I have a group of 6 friends I have to teach forehand grip to, Monday to Sunday for 1 week. Tips for structuring this block of 7 days would be nice. All are beginners to intermediates in regards to game abilities (power speed tactics etc), but all 6 lack the basic forehand grip in their shots. 1- How can I teach it to them without overcomplicating or oversimplifying? 2- What are basic drills for practicing this grip as beginner? 3- We play at a competitive club where losing performance due to changing grips = losing match = having to wait 30+ minutes for your next turn. Keeping that in mind, how can these 6 players be encouraged to practice using forehand grip only in forehand shots? 4- I have 40-50 minutes alone with these 6 players in which we usually do multishuttle drills before the others arrive on court. How can I maximize their sense of having the right grip during matches and between rallies? Their habit of panhandle grip is one developed over many years.
Have them stand in a line and show you their forehand grip. Physically check all of them and rotate the racquet in their hand if needs be. An idea for a drill would be to have them stand at the T and hand feed them alternating forehand and backhand net shots with some high forehand feeds mixed in. You can get them to do net shots or net lifts, what matters is that they use the correct grip and change grips when going from the T to either side of the front court. As beginners or intermediate players they should be able to handle this Realistically, if they have been panhandling for years then you probably won't fix it in 40 mins. But if you have them do some clears or smashes to eachother and after a few hits get them to physically look at how they are holding the racquet to see if it is as you showed (diagonal bevel should be in the V of their thumb and first finger) then the muscle memory should start to set in. They can also practice at home changing grips. Paul Stewart had a video on it some years ago on youtube
You write "(diagonal bevel should be in the V of their thumb and first finger)" There are four of each type of bevel, so 4 "diagonal bevels". For the diagonal bevels, there are two on top, looking down at the V. When you say "diagonal bevel should be in the V of their thumb and first finger" When looking down at the V so racket frame like an axe head, do you mean the inner one of those two diagonal bevels? If so, then I see what you mean, though I have never seen it described like that before! I have normally heard it explained as V on the narrow bevel , but when actually holding it the V does end up more on the diagonal bevel, specifically the inner diagonal bevel! When you say net shot then I guess that means not a net kill.. Though you then write "with some high forehand feeds mixed in". Well what is a high forehand feed? As in, there's high and there's high . There is high like they receive a bad shot at the net, and there is high like the opponent lifted it to the back If they are "at the net" then is that meant meant to be for them to move all the way to the back to get? Or do you mean for them to do a net kill? Or push downwards? And by the way, forehand grip has two meanings , one is a grip for shots on the forehand side(in that meaning, it includes panhandle), so can be worth using a more specific term sometimes, but most commonly, traditionally, it means that grip with the V which I think is the one you describe. But you are saying they are at the T. The most common grip for a forehand net kill is panhandle . For a forehand net shot, I've heard of forehand and panhandle used.
Well how about proving to them why the grip you are showing them is much better, and for which shots. Prove to them the thing they can't do with their grip that they can do with the grip you show them. You write "having to wait 30+ minutes for your next turn." That's a problem with the way the club is organised. Too many people on too few courts. Or a problem with the format eg if every court is winner stays on, then too many people would wait too long!
Thank you for the comment Ralphz I didn't go into detail about the grip because I assumed the topic creator knows what it looks like. Forehand grip, base grip, universal grip it can be called many things. We can say the classic line of "shake hands with the racquet" and many people understand how that looks. I disagree that a panhandle grip should be thought of as a forehand grip because that's the grip you can use to play certain crosscourt net shots and backhand shots that are behind your body. The purpose of my proposed exercise was to get the players thinking about changing to the grip and it puts some variety into the practice if the topic creator does more than two different kinds of feeds (backhand frontcourt, forehand frontcourt and a higher forehand mid court)
I don't mean this disrepectful, but if you play at a competitive club, you and your friends should have access to training which is run by one or more coaches? Aren't these coaches a better contact person for your friends and their issues? I mean, you really ask us how to teach it, so a coach with years of practice and teaching to hundreds of players can do it maybe better? Does your friends really want to relearn the strokes or does you force them to change it? IMO one week is too short for relearning something and to break out from bad habits and every learning and change means drawbacks. But it seems that the club enviroment don't allow a relearning, because it can mean that failure during the relearning phase get punished by sitting longer if I understand it correctly?
Apologies. In my country we call any collective group of players who play at 1 Court as a club. Technically should have written 6 players at the 'local outdoor court' We play competitive in the sense that there are often matches with other outdoor teams. And wind is mostly fine in these matches so we get a good game. And always want to improve so that we can beat the other outdoor courts' teams in future. There is no coach. Just a group of 20 players with Juniors and seniors mixed.
Okay, now I understand. 6 players means that you need the one court for all them of most efficient. I personally recommend that all of them get a fresh and light colored overgrip, you show them the right forehand grip and use a permanent marker to draw around their hand on the grip. This helps them to remind every time to be in the right grip or to jump back when they fall back in old habits. I also recommend to not use a multishuttle drill (which is mostly based on pace and accuracy during pressure) so they rush instead of having time to focusing on the grip and technique. A high forehand serve is a good point to start with a forehand grip, also forehand drives. From the drives you can extend the exercise to an alternating between forehand/backhand because you wrote grip changes are also an issue. Since you play outdoor exercising in the flat game can be beneficial, because the wind can't influence the shuttle much. The high serve can be combined with with a stick smash which need the forehand grip, the rotation of the forearm and grip tightening. So you have a pair doing forehand to backhand drives, one pair serves high and stick smash, the third pair can do clears. So all six players fit on the court at the same time. IMO there is no magic exercise for this. They need to remind every time to adjust the grip to the new learned one and it takes time. A few month to a half year are optimistic to change it.
Hello, Might i suggest recording your games and then focusing on the unforced errors respectively. When I was a beginner I used to play a lot of flashy netshots with very low success/consistency, poor court awareness etc. Getting down the proper techniques and footwork is definitely a priority. But you can also train to be a better team.. by working on other aspects like building compatibility between two pairs (they will get better understanding of each other's game if they consistently are paired together). Improving their court awareness.. leaving fast flat smashes which will land out, calling out the shuttles for the partner and listening to those calls. Focussed attack on the weakest opponent, Better quality & variation in serves, Understanding the strengths & weaknesses of the opponent for egs: most players at early stages don't have a powerful smash so when pushed deep they either (weak) clear or play a drop 98% of the time - be ready to pounce at the net. Improve your flat game against heavy hitters, when we faced a good team with strong flat drives the match was over before we even realised. How to rotate properly (front - back). The one with good smash and agility should try to be at the back and not at the net. The one with better net skills should quickly take the front in every rally if the positions are reversed then they should know how to safely get back into the standard formation. Play to your strengths. If a Smasher is playing dropshots from the back or the front player is lifting high then they are both useless at those positions. Backcourt player needs to smash so that the front player can kill a weak return, and the front player needs to play shots which forces the opponents to lift so the attack can continue. Hope it helps. All the best.
