The Tennis Forehand!
Without trying to diminish the importance of the service or the volley or the return of service or in fact any other stroke in tennis, ever since competitive tennis began the forehand has always played a key role.
The tennis forehand, unlike any other shot in tennis is often the deciding factor between winning and losing a match.
To attest to this, all great champions from the past and the present had outstanding forehands, starting with Bill Tilden and naming a few on the way to the present, Jack Kramer (USA), Pancho Gonzales (USA), Rod Laver (AUS), Lew Hoad (AUS), Andrés Gimeno (SP), Manolo Santana (SP), John Newcombe (AUS), Ivan Lendl (TCH), André Agassi (USA), Jim Courier (USA), Pete Sampras (USA), Rafael Nadal (SP)and Roger Federer (CH).
Do not be surprised when among this elite group of players there are three Spaniards, Spanish Tennis Development produces some of the best tennis forehands players can have.
There are several factors which make the tennis forehand the weapon of choice:
- Versatility - The forehand, due to the inherent mechanics of the shot, allows players to execute a variety of shots and angles with ease.
- Practice - Since most players use the forehand on seventy five percent of the court, they clearly practice that shot more often than any other.
- Power - We can all generate more power from the forehand side whether we are a 'righty' or 'lefty'.
- Pressure - About ninety five percent of all players are right handed, therefore using the backhand side to hit forehands (inside out or reverse forehands), which puts great pressure on opponents who have to defend themselves with the backhand which usually is their weaker shot.
- Angles - From the inside out position a well hit powerful forehand to the backhand can be an outright winner or bring the opponent so much out of position that the next shot can be an easy put away.
- Winners - Many tennis matches are decided between the amount of winners and unforced errors from each player, here again the forehand generates about ninety percent of the winners.
As a former coach of Jim Courier I can not stress to you enough how important the forehand is. This makes a strong case for you to develop your tennis forehand as a weapon of choice. On my website you can find more detailed free information and tennis video lessons about this fantastic shot and how to develop it. Among the videos you will like to see is the Tennis Forehand - Bjorn Borg - Roger Federer Comparison!
Sergio Cruz a former Coach of Jim Courier - USA ex. ATP Nr. 1
Visit our free tennis forehand and tennis video lessons at: Tennis forehand http://tenniscruz.com/content/view/270/42/
