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VOLUME 1: THE FOREHAND
Part 4: Hitting Flat:
For those readers fresh to the game of tennis and its terminology, I should properly explain that hitting 'flat' means hitting without spin. It means you are not hitting up the back of your forward contact for topspin. And you are not hitting down the back of the ball for slice or backspin.
Although in reality very few balls have no spin on them, the term 'flat' suggests that a player is hitting purely through a perfect contact, with a slight low-to-high 'lift' on lower balls to get the ball up-and-over the net.
To oversimplify:
Flat means hitting predominantly through a perfect contact, for raw power and pace.
Top or topspin means a player is ripping the strings up the back of the ball for topspin.
Slice means the player is hitting down the back of the ball (or slightly under it), which is most often found on a one handed backhand.
Flat Boy Jim
In this sequence we again encounter the King of Flat, Jimmy Connors, seen here in the full 8 frame sequence.
In the first 4 frames we see Jimmy has turned sideways to greet the oncoming ball and he shuffles sideways up the court to meet it, as it falls from the peak of it's bounce. As Jimbo moves, we see one of the simplest take-backs in the history of tennis, from one of the game's greatest ever players.
This full sideways turn and straight pull-back of the racket head is probably the easiest forehand technique to copy, especially for club standard players.
Although I am not a fan of this style of play (except on a return of serve), and would not recommend it to talented youngsters, it would be a mistake to dismiss this stroke as a relic from the past, which wasn't around to compete against modern players, with their loopy topspin forehands and power-play: Lendl was crunching power forehands long before Nadal, and Vilas and Borg were hitting frighteningly heavy topspin backhands before the current crop of clay courters. Oh, and Jimmy pushed a young Agassi all the way when he was pushing 40 years of age. As such, it is perfectly good enough for club doubles and less skilled players, who know the merits of simplicity.
In 1 thru 4 we see the weight shift, as Jimbo's out-front, perfect contact pulls his efforts through. The forward swinging racket head, along with the forward-shifting mass he attaches to it, translate into a driven, flat forehand.
Once again, this stroke is made possible by a perfect contact. And the forward, out-front contact is far easier to achieve because the ball has landed short, not much deeper than the service line.
Big Bang Chang
We've seen the image of Michael Chang's contact point and grip in chapter 1. Here we see a full 8 frame sequence of his forehand.
In the first 5 frames, Michael shows us his relatively shallow loop. Put plainly, Michael (unlike Jimmy) joins his take-back of the racket to the forward swinging racket head with a looping motion. But the loop Michael uses here is shallow, meaning it's a small loop, which starts off low on the take back. This shallow loop takes up far less time than the larger loops some players use (like Andy Roddick, Lleyton Hewitt and Rafa).
Back in the day, Chang regularly used a lot of topspin on his groundstrokes, but in frame 13, Michael drops the racket head down to the level of the oncoming ball, but no lower. This suggests he's preparing to make this shot a flat forehand. In frame 14 Mikey has powered the racket head through to a perfect contact.
Now I want you to run through all the buttons and compare the two hitting styles. Both players have hit a pretty flat drive, but they have generated some additional racket head speed from two different sources.
What are these sources?
In the first sequence, Jimmy has been given a very inviting short ball by his opponent. He accepts this invitation to make good use of his body weight. Jimmy moves up the court and gets everything shifting through, into that forward contact, and onto his front foot. Look again and watch as everything shifts forward.
By contrast, Michael either hasn't had the invitation of a short ball from his opponent, or he has opted not to take it. Whether he has been forced to (by a deep, high ball) or chosen to isn't relevant yet: the important thing is that, unlike Jimmy, Michael is launching this forehand off his back foot, but Michael is not hitting off the back foot to generate whippy, loopy topspin like Wilander previously.
Michael's body weight, unlike Jimmy's, isn't shifting through into the forward contact.
Does this mean Chang's forehand carries less weight than Connors' ?
Not necessarily, and here are two reasons why.
Firstly, Michael is cranking up the racket head speed by using a loop.
Secondly, what Michael loses by not shifting his body weight through a forward contact, he makes up for by what we might refer to here as shoulder and upper body spin.
In 13 thru 16 note how Michael has sped the racket through by spinning the hitting shoulder and the right side of the body, and really whipping that racket head through with the hitting arm. The result, if you'll pardon my terminology, is a (well controlled) flung right side.
Er, Who Flung Chang? Michael himself, of course.
Compare the last frame of each sequence and you'll see the end of Jimmy's stroke appears less 'forced' and far more serene than Michael's, as the whole right side of Chang's body has spun through in the wake of the racket head. This is the post contact fall-out from his pre contact efforts.
We’ll take a closer look at these two additional sources of power in Chapter 10.
Also available on Amazon
VOLUME 1: THE FOREHAND
Part 4: Hitting Flat:
For those readers fresh to the game of tennis and its terminology, I should properly explain that hitting 'flat' means hitting without spin. It means you are not hitting up the back of your forward contact for topspin. And you are not hitting down the back of the ball for slice or backspin.
Although in reality very few balls have no spin on them, the term 'flat' suggests that a player is hitting purely through a perfect contact, with a slight low-to-high 'lift' on lower balls to get the ball up-and-over the net.
To oversimplify:
Flat means hitting predominantly through a perfect contact, for raw power and pace.
Top or topspin means a player is ripping the strings up the back of the ball for topspin.
Slice means the player is hitting down the back of the ball (or slightly under it), which is most often found on a one handed backhand.
Flat Boy Jim
In this sequence we again encounter the King of Flat, Jimmy Connors, seen here in the full 8 frame sequence.
In the first 4 frames we see Jimmy has turned sideways to greet the oncoming ball and he shuffles sideways up the court to meet it, as it falls from the peak of it's bounce. As Jimbo moves, we see one of the simplest take-backs in the history of tennis, from one of the game's greatest ever players.
This full sideways turn and straight pull-back of the racket head is probably the easiest forehand technique to copy, especially for club standard players.
Although I am not a fan of this style of play (except on a return of serve), and would not recommend it to talented youngsters, it would be a mistake to dismiss this stroke as a relic from the past, which wasn't around to compete against modern players, with their loopy topspin forehands and power-play: Lendl was crunching power forehands long before Nadal, and Vilas and Borg were hitting frighteningly heavy topspin backhands before the current crop of clay courters. Oh, and Jimmy pushed a young Agassi all the way when he was pushing 40 years of age. As such, it is perfectly good enough for club doubles and less skilled players, who know the merits of simplicity.
In 1 thru 4 we see the weight shift, as Jimbo's out-front, perfect contact pulls his efforts through. The forward swinging racket head, along with the forward-shifting mass he attaches to it, translate into a driven, flat forehand.
Once again, this stroke is made possible by a perfect contact. And the forward, out-front contact is far easier to achieve because the ball has landed short, not much deeper than the service line.
Big Bang Chang
We've seen the image of Michael Chang's contact point and grip in chapter 1. Here we see a full 8 frame sequence of his forehand.
In the first 5 frames, Michael shows us his relatively shallow loop. Put plainly, Michael (unlike Jimmy) joins his take-back of the racket to the forward swinging racket head with a looping motion. But the loop Michael uses here is shallow, meaning it's a small loop, which starts off low on the take back. This shallow loop takes up far less time than the larger loops some players use (like Andy Roddick, Lleyton Hewitt and Rafa).
Back in the day, Chang regularly used a lot of topspin on his groundstrokes, but in frame 13, Michael drops the racket head down to the level of the oncoming ball, but no lower. This suggests he's preparing to make this shot a flat forehand. In frame 14 Mikey has powered the racket head through to a perfect contact.
Now I want you to run through all the buttons and compare the two hitting styles. Both players have hit a pretty flat drive, but they have generated some additional racket head speed from two different sources.
What are these sources?
In the first sequence, Jimmy has been given a very inviting short ball by his opponent. He accepts this invitation to make good use of his body weight. Jimmy moves up the court and gets everything shifting through, into that forward contact, and onto his front foot. Look again and watch as everything shifts forward.
By contrast, Michael either hasn't had the invitation of a short ball from his opponent, or he has opted not to take it. Whether he has been forced to (by a deep, high ball) or chosen to isn't relevant yet: the important thing is that, unlike Jimmy, Michael is launching this forehand off his back foot, but Michael is not hitting off the back foot to generate whippy, loopy topspin like Wilander previously.
Michael's body weight, unlike Jimmy's, isn't shifting through into the forward contact.
Does this mean Chang's forehand carries less weight than Connors' ?
Not necessarily, and here are two reasons why.
Firstly, Michael is cranking up the racket head speed by using a loop.
Secondly, what Michael loses by not shifting his body weight through a forward contact, he makes up for by what we might refer to here as shoulder and upper body spin.
In 13 thru 16 note how Michael has sped the racket through by spinning the hitting shoulder and the right side of the body, and really whipping that racket head through with the hitting arm. The result, if you'll pardon my terminology, is a (well controlled) flung right side.
Er, Who Flung Chang? Michael himself, of course.
Compare the last frame of each sequence and you'll see the end of Jimmy's stroke appears less 'forced' and far more serene than Michael's, as the whole right side of Chang's body has spun through in the wake of the racket head. This is the post contact fall-out from his pre contact efforts.
We’ll take a closer look at these two additional sources of power in Chapter 10.
