Hit Your Smoothest Tennis Forehand EVER

[@MeikeBabelTennis]

JOIN MY PATREON for MORE and EXCLUSIVE content, monthly live coaching call, voting power on what content I create AND MORE!! www.patreon.com/Meikebabel

[@yutooober]

Such a good explanation of such an important part of tennis.

[@starrmcclinton5635]

This video is exactly what I needed! Thank you! :)

[@oliveradami199]

So valuable tip Meike. In fact, I "forgot" about doing this until I started doing it in my Golf swing smoothly and improved the consistency dramatically and then I started doing it in my tennis swing as well and boom, a total game changer for me. Thank you for pointing it out. Du hast meinen Spaß am Tennis gerettet, tausend Dank !

[@cjmaccaDR]

As usual, clean n concise. Good additions over other vids, like the med ball etc. thanks.

[@peterjones8862]

Always so good, really instructive and accessible. Thank you.

[@AmateurTennistv]

Great advice and good explanation!

[@philipp438]

Vielen Dank 🙏🏼 für die einfache Erklärung!!!!

[@warrenlee777]

Babel preaches what she practices !

[@joergguse4448]

So gut liebe Meike!!

[@user-rp3yu1ng6q]

We miss you in Denver, Meike! You look happy though :) Great video!! Pete

[@johnyang1420]

Where did she move to?

[@MeikeBabelTennis]

@@johnyang1420 We're in Spain now, in the North.

[@andrewlilico2218]

The thing I find hardest here is that my main problem on the forehand is hitting it too hard, so it goes long even if it's only a few inches over the net. So I try to cut back on how hard I hit, to hobble it a bit, so it stays in. Because I'm trying to hit it less hard, overcoming my natural instinct and natural timing which would make it too fast, I naturally remove from the swing the power bits - the hip turn, especially. And that kinda works in that I hit the ball more to my side and more up and less forward, so every shot is a kind of loopy lob, with more than half staying in (obviously a vast improvement on going out every time). What's hard is to both turn this hip and also not hit the ball hard. You seem to turn then deliberately kind of slow the arm and hit a gentle-but-decisive medium paced shot. As soon as I'm not fully committing to the shot my swing gets much less reliable. A slow/medium pace swing *with* a hip turn must take a lot of drilling to master.

[@MeikeBabelTennis]

Yes, it does take some work, unfortunately. But so well worth it.

[@bmanbusee3812]

This is the hardest part of the forehand. Because is the arm going first followed by hip, they move concurrently together, or does the hip move first slightly followed by arm? So many different videos suggesting different ways! Help us!

[@MeikeBabelTennis]

The hip initiates the turn. Super difficult to see with the naked eye because it's so subtle.

[@abonto]

@@MeikeBabelTennis How do you do it, if you got used to turning using the shoulder first.

[@ildarb813]

I guess the reason is incomplete explanation in some videos. There's a difference between biomechanics of simple rotation and hitting/throwing. Simply put, they say in order to make a good shot you need to have proper body rotation. In order to obtain that you need to use your kinetic chain from legs through hips to upper body. However when hitting the main aim is to achieve at some point maximum acceleration of the hand keeping the rest of the body as still as possible. So, at the beginning of the rotation of course movement begins with the hips. They just give initial impulse. But afterwards focus should be on the arm acceleration. Arm leads, the rest follows.

[@mauricecatayan3406]

A rigid full upper body cast with the hitting arm parallel to the shoulder plane would be a good training tool. You'd have no option but to use upper torso rotation to move the arm.

[@enriquemorin1238]

Thanks

[@watcher687]

When you do it correctly as you describe it feels more like pulling the racket forward instead of what most people do: pushing it!

[@oliveradami199]

yup. same in Golf. Once you start uncoiling your left hip first, you pull through the rest of the body totally relaxed and smooth.

[@craigmont924]

This also helps avoid pain problems in the elbow

[@denfl6605]

Is there a video for hitting forehand when the ball is deep, right at the base line and you don’t have time for a proper turn? Similarly, when serves are fast, I end up hitting a forehand without a turn with an open stand, which is much weaker than with a turn.

[@MeikeBabelTennis]

I will make one! Great suggestion!

[@jackspradlin4183]

When you loaded your hips and took aggressive cuts that were the correct way of hitting forehand I noticed sometimes you woould be on your toes with opposite leg which gives you a stronger load on dominant leg, sometimes you did not. Is this just what feels comfortable, I feel like I have to do it all the time or hardly ever unless being pulled out wide to hit an open stance? I am a solid 4.0 getting closer to 4.5 just need little more consistency.

[@manitsony6703]

Can u talk more about shoulder angle of the non dominant..some coach says point that shoulder down...some says something elese. Thanks

[@rdsutterjr]

When using a closed stance when does the right leg (for a right handed player) come forward? I’m assuming this happens after ball contact. Great video.

[@dtpendulum]

Subscribed for the hips don't lie comment

[@ralliman320]

I can't get past the logo on your strings. Is that stencil ink or paint? I love the look and tried it myself, but stencil ink started rubbing off my (synth gut) strings almost immediately.

[@MeikeBabelTennis]

Some strings don't keep the ink, it does come off. Or you have to wait a few hours so it can properly dry.

[@Dfblack2008]

Hi Meike, should we start the racket drop and load at the same time?

[@feifeifeihuang]

I’m no expert and I could be wrong. I think you load first, drop the racket to start the motion. But almost as soon as you drop, you start the turn with legs and it will transfer the motion of dropping into a forward motion. The turning also facilitates the dropping so it’s not wait till you drop all the way down then turn

[@user-oj7co5wm8g]

At the fundamental level, yes. Load and racquet drop should be happening at approximately the same time as the ball bounce for most rally balls. Very high level players wait longer but have better timing so don’t always use pro footage as a guide. Otherwise, some faster balls will throw off your timing and may require more of a block or slice. Slow/high balls require you to move your feet (in place) for even longer after the bounce and then loading “late” based on the timing. But even then the racquet drop and load should happen together.

[@sanz8607]

So, looks like shifting your weight from right to left/forward is the most natural way of "using" hip without "thinking" about it?

[@nickheppding8308]

Can anyone recommend a good weighted ball for an exercise like this?

[@MeikeBabelTennis]

Any will do, you can get them of Amazon or in the US Dick’s sporting goods for example

[@TennisObsessed]

Excellent lesson, I need to work on this.

[@stephenkeye2678]

Yes, because club players don't have coaches who know anything about tennis. Or play 3 hrs per day w a smart coach. Be nicer to club players. it's not our fault!! Think!!

[@MeikeBabelTennis]

Agree so that’s why I started my videos :-)

[@yaromendy8346]

Chill out g