I love Amelie Maursemo's game. She has such flare and beauty when she plays as you will see when you view this video. At a lot of our ADV BEG tennis lessons here in Manhattan we teach players to hit with topspin. Now we don't teach the Western grip that Mauresmo uses in this video but we do introduce the art of laying the racquet back and allowing angular momentum to bring the racquet to a relative square at contact. Most experts agree there are many ways to hit a tennis ball. But to create topspin by blending power with control the ADV BEG tennis player can begin to experience the thrilling experience of hitting with remarkable ease.

One benefit to laying the racquet back is that the momentum from your swing will naturally bring the racquet this squareness at contact and allow for a natural and fluid swing with LOTS of practice. Repitition is the key to making this stroke feel natural to the end user.

Check out the slow motion video below there is a lot to enjoy. The one aspect I want you to get used to is how the racquet lays back and how it finds it self to square at the contact point as she swings from low to high. This technique is crucial in blending power with control on your forehand.

Regales toi avec tes coups droits! (French Transation: Enjoy your forehands!)

MAURESMO's FOREHAND

EPIPHANY?

A few years ago I realized there is still so much to learn about teaching tennis. I am amazed after 27 years of playing and teaching how much I learn about my swing, my mental and emotional game, my students play and tennis swings from fellow professionals. Below is a classic example about what I am referring to.

UNORTHODOX?

I am not sure you would deliberately teach someone to play tennis with these types of strokes but they work for Gustavo Kuerten. His forehand is not unusual for a clay court player but his backhand has a unique twist to it (literally).

Notice in his warm up how high he takes his racquet back on the backhand. It is a loop swing with a twist or what I might describe as a floppiness. It would seem difficult to have any awareness of the racquet face hitting like this. Altough many a great athlete has perfected unorthodox strokes through repitition. For example, a Reggie Miller jump shot or a Jim Furyk's golf swing are a few that come to mind.

What makes this swing unorthodox is the floppiness of his grip. This grip is beyond an Eastern backhand where the top knuckle on the index finger tapers across the top of the grip. He takes his grip to the extreme and is heading closer to his Western forehand grip. Amelie Mauresmo use a similar grip on her backhand and will get a bit floppy on her follow through as well. But Kuerten takes floppiness to a new level. I wouldn't recommend this to anyone unless you think you can win the French Open with it!

With teaching and learning I have found there is no right way. Just the way that works best for you. Leave your responses below if you have any experiences or thoughts you want to share on this matter.

GUSTAVO KUERTEN AND HIS FLOPPY BACKHAND



Below is a commercial from the PGA tour highlighting the unconvential swing of Jim Fuyrk. Trusting your strokes is at times more important than the best technique in the world.

JIM FUYRK's GOLF SWING