Juan Carlos Ferrero
It
was good to see Juan Carlos Ferrero turn in a good performance against Fernando
Gonzalez on the Wimbledon grass.
It's only a few years since Ferrero was at the top of the world rankings and
in
2003 he won the French Open title, which is where his game is arguably most at
home
(though
when he powers up, he can live with most players on any surface).
Juan
Carlos' groundstroke play is rock solid and at the peak of his game he
had
no
fear
of
slugging it out from the baseline with the likes of Agassi...and not without
success, as at the U.S. Open of the same year.
Although his ground stroke play can be ferociously flat and aggressive, there's
a
real
simplicity
about
Ferrero's
strokes,
which
makes
him
a
great
example
for aspiring juniors to emulate. His movement
is also top notch in both it's economy and it's precision.
In 2004 Ferrero was visited by a string of relatively minor illnesses and
injuries, and you get the feeling that his game is so finely tuned that
once his natural high was disrupted (which itself was the culmination of
years of edging ever-upwards), he has struggled to find the precise recipe
of
performance and self-belief.
Although the match could've turned on a point here and
there, it was ultimately self-belief that hauled him through his Wimbledon
win against
Fernando Gonzalez (though he was never going to live with Murray's variety
of pace). Wins like that can nourish the higher
realms of self-belief and send you on a roll, and it would be good to see
Ferrero
regain
some of
the
form
that
made Juanqui
a powerful
baseline
force
in
his
French
Open
year: if Ferrero can once again attain (and sustain) a
similar
standard
of play, he'll be back in the world's top handful.
Starting with the letter e,
roll the letters on tennisforall graphic and make the pictures
of Juan Carlos Ferrero's forehand move.
Forehand Technique
If you want to learn how to play tennis, you should start with the first
3 chapters on the forehand (links below). But
whilst we have this forehand stroke animation in front of us, we may as well
look
at
some
aspects
of Juan
Carlos
Ferrero's
forehand
technique.
tennisforall
To get the animation going, first of all roll your mouse over the letter
e. Then roll mousey over nisf and
concentrate on Ferrero's racket face. In n and i it
is face down to the ground. At contact in s it is pretty
much at right angles to the court and in frame f the racket
face is still at rightangles, but it has been powered up and over en
route
What you are seeing here is a clear demonstration of how to hit with topspin.
It is also a clear demonstration of the influence that the palm of the hand
has when hitting topspin on a forehand (run isf again
), which you'll find more clearly explained in the three forehand chapters below.
In f the elbow has clearly been drawn through in the direction of the hit, which
tells us that this has been powerfully hit from the shoulder, drive, not a whippy-flippy
forehand
hit
from
the elbow.
What makes this power draw possible?
Read the three chapters below for more on forehand technique.
THE FOREHAND
3 Sample Chapters (of the full 12)
THE
FOREHAND Chapter
One
THE
FOREHAND Chapter
Two
THE
FOREHAND Chapter
Three
THE SERVE
Two sample Chapters (of the full 12)
THE SERVE Chapter
One
THE SERVE Chapter
Two
Juan Carlos Ferrero
Tennis for All?
Simon Roberts:
A County Tennis Odyssey
Anabel Croft
Andy Roddick
Elena Dementieva
Gabriela Sabatini
Tim Henman
Jimmy Connors
Venus
and Serena Williams
Serena
Forehand
Mary Joe Fernandez
How to hit a tennis backhand: Part
1
How to hit a tennis backhand: Part 2
How to hit a tennis backhand: Part 3
How to hit a backhand: Part 4
How to hit a backhand: Part 5
