0:00 There are few moments more satisfying in tennis than this. But missing it, that one stings different because everyone saw it. Your opponents saw it. Players across the court saw it. And worse, you're standing there replaying it over and over and over again. And you're probably thinking, "How the hell did I just miss that?" Well, here's your answer. You suck. Okay, seriously though, there are five mistakes you're making right now that cause you to miss that high ball. And you won't believe it, but mistake number one is swinging low to high. Ever ask yourself, why the can't I finish these high balls no matter how fast I try to swing? That's because it's not a swing
0:46 speed problem, it's a swing path problem. See, you've probably been taught before to swing low to high to get top spin. And that's not entirely wrong. Your racket is moving in an upward path on a regular ground stroke, but the problem is how you create that path. Try to record yourself the next time you hit a high forehand. If you drop your elbow and racket too low to start your swing, a few issues come up from that low position. Your racket only has one place to go, straight up. Then you lose all of your forward extension, which kills your pace. Think about it. To drop your arm that low, your entire arm has to collapse so that it's really close to your body. And that is going to close the gap between your elbow and your torso, which is what ultimately creates
1:35 that jammed feeling at contact. One thing that I always tell my students is space creates pace. The easiest way to get rid of power on your ground strokes is having that elbow tucked in close to your body. Now, another common teaching advice is to pat the dog or face the strings down in your back swing. Now, this works fine for low to mid- height balls, but anything above the shoulder, and this becomes a problem. Your swing path becomes way too steep, and because of that, timing a clean contact becomes way harder. Now, we covered this in our perfect forehand contact video here, but swinging low to high actually kills your top spin because with your arm jammed close to your body, you can only use shoulder flexion to create spin. And by that point, you're basically just lifting
2:21 the ball. Now, most players mistaken that high trajectory for heavy top spin. But we all know that's not a heavy ball. That's a moonball. And we already know what we think about moonballers. Stop it. get some help. You see, the best forehands have a combination of heavy spin, the right trajectory, and tons of pace. And they achieve that by using internal shoulder rotation to create spin, not just shoulder flexion. And when you learn to rotate your shoulder instead, two things happen. First, you create way more upward racket speed than just going low to high, because you can rotate your shoulder faster than you can raise it. And second, your racket will naturally close over the top of the ball as you begin to rotate your shoulder. And this way, you can get spin
3:09 without killing your forward extension. And that, my friend, is the heavy ball. Fast but with tons of spin. And you can actually achieve this pretty simply. Just remember, prepare higher for higher balls. That way, when you start your acceleration, you have that space between your elbow and your torso, giving you plenty of room to extend across your body. Remember, space creates pace. So, keep that space as you accelerate into the slot position. And if you do that, being jammed will be physically impossible. Now, here's exactly how to drill that in. First, get up to the net with your feet parallel to the net. From there, coil your body and place your elbow on the net. Then bend your knees until there's clear spacing between your elbow and your torso and rotate your
3:56 hips. Now notice how your hitting hand naturally drives forward and across your body. Then keep this elbow and torso spacing and the pace will come naturally. Finally, add shoulder rotation to bring everything together. And notice you'll get tons of upward racketed speed without you having to drop your arm. Now, if you want to immediately add 5 to 10 mph to your forehand, you have to fix this first. It actually has nothing to do with your hitting arm and everything to do with your off arm. You see, your off arm might be dangling out here doing nothing. But here's what happens on every great forehand. The off arm stretches across your body until it's roughly parallel to the baseline. Now, not only does this help you to coil your body and engage your core muscles,
4:42 but it also serves as a very powerful Did someone say core muscles? Hello, ladies. Look at your man. Now back to me. Now back at your man. Now look back at Okay, that's that's the no. Think of it like you're pulling back a bow. No stretch equals no power. Now your off arm is also going to serve as your key timing mechanism. Once that off arm is stretched across your body, that stretched arm tells your body when to start loading. And by the time the ball bounces, you should have that off arm fully across your body. That's the simplest way to never be caught preparing late. And last, and most importantly, your off arm can be used to space yourself properly from the ball. And this actually is what most players miss. You see the ball here? As long as I keep the ball to the
5:30 outside of my offh hand, I have enough space to make clean contact. But if I start moving too far to the right, then I get jammed every single time. So with my off arms stretched out using my hand as a cue, my legs automatically get into position, creating enough space to the side of me to create pace. All right, mistake number three is not having taken our forehand grip quiz. because depending on your grip type, the way you hit your approach shot is going to be slightly different. Now, if you do happen to already know your grip type or you've had that grip for years and you don't want to change it, totally fine. We still have three key techniques that you want to use no matter what grip type you're using. This is going to help with the looseness and the control of your
6:16 swing. So, go ahead, click the link in the bio or the comments. Take that free quiz. All right, seriously, mistake number three. You can't skip this one because if you don't fix it, you could actually be feeling some shoulder pain very soon. When the ball's up here, you might be reaching up too high with your arm. Now, it's hard to feel while you're actually swinging, but if you try this exercise with me right now, you'll feel right away why this position is not ideal. Just take your hitting arm and raise it as high as you can, like you're reaching for a high ceiling. Now, do you feel that tightness in your shoulder right there? That's because your shoulder is in an impinged position and your rotator cuff is literally being pinched between the bones in your shoulder, limiting your range of motion and creating unnecessary tightness.
7:05 And this inevitably slows down your racket head speed and eventually can even lead to injury. So, here's what the pros do differently. Look at these three contact points here. One is chest height in the strike zone, one low, one high. Now, watch what happens when I align the angle of the spine. You see that the arm angle, the actual contact point is exactly the same across all three heights. And that's the key. They're not lowering or raising their arm nearly as much as they're adjusting their legs and tilting their torso to get in position, protecting the shoulder and the hitting arm at all costs. So, if the ball comes in low, bend your knees and tilt your torso down. And if it comes high, keep your spine a little more upright. Then as you accelerate, focus on
7:52 raising that shoulder and not your entire arm. And once all that clicks and becomes muscle memory, doesn't matter if it's a high ball, mid ball, low ball, high ball, mid ball, high ball, low ball, it'll feel like an easy ball you can rip. A lot of players when they see that high ball, they think, well, I need to swing down on the ball so that it doesn't go long. But if you try that for yourself, you'll see right away the ball almost always goes straight into the bottom of the net. I know, embarrassing. Instead, the ideal swing path is more forward across your body rather than down. Imagine you're sweeping all of the expensive wine glasses off a high table. That forward extension allows you to clear the net easily without slowing down, extend through the ball for maximum pace,
8:39 and still be able to use shoulder rotation to create all the spin you need. And in this case, if the ball starts going long, that's actually the best mistake you can make cuz that ball is going straight for your opponent's face. And even if you miss that point, sends a message. So, if the ball goes out, don't change your swing path. Simply rotate your shoulder faster and earlier. Like I mentioned earlier, this rotation will naturally close that racket face off, allowing you to rip the approach shots with a safe margin. So remember, not swinging up the back of the ball, not hitting down on it, but instead rolling over the top, giving you the ideal trajectory, good speed, and tons of spin to dip the ball into the court. Now,
9:25 a slight caveat here is that if you are closer to the net or the ball is even higher, then you can start swinging down into the court because you have the net clearance. And that becomes one of my favorite shots that we covered in this video, the dip drive forehand. Now, that lower finish will come from rotating your racket over so you're still not trying to hit down on the ball. Now, let's put this into practice. We're going to lock everything in with the extension isolation drill. First, start hitting from the service line at a slow speed. And I want you to end with your hand forward in front of you with your racket turned over to the other side. Then, as you start adding speed, let your arm naturally extend across your body. The feeling you're looking for is a combination of forward extension and internal shoulder rotation.
10:13 And once you get the hang of this, you could start playing around with where on the ball you're striking. So you don't just have to roll over the top of the ball. You'll notice that if you make contact from a higher position, that racket might be slightly slanted upward like this. And this creates a natural right to left swing path for righties as a result of the shoulder rotation that you're doing. And that creates natural sid spin, which becomes very deadly for inside out forehands like this. Trust me, you'll thank me later. Okay, think back to the last time that ball was floating in the air going right into your strike zone. You were probably thinking,
10:58 "How dare this guy give me such an easy ball? I'm going to kill this high Bible. Then you swing as hard as you can and the only thing you kill is your forehand's potential and your ego and your social credit and your credit score. And this is because when you try to swing too hard, you end up activating your entire body. Imagine if you were lifting really heavy weights. The second you go past what you can handle, your body starts to compensate. That's when every muscle fiber starts to tighten and your form starts to collapse. That's when we get cheat reps like you see in uh in CrossFit. The same thing happens on your forehand. When you activate too much of your upper body, the chest, the shoulders, the arm, they all tense up and this kills relaxation.
11:49 Counterintuitively, this is actually slowing down your racket at speed because your arm is a lot stiffer as a stick compared to if it was moving like a whip. On top of this, you can't really rotate your shoulder fast when your chest is locked up and overactive. So, the fix here is simple. Just follow the 70% rule. Don't try to swing as hard as you can. Instead, try to swing as loose as you can with your arm and instead use the hips to generate all the force. You see the hips? Shakira's right. The answer is always been in the the hips. So, the next time you see that high slow ball, I already know that first instinct will be to muscle that ball and destroy it. And instead, I want you to resist that
12:37 urge. Try to stay loose and let your hips do the work. Now, the million-dollar question is, how do you use your hips? And this is what we'll cover in the transfer move, the exact footwork pattern we're covering in part three of this series. You can check out the entire beat pusher series by clicking the link in the description or the comments. And don't forget, take that forehand grips quiz to find out which grip is ideal for you and how your grip affects how you hit your approach shot. Till next time, athletes, go out and train hard. I'll see you in the next video.
