?

The best way to teach the modern forehand is the way Harry Hopman use to, he would see what the player did natural, then work from the inside out(he never forced a player to change his natural stroke), I teach juniors the same way, I never look at a players forehand and try to make it perfect or the way I think it should be, instead I try to  work on  improving their timing and feel for the ball.

This is what made Hopman a great coach, so what we are doing  here is, taking a concept that has worked in the past, and using it in the present,all coaches should be teaching the modern forehand this way, take what the player does natural and then work on improving their timing, also, please keep it simple.

You can teach a modern forehand, by improving their timing and feel for the stroke, their timing can always get better, so make it your goal when coaching them to focus on smooth movement, and a relax fluid swing.

We don't want to confuse them when they are on this self discovery process.

One more thing on the modern forehand, you are only as good as your loop with the modern forehand, every forehand should start with a nice smooth loop if the player has time, we also need to start teaching this to players at a younger age and let them develop their own style from there.

The one commonality that all the pros have is, a smooth loop at the start of their swing and a effortless motion all the way through the hitting zone.

I think that answers what the modern forehand is all about, also check out what Oscar has to say about this and on modern tennis, I have personally change my own teaching  techniques, because after studying his, I knew that this was and still is the best way to teach this game.

Lets talk tomorrow !

PS, "stop thinking about what you don't want to do, and go towards what you do want!" Dr. Robert Anthony..