The Fognini Forehand

[jeffreycounts]

Jeff, thanks so much for the kind words on your article on the Fognini forehand, of which I have long really liked. To me, it is right there with the best forehands ever, Fed, Nadal, Del Po, Alcaraz.

It really is one of the best. When I originally went to watch Fognini it was to see the crazy personality. But it didn't take long to see how this guy generates massive power from very compact strokes. I had forgotten about him for awhile, but the recent win combined with your reference to his ability to generate power in such a small punch made me go back to the video.

[stroke]

Jeff, thanks so much for the kind words on your article on the Fognini forehand, of which I have long really liked. To me, it is right there with the best forehands ever, Fed, Nadal, Del Po, Alcaraz.

[tennisskip1515]

Thanks for this. I'm curious at to whether or not you'd recommend teaching this at the outset (generally) of a beginning player's education. (I'll leave their age out of this for the sake of the discussion, okay?) In the 70s, Mr. Frank Brennan, Sr. (father of the Stanford coach, and BJK's coach) suggested we mimic Nastase's forehand. Mr. B called it a "pronated forehand," and whether the nomenclature was correct or not the idea was that the wrist came back ahead of the racquet head, which then whipped around at the "end" of the backswing. If you watch the point at 1:14 of this youtube clip you can see it (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lf4wrrpzdYc). Of course Fognini's grip is quite different than Nastase's, which explains differences in the racquet head's angle, but to my eye the effect is similar. There are other forehands on the men's tour that are similar – so much so that Brad Stine's got a (rather dismissive) phrase for it, something like "hinky forehand" – most notably Khachanov's and Tiafore's (even more extreme). There's no doubt this forehand as potency, but the motion *does* introduce additional variables in production. Fognini is a rare talent (physically, anyway). At what stage would you see teaching this?

[jeffreycounts]

Would love to discuss my article on the Fognini Forehand!