Man o man, how crazy is this short forehand?

You play all the right shots from your baseline and eventually produce a short ball from your opponent that lands right around the “T” and just sits up there begging you to crunch it off for a glorious winner.

That’s right, you’re about to be the man (gals, you know what I mean)…

And you’re right, you hustle on up, your salivating at this put-away chance, and you completely bury your shot into the middle of the net.

Or way deep, or wide, or somewhere other than your intended target.

Big time unforced error and you feel like an idiot.

And that feeling carries over to future points and it’s a big time downward spiral.

And after an opponent misses that short forehand, I love it when I hear them say, “Oh man, I had you…”.

Uh huh, you sure did, but that’s game thank you very much.

Look, this short forehand is NOT an easy shot.  There’s a lot that can go wrong.

You’ve got no pace (ball speed coming into your racket) that you can work with, and so if you want to add any pace to your shot you have to perform two functions that take a lot of racket skill.

That’s providing racket head speed that produces shot direction and depth control.

What’s the #1 mistake we make on this short forehand?

It’s mostly with our feet as we play this shot.  We tend to stop and stay stopped as we swing through the ball, and it’s really tough to control that shot from a stationary position.

Most of us need incoming pace to be able to hit with pace and maintain control.

So, what’s the cure for those short no nothing forehands where we think we should be able to end the point?

It’s first of all a mindset, this is never a one shot opportunity.  It may end up that way, but you’ve always got to think that this is going to be at least a two shot sequence.

As set up to play an approach shot and then see what happens.

What do we do on approach shots with our feet?  That’s right, we get set up prior to contact to be able to move through our approach shot in order to have a good court position for our opponent’s next shot.

Even if you play a good shot without moving your feet, if your opponent anticipates where your shot is going and can then get there and make a decent play on your shot, because you haven’t moved through your shot, you’re still stuck slightly behind the “T”, and that’s not a great spot to be when your opponent is now receiving your so-called big time put-away.

Check out this short video clip and see if you can relate to some or all of it.

So, obviously we need to be thinking two shots to be able to have better stroke mechanics but to also be able to be in the right place at the right time just in case our opponent guesses where we’re going to play our shot off of that short forehand.

Speaking of forehands, if you haven’t done so already, pick up your copy of my detailed DVD & instantly downloadable lesson on the forehand groundstroke you can make sure you’ve got the perfect stroke mechanics to handle not only this short ball but also those forehands when you’re back on the baseline.

You can easily add this lesson’s instructional videos to your computer, video iPod, iPhone, and other portable video player.  That’s right, you can take this lesson to the practice and match court with you.

Grab your Forehand Lesson copy now – click here, or better yet, do what Mark S. from Milwaukee did today.  Here’s what Mark wrote to me…

“Brent,  I want to get the complete lesson portfolio.  I have been talking with many people here in Milw.  Giving out your webtennis.net information.  Hopefully some will sign up.

How could I pay and have the initial lesson fee go toward the complete lesson plan fee.  Any other discounts, possible would work for me, up to you, though.

The people I am playing with, see a dramatic difference in my play with just the serve & volley and 1/2 volley lesson work I have done.

Thanks,   Mark.”

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So, I’m happy to make the same offer to you that I did to Mark today.  If you’ve recently bought one of my lessons, I’ll be happy to refund that lesson if you want to pick up an All Lessons Package at a 4o% discount.

Once you purchase your All Lessons Package at the 40% discount, just send me an email to remind me to refund your recently purchased single lesson.

I had a great time down in Ojai this past weekend attending my niece Morgan’s wedding.

Family, lots of new friends, perfect weather, and the entire production could not have been more perfect.

Uncle B and the beautiful new bride Morgan

Probably wasn’t a dry eye during the ceremony.

She got her guy, and he got her gal, and how cool it is to see two young people so crazy for each other…

Thank goodness that some traditions remain classic and that lots of weddings haven’t gone the way of a full blown western so-called modern forehand.  Please…

On Saturday morning before the wedding, I played some doubles with the groom Bill, one of my nephew’s Tim, and Bill’s business partner Devin.

These guys are all classic young early 30s tennis players who can play at about an NTRP 4.0 level who have grown up watching semi to full western forehands on TV and are trying hard to hit forehands with pretty big swing shapes.

“Shank you very much” was sort of the common theme with these young guns meaning that they were constantly giving away free points by simply miss-hitting easy balls.

And after we were done playing, Devin asked me what one thing should he be thinking about with his strokes.

And if you’ve been with me at WebTennis for any amount of time, you know what my answer to him was likely going to be.

“Spatial relationships…”

And I love the look I get when I first say that term to someone who’d not familiar with my teaching style.

And this is a smart kid who I’m sure is a business genius in his field, but that look of “huh, uh…” just took over his face.

So of course mister nice guy here can’t let him wallow too long, so I rescue him with the meaning of spatial relationships in tennis.

Click the photo to learn more about the PracticeHit Stroke Developer

You’ve got to specifically align your body to the path of the incoming ball so you can make whatever stroke you have as repeatable as possible.

What’s the ideal distance away from the ball do you want to be aligned to the path of the incoming ball when you swing your racket?

The less focus and attention to spatial relationships with the path of the incoming ball, the more you have to improvise your swing.

And trying to improvise an amateur semi to full western forehand is worth the price of admission.

The term “shank you very much” was coined with these guys in mind.

Real smart business guys with Ivy League degrees can look just a tad uneducated, if you know what I mean.

And the same applies to all of us whether we have classic continental grip style games to even today’s baseline stuff, without a consistency for your spatial relationship with the incoming ball, you’re going to be a mishit wonder.

I was recently interviewed about winning the national 60s Hardcourts this past April, and I kept coming back to the same answer for what helped me play well enough to win that title.

I kept not missing the perceived easy shots because I was focused on spacing first and allowing my instincts to dictate where I was going to hit this next shot.

We spend way too much time trying to perfect swing shapes, etc., and not nearly enough time grinding through the boring stuff of using our feet to insure we have the exact distance away from that path of the incoming ball so our swing can be greatly simplified.

Just imagine how many possibly poor spacing possibilities there are for say a standard forehand groundstroke.

I mean there must be thousands and thousands of ways we can misalign ourselves to the ball.

Could we ever practice enough to be able to deal with each and every one of those spacing situations?

No way…

If a very specific spatial relationship is not the #1 practice focus on each and every one of your strokes, then you’re going to be limiting your ability to improve and to truly enjoy this game.

Improvisation is what creates the “shank you very much” comment.

Here’s an email I got this last week from one of your fellow WebTennis subscribers.

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“Brent,

Your videos on spacing have proven to be an enormous asset to me.

I have always suffered from focusing too much on stroke mechanics, especially in tournaments, blaming this or that for not playing well.

Getting the stroke mechanics out of my head during play hasn’t been easy.

I can see I need more practice at it.

Thanks for giving me my game back!”

Tom L, Seattle WA

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And there you have it folks, thanks Tom, that’s all that needs to be said.

So, your focus this week is to get out there on the court, and if you only have time for a practice match, at least spend the time during the warm-up thinking about the distance you need away from that path of the incoming ball.

Create that ideal distance with your feet and not having to improvise with reaching your arms.

For now, trust your instincts to tell you where and what kind of shot to hit.

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