Here is a great shot of Tommy Haas I captured when he was hitting with Safin. You can really see what the pro forehand looks like through contact here. And I think you can really see here how Tommy Haas is getting great alignment between his arm, hand, racket and ball (through torso rotation and arm lift) - and then springs up and out with THE ENTIRE ARM - ON CONTACT. This springing action from the arm - which lifts and thrusts while the hand holds back - is what creates a tremendous spring effect on the ball. Can you tell the top video is Haas and the bottom is Safin? The technique is so similar that you almost can't tell they are hit by different players!

I want you to think about an analogy that Doug King offers us in his work for TennisOne. Think about rolling a large ball. First you get a grip on the ball with your hand, and use your hand and arm to push and lift the ball to get it rolling. First alignment and grip. Then spring and thrust from the arm. Doug uses this exercise, as I do as well, when teaching. Get a large medicine ball and practice first getting grip and alignment on the ball with your hand and arm. Then thrust up and out with the arm. It's the same feeling as hitting a high level forehand.

This crucial transition - from alignment to spring up and out with the ball - is what generates the tremendous force the pros are getting when they hit. This involves timing - because you have to align first and then thrust - on every ball. The reason most people never get this is because they a) don't understand that proper alignment of racket, hand, and arm is crucial and b) are trying to maximize racket head speed on contact. This prevents them from ever aligning and springing on contact with the hand and arm. The instruction to "maximize racket head speed on contact" is the number one killer of a student's potential, in my opinion.

Good teachers and high level players understand this intuitively. Nick Bollitieri always tells his students to "accelerate on contact". Oscar Wegner talks about "finding" the ball and then forcefully pushing it on contact. Clint Stephenson says you need to let the ball come into your body so that your racket, arm, and body can push the ball away from you. He says that if you "maximize your racket head speed on contact" there will be nothing left for the actual hit of the ball.

Let me close by saying that I think we teach groundstrokes in a completely backwards way. We teach the backswing. And we teach the follow through. Yet no time is ever spent teaching a player how to align and thrust up and out from the arm. And this is where we should start teaching! The backswing and follow through can then naturally develop around this powerful alignment, thrusting action. Our teaching system really has it completely backwards. As a side note, this is one reason I love Tomaz Mencinger's videos. He STARTS with proper contact and teaches from contact to finish. This is the way all beginning students should be taught. They get the feel of alignment and spring from the first lesson.