5 Forehand Problems at the Recreational Level

in today's video we're going to be talking about five big forehand mistakes that you could be making i see many players making these mistakes that may be preventing you from hitting your forehand at your maximum power potential as well as optimal control so if you see yourself in any one of these mistakes that i'm about to cover then that's definitely something you're going to want to take a look at and address as needed i'm nicole havlicek this is primetime pickleball let's dive into today's topic missing one of our videos is like missing an easy put

away don't let that be you subscribe now forehand mistake number one is having a big reach back on your back swing now you do need a back swing if you want to hit a forehand with maximum power but the problem comes into play when you do a big reach back with your arm versus a turn back i'll cover the difference between these now on this one here i'm not fully turned to the side and therefore my body is not coiled up correctly and so i'm mostly going to be generating power to into the shot with

my arm which is not ideal because i'm not going to be able to use my body so i can't rotate into the shot because i'm not coiled up correctly therefore i there's nothing to uncoil so i end up just arming it which is not going to produce the maximum power you otherwise could on this one here my take back for my backswing is mostly achieved by the turn and there's really not a whole lot of reach back there is a little bit of a setback with my arm and my paddle but to the untrained eye

it's deceiving and it looks like a big back swing when in fact it's more of a turn back rather than a reach back so to be clear having a more pronounced backswing is not wrong in fact you need it it's really just about how you're achieving that backswing are you doing it correctly how it's achieved makes all the difference hitting your stroke like this which is optimal for maximum power potential my hips are coiled up as are my shoulders i'm well turned so i'm very coiled up my legs are loaded up i can then use

the ground to unwind into that shot i can ultimately hit this one much harder because i can speed up the unwind using my whole body in an efficient unwinding sequence starting from the legs then going to the hips then the shoulders which ultimately whips the arm around and through and into the finish if i attempt to speed up my forehand out of a reach back backswing then things are going to start to go straight very quickly i will lose control at higher speeds at lower speeds you do have some control which is why we do

see this mistake happening but the minute you try to speed it up and have more power in your shot you're going to start running into problems overall you will have more control at both lower and higher speeds with a turn back back swing rather than a reach back backswing forehand mistake number two is having a late contact now this is just a notorious problem in pickleball i unfortunately see this happening all the time and it's a power killer as well as a control killer as well as it's just like really hard on your body and

you're gonna maybe have some elbow and shoulder trouble as a result because you're just jamming up your joints and muscles when you're having a late contact i often see this in combination with mistake number one so someone might have a big reach back and then they're coming into contact and they hit it late kind of beside them and so those often come together but not always i do see in many instances where there's late contacting without a big reach back so it is a standalone problem as well now let's break down why this is so

problematic in a way that's maybe a little simpler to understand because it brings it into like an everyday type of situation let's imagine you were pushing a heavy object and for you're doing it with just one arm because forehand is just one arm so you would push it like this right you would have your body mostly behind it maybe a little slightly off to the side because your arm is to the side of your body but but really quite in front right you're not going to do it like this where you're reaching a lot to

the side and your body is not behind it because you'll that's a much weaker position i can't get my whole body into it i'm really pushing it with some very small muscles in my arm that's a problem and if you have a late contact on your forehand like this then your power is going to suffer dramatically as well as your control and your body so we want to stay injury-free so let's get that contact out in front so we can maximize our play out there in more ways than one as helpful as we think the

tips we're sharing in today's video are there's more to achieving success on the doubles court want a complete a to z step-by-step blueprint for playing winning doubles pickleball check out our dominating doubles system today go to doublesystem.com to learn all about it forehand mistake number three is a last second prep or a rushed prep and when i say prep i mean preparation for the shot you don't want to be so early that you stop in that back part of your swing and are waiting for the ball but you also don't want to be so late

that you're making a very rushed backswing as you enter into contact as i mentioned previously you want to be initiating your shot with a shoulder turn so you're going to be initiating that turn as soon as you start moving your feet and when you recognize where the ball is going you're going to start tracking it over your non-dominant shoulder in that way rather than still having your chest facing forwards to the court as the ball is about to be bouncing so again with this late preparation or rush preparation error you're limiting the use of your

body so it kind of always comes back to that if you're limiting the use of your body you're limiting the potential of your power you're also increasing your risk of having a late contact when you're rushed and again just like previous mistakes you're relying far too heavily on your arm during the shot if you're waiting to do most of your back swing right as the ball is about to bounce then you're really letting the ball play you rather than you playing the ball on these well-timed shots you'll notice a lot more of my shot prep

has already taken place before the ball bounces in fact i'm initiating my shoulder turn which is the start of my preparation almost as soon as i have recognition of which side the ball is coming to and that brings us to forehand mistake number four which is not having a c motion in the early part of your swing so one of the things i often see is players going straight back and then straight forward and they have this stop in the back part of their swing before heading back forward so this creates a hitch in the

swing you can't build up momentum this way your rhythm breaks down and there's just no fluidity to the shot the correct motion is to have the paddle tip up as you make your turn back and then you drop the paddle head down this allows for good momentum built up as you head into contact we often talk about a low to high motion on the ground stroke on both the forehand and the backhand side but it's really turn high then drop in head into contact so that's the low part and then finish high and around choppy

shots with the hitch in them such as when you go straight back before coming forward lead to a loss of power and consistency i see a stop in the motion happening in different ways but this straight back and straight forward action is one of the bigger offenders that leads to a hitch in your stroke and last but not least is forehand mistake number five not having enough turn on your back swing on the forehand now this mistake is a bit unique because it's situational because in certain situations you're not going to want to have a

complete turn but if that's your default go to and you never get a complete turn on any forehand chances are that's definitely a mistake because the forehands that you want to hit with tremendous power to try to get them by someone if you have like a short sitter or in a swinging volley or something like that you do want to have a complete turn however at times if you have to run forward to the shot and are reaching for it then you are going to have less of a pronounced turn and backswing or if you're

taking the ball on the rise because it's bouncing near the baseline near your feet again you're not going to have a complete turn you're going to have a more compact backswing bit less of a turn and deal with it that way also when you're returning you may have time for a total wind-up on your return but you may not want to do that because you're taking some pace off the shot you're just going to send it back deep so that you have time to get in behind it you're going to send it back with a

bit more loft not at top speed maybe 6 out of 10 or 7 out of 10 speed so in that case you're also going to use a more abbreviated backswing so this one is not a mistake in all situations it's situational but again if you are never getting a complete turn on any forehand ever then you're going to want to take a look at that because there definitely are times when you want to get max power on your shot and in those instances you are going to want to have a nice strong turn on your

forehand so again those mistakes that you're going to want to look out for on your forehand are number one having a reach back rather than a turn back on your back swing number two do you have a late contact if so you've got to move it forward number three don't have a last second preparation number four is not building enough momentum in your backswing by the use of a c motion and number five is not having enough shoulder turn when you should have some so sometimes you're gonna need to do without it but many times

you're going to want to have it so to use it at those times a big thank you to taylor bryant for his help with this video if you enjoyed this video please like comment and share for more pro player pickleball tips techniques strategies and more on how to take your game to the next level please visit primetimepickleball.com you'll find a clickable direct link in the video description below thanks for watching we'll see you in the next one and until then happy pickling