[tennisbiz] Two handed forehands--changing grips

<x-charset iso-8859-1>Hi Paul-

Some time ago there was a pro player, if my memory serves me correctly, that
hit forehand groundstrokes from both sides as you describe. In other words,
he did not hit them crosshanded. I believe his name was Hans Gildemeister.
I seem to remember that he held his racquet in his right hand in the middle
of the handle and changed his left hand around his right hand. He served
righty so I am guessing that his right hand was a little more dominate than
his left and that is why he switched the left around the right. Maybe he
read tennisbiz.com and can set the record straight. I am remembering a long
way back.

At that young of an age the two handed forehand is a great tool in teaching
youngsters how to swing using their bodies. Both my daughters started with
two handed forehands (crosshanded) at that age. Currently, one is the top
player in her age group in our section and the other is hot on her heels.
Once they got a little older they naturally switched to a one handed
forehands and now they both crush the ball.

I would suggest that you teach Mira the loop swing right away too. I did a
groundstroke study at last year's US Open. I studied the topspin
groundstrokes of 133 pro players. Of the players with one handed topspin
forehands 100% used a loop swing, of the one handed topspin backhands 100%
used the loop swing, two handed topspin backhands 96% used the loop swing.
There are different styles of loop swings from Agassi to Sampras to Hingis
to Venus to Davenport......on and on. The coolest thing I realized is that
everyone has their own style. A very high percentage use the loop swing but
they have their own style. I believe there are many various reasons for
this but anyways----------I hope this helped.

Alan Chandronnait


 
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Received on Thu Jun 20 2002 - 22:04:29 CDT