Forehands R Us

Here's a recent lesson plan I concocted for working on forehands. The serve may be 'the most important shot of the game', but forehands are the ones we hit the most (80% of shots by some estimates). So we spend a lot of time on forehands on my courts.

Warm-up
Spread players out around baseline based on how large of a group you have. One player, or the coach, is in front of the group. Front player leads with 10 forehand shadow swings. All others copy him/her. Each player takes their turn as leader. In a large group you will have hit 50 or more shadow swings by end of this warm-up. Make sure players begin with and return to ready position; are taking the racquet back properly; have a point of contact out in front; and a good quality follow through. I also ask my players to track the ball with their non-dominant hand. Coach circulates among players during warm-up, fine-tuning swings as needed.

Skills Challenge
Two players are at service line (ad/deuce). Place two spots for each player: one where the player stands/begins and another at where forehand should bounce. This will be at 1-2 o'clock for righties and 10-11 o'clock for lefties, about racquet length distance away from player. Helpful if the bounce target spot is the same color for both players and different from the beginning spot, so you can remind the tossing players to aim for the 'red' spot or whatever color.

All other players are across net at service line. If you have a large group, divide in half. These players are taking turns tossing underhand balls toward bounce target of player straight ahead. Toss must be good quality with step from opposite foot, similar motion they will be using when hitting. Object is for tossing players to hit bounce target before hitting player hits five forehands in. Ball hitting bounce target is instant win for tossing team. Once a win is achieved, two new players rotate over to hitting positions.

Continue until all players have had a turn at hitting. Repeat, this time tossing cross court. Repeat both straight ahead and cross court toss, this time moving hitting players back to baseline.

I continue this activity until we are about halfway through our lesson time. Then we warm up serves, and finish with some live ball points.

Note: some players, when on tossing side, are determined not to let the hitting players 'win', and toss some really ugly stuff. Reinforce their goal is to hit the target, not to hurl fastballs. Insisting on good quality form for underhand tosses goes a long way toward eliminating near-impossible feeds, but still - keep an eye on this.

Forehand Lesson Plan

Here's a complete one-hour lesson plan including warm-up, instruction, and match play using drills that have been posted here previously.

Warm-up: Figure 8

Drop & Hit
Ken DeHart's drill is a simple and effective way to introduce using a tracking arm when hitting the forehand.

Four Ball
Adapt the original drill and focus only on forehands for the player working with the coach.

Forehand Challenge
Using quick-moving lines or a forehand caterpillar, all players take turns hitting forehands (fed by coach) using the tracking arm and shoulder turn. For every forehand that lands in playable area, players earn a point. As a group they are trying to earn X number of points. Forehands not using the tracking arm do not count toward the total. Extend this activity by repeating, having each individual player trying to be the first to earn the required number of points.

Match Play
Coach observes match play, encouraging/reminding/reinforcing use of tracking hand on all forehands.

Forehand-Backhand

I love it when my students suggest tennis activities. Thanks Will C. for sharing this one. I used it recently in an adult beginner clinic focusing on backhands and loved how it dovetailed with the backhand lesson. It's simple, which I also love. You will need at least two players.

One player is bounce feeding; the other is returning. Feeding player calls out 'forehand' or 'backhand' quickly, before fed ball crosses net. Returning player must hit whatever stroke was just called by feeding player. When we played this we played mini tennis (service line) but it could also work well from the baseline.

Scoring strategies: Will suggested scoring first to 7 points, then switch. If the point continues past the feed, EVERY ball hit must be accompanied by a stroke command (Forehand or Backhand), so the returning player can get in on the fun as well even though they don't get to feed (yet).

When I used this in the adult class, I didn't do it by points earned. Instead I gave every player 5 balls and rotated them around, giving everyone equal opportunities to feed as well as return.

At first this game may seem to be more of a learning opportunity for the returning player, to work on tracking the ball quickly and improving their footwork. It is, but as you play this, you may find it is equally a challenge for the feeding player. You will see their mental wheels spinning as the plot where to feed the ball and what stroke to require from their opponent. It's a win-win!

Drop and Hit

One of my biggest challenges with young players is to get them to set up the correct proximity to the ball. I have blogged about some solutions to this such as the aptly named Proximity Drill. Ken DeHart in the Top Tennis Tips From Around the World DVD has another that I am excited to try.

Ken suggests having the player use their non-dominant hand to track the ball. That's not news. Many of you have probably already suggested this to your students. Ken takes it one step further by having them practice not only tracking the ball with their extended arm, but then actually catching it. After a successful catch, they drop and hit it back over the net. Arm must be fully extended and angled out in front (1 o'clock for righties, 11 o'clock for lefties) for this to work. You can do this as a dead ball feed first, then have players working in pairs with each other.

Photo from instructables.com

4 Ball

4 Ball is a drill I found on a PTR DVD entitled Effective Feeding Techniques featuring the Director of Sports in the Norwegian Tennis Federation, Oivind Sorvald. It's good for groups of 3 or more. In the video, Oivind had four students. Could be used as a warm-up or as part of the lesson.

Two players play singles straight ahead on one half of the court, focusing on keeping the rally going. Other players are on the other half of the court at the baseline. Coach is across the net feeding balls. These players take turn hitting four balls with Coach, alternating forehands and backhands. Once four balls are hit, next player comes in for their turn. When all players on Coach's side have had their turn hitting the four alternating balls, two of them trade places with the players who have been playing half court singles.

Mr. Sorvald second from left in glasses.
PTR recently partnered with the NorwegianTennis Federation
to provide educational services to coaches. BTW that's my boss
Jorge Andrew next to Mr. Sorvald in the middle.

Out Wide Forehands

It is a little hard to see in this picture, but the player
has a small tan weight in his left hand

This is an interesting concept from the nice folks at ITUSATennis.com. A picture is worth many thousands of my words, so watch the video here if my description is confusing.

Coach tosses forehands out wide to player. Player goes out to hit ball and then recovers toward center of court. Very basic. EXCEPT - in their non-dominant hand, player should be holding a very light weight or perhaps even a water bottle. The idea is not to recover too quickly to the middle, before the forehand has been completed. The weight or water bottle in the off hand should help remind the player to stay centered in position to hit the ball before heading back to the recovery spot.

Figure 8

Tennis students don't get too far into the basics without getting introduced to the Figure 8 footwork drill. You probably know the one - two spots are on the ground about 3 feet apart. You move around them in a figure 8 pattern with small but quick adjusting steps to improve your footwork. If you're ready to take this activity to the next level, try it with a medicine ball.

Student performs the footwork as described above. When they get to the forehand or backhand side of the 8, coach tosses them a medicine ball to the FH or BH side. They catch it with both hands, and toss it back from the side with both hands on the ball. This sideways, two-handed throwing simulates the FH and BH swing pattern. Confused? Check out a video of the exercise here. Thanks crazytennismom.com for the tip. You can find her blog there, or follow her on FB, or on Twitter @sandratennismom.

Clean Lean

Note Dementieva's feet are lined up on the
baseline, creating the open stance

I found this drill by coach Mike Metz at a website called PlaySportsTV. I did give it a new name as it didn't really have a catchy name, so there ya go. I like that is in two parts, providing a simple progression that should lead to mastery of an open stance forehand. We have used the first part as a warm-up activity (Stretch Catch).

Player faces coach or partner. Coach/partner tosses easy underhand ball to player's forehand. Player leans/lunges to that side while still facing forward to catch the ball with dominant hand. After several successful catches coach may toss multiple balls to challenge player's catching ability.

When player demonstrates mastery of the lean/catch, add racquet. Player should demonstrate a smooth medium open stance forehand with the same lean/sideways lunging motion - while still facing forward - that they used when catching the ball.