I Destroyed My Forehand with This Mistake 😖

This mistake ruined my forehand for years:

When I was 15, I watched Andre Agassi up close, crushing forehands and backhands

This made me fall in love with technique and the biomechanics of tennis

I watched slow motion of Andre every night, countless hours. But, I made this crucial mistake:

❌ Instead of identifying the fundamentals of Andre’s forehand, I tried to copy his technique with the arms, and this totally ruined my own forehand for years.

⚠️ I spent 3 years (15-18) trying to make my forehand look exactly like Agassi’s, modifying it almost every single day.

Some days it was great, other days, I couldn’t hit a forehand in the court.
I wasn’t thinking about coiling, or about early preparation, or about making contact out in front, instead:

I was focusing on things that really didn’t matter. How high was his elbow at this point, did my arm look identical in this phase, etc etc etc

Things that really don’t matter when you look at the big picture.

I neglected the fundamentals for years, and it cost me badly.

Only when I started studying the common traits amongst the pros, did I realise my errors.

At 18, I started focusing on:

Early preparation
Coiling the upper body to initiate the swing
Loading with the legs
Transferring my body weight whenever possible
Making contact in front
Finishing the swing fully

When I started using the major muscle groups on every shot, that’s when my own forehand developed and everything changed for me with that shot.

Had I spent those 3 years mastering the fundamentals, by 18 my forehand would have been 5x better.

But, it was a crucial lesson for me, and one that helped me become a better coach.

Don’t try to copy a pros swing. Instead, copy the fundamentals that you see multiple pros using.

If only one pro does it, maybe it would only work for them.

But most pros use the same fundamentals on the forehand:
Early preparation
Coiling
Using the off hand
Reaching a solid power position
Uncoiling
Legs load and explode
Full follow through and finish

These are the things to copy, not how one players swing looks

#tennis