Interactive Forum May 2012: Sam Stosur Forehand

[John Yandell]

Sam Stosur Forehand

This month we take a look at Sam Stosur's forehand, a very interesting compliment to Brian Gordon's revolutionary new article. Is Stosur the one woman on the WTA tour who hits more of the ATP forehand Brian describes? If so how is it the same? If not how is it different? Or is it something inbetween? And what thoughts or questions do you have that we may have missed?

[John Yandell]

Quicktime version

[stotty]

Backswing

Where's Brian's article?

Tiny backswing compared to most women on the tour. Dare I say she might benefit from a slightly longer backswing. She looks more like she's shoving the ball than swinging at it.

[John Yandell]

It's coming it's coming!

[bottle]

On the positive side, she's constantly playing with the length of her arm. By that I mean she isn't a double-bender or a straight-armer but something in between, which people don't talk about so much yet isn't a bad place to be-- since most idealogues of any stripe are idiots.

If that sounds too political, then let's look at this from the point of view of a frustrated auto mechanic. He loves his job but longs for, in his personal life, solutions that are more organic than the ones he sees in his work every day. For some years now he's been building up the courage to take dance lessons and knows that when he does, he'll listen to the music more than the other students and will use his natural excitement to make quick progress.

In tennis, similarly, he prefers the more organic strokes so long as they're not too extreme or virtuosic or dramatic. He would agree that Stosur's loop could be bigger but enjoys the fact that she extends from the elbow a small bit while performing it, and then she seems to scissor a small bit either on the ball or just past it, probably one or the other on successive shots.

[florian80]

Great forehand! Unlike most other female players Stosur waits until the beginning of the forward swing to pre-stretch the forearm muscles. Most of the other female players "lay the wrist" back way too early

[stroke]

I think she has the ATP forehand as laid out by Brian Gordon. The only other female player that comes to mind with this ATP forehand is Justine Henin,. To update, Brian Gordon stated on the ATP forehand thread that Sam is missing a couple of key components of the ATP type 3 fh.

[GeoffWilliams]

Her diagonal load is not there.

[rwiener]

Cibulkova's comment on Stosur

After her quarterfinal loss to Stosur, Cibulkova commented that Sam hits her forehand like a man and that it has much heavier topspin than other women's forehands. This suggests there is a difference between the WTA and ATP forehand styles and Sam's falls in the latter category.

[avazpinto]

backswing

Her swing looks small in part because she has minimum upward movement of her right hand during the backswing.

Interestingly, On the side view forehand her arm is fully straight at contact which is a shot totally different than the other two shots. I think its great to keep in mind that players don't hit the balls exactly the same way every time.

[julian1]

Ssc

I think she has the ATP forehand as laid out by Brian Gordon. The only other female player that comes to mind with this ATP forehand is Justine Henin,. To update, Brian Gordon stated on the ATP forehand thread that Sam is missing a couple of key components of the ATP type 3 fh.

You may guess that SS Cycle has something to do here

[julian1]

The horizontal speed AND the vertical speed?

Her swing looks small in part because she has minimum upward movement of her right hand during the backswing.

Interestingly, On the side view forehand her arm is fully straight at contact which is a shot totally different than the other two shots. I think its great to keep in mind that players don't hit the balls exactly the same way every time.

The question is whether the atp forehand should maximize both
the horizontal speed of the racket and the vertical speed of the racket