And thank you for the wonderful feedback!

Thanks so much for your reply Tomaz, it’s really kind of you, and appreciated as I’m sure you’re very busy. Being a little older (64) I was taught an older-fashioned forehand and in trying to change it I was sure “snap” was considered essential, and have really struggled. Working on this new (to me) swing will help a lot I think. I absolutely love that you say Halep doesn’t snap and neither do you, it means I can progress without thinking that I’m doing it “wrong”. And I really look forward to the next video. Thanks again, I’ve always enjoyed your videos, even more now!

Hi Peter,

The wrist must be loose so that it lags behind the arm (forearm). So as the body starts rotating forward and the arm follows, the wrist needs to be loose so that it lags.

As it lags and goes “backward” it will at some point stop (stabilize) as the bones of the forearm and wrist won’t allow any more bending.

At that point the wrist becomes stable and then it needs to stay relatively firm.

Definitely not loose any more but not stiff.

It then holds the position all the way through contact and it can be released after contact.

In the most simple and fundamental way is what Halep does which is explained here:

https://www.feeltennis.net/forehand-wrist-lag/

Lag is always present at all levels, snap only at advanced (high level) or specific situations.

Halep does not snap nor do I. We “drive” the racket through the ball in stable manner.

I am about to publish the video on the role of the non-dominant arm on the forehand where I will also point out the role of the wrist so stay tuned.

In a lesson that you did on “rebuilding the one-handed backhand” about half-way through you start to put everything together. You talk about keeping a firm wrist in the backhand whilst also saying that in the forehand “we want to have a more loose wrist”

Then I watched this video and at about 11” you’re talking about “positioning your hand, and then you rotate through contact and you’re going to have a much more stable racket-face without much variation because you’re not engaging arm muscles to hit the ball…. just positioning the racket face behind the ball and then I rotate and the racket face is very calm through contact and I hit very consistently…”

That sounds like there is very little wrist action, similar to your teaching of the backhand.

So I’m confused… stable wrist or loose wrist in forehand? I like the idea of consistency that you say, but there doesn’t seem to be much of “lag and snap” that I hear so much nowadays.

Thanks if you have time to answer this.

Bravo for your comment regarding watching video of your own strokes. It takes some bravery to accept what you see. We all just assume we look like Fed, Rapha or Serena, etc. Sadly, this is often far from the truth. Like they say, “the camera doesn’t lie”.

I am too chicken to record myself (I cringed at the few seconds I have seen accidentally), so I commend you for your open mind and envy your resolve to fix whatever problems you find. Best of luck to you, sir!

I know. My problem in the past was the “dead non dominant-arm”. Whe I saw my video with my dead left arm, I was astonished. In that time I did not realize that this is the (sign) result of the shoulder rotation absence. One again, thank you for these videos. I am looking foreward to see the video dealing with the tennis serve and the body (spine) rotation