The fundamentals of the discussion of the forehand apply to all forehands. The differences between the western forehand and the eastern are a matter of degree. In the following, we present a preliminary set of illustrations of the eastern forehand positions for the five stages. We repeat the aspects of the discussion that are found in the forehand discussion in order for the eastern forehand player to have a complete, self-contained discussion.

First, note that the key to a stable forehand (or any tennis stroke) is the placement of the elbow before rotating into striking position. When a pro says, "hit the ball out front," she or he probably means to say "get the elbow in front." Hitting the ball out front is not a sufficiently accurate instruction because you can hit the ball in front of your body plane without the elbow being in front, and hit it very badly.

We cannot emphasize this enough. Because of the way human brains are wired, when the elbow is in front of the body plane, it is possible to make adjustments in precision that are not possible otherwise. You must explore this.

Also, hitting a tennis ball is an unnatural act. Most people do not start off with a tendency to hit the ball efficiently or accurately, but most people can learn to do this quickly (weeks, not years).

To learn this, you usually must develop some new muscles of varying sizes, and you do this by performing some exercises. Also, you must stimulate your brain to make some new connections, which you can do with the same set of exercises.

A useful exercise we have developed is to hold the elbow of your racquet arm in one hand as you hit in a short court or on a backboard. The figure on the elbow page illustrates what we mean.

Overview of an Efficient Forehand

You have seen that the forehand can be broken down into five stages or components. The first stage is the takeback. This has numerous variations, and these variations cause some confusion. Of particular importance is the notion that the racquet face must be face down or pointing downward. With the eastern forehand, this becomes harder due to the position of the racquet in the player's hand. But this is not so important, and there are many variations on the takeback position that work efficiently. Explore this position to find your preference. The height of the racquet benefits speed but not stability.

In the figure above, the left hand is placed on the hip to keep it from obscuring the view of the racquet position in the takeback. It would otherwise be used to stabilize the stroke.

The Contraction Stage

If you were to take the racquet back to the extended position in the figure above, the contraction stage would proceed by pulling (not rotating) the racquet forward with the butt pointing outward as seen in the figure below. Note that the elbow is in front of the body plane at this point. The racquet face is naturally more open because of the grip position.

Recall from the forehand discussion, pulling the racquet straight forward with the butt pointing toward the ball requires the least amount of effort to get the racquet into a stable position with the elbow in front of the body. Second, pulling the racquet straight forward without rotation does not produce any unmanageable "equal and opposite reactions" that could throw your motion off balance. Third, pulling straight forward provides a good source of acceleration.

The Rotation Stage

The rotation stage must move from from the contraction to a position where the racquet is nearly ready to accelerate into the ball. In the rotated stage, the upper arm has not been rotated forward to where it is square with the direction the player intends to hit the ball, thus providing for an additional upper arm rotation for a rapid burst of acceleration just before striking the ball. To move from the contraction stage to the rotation "complete" stage on the right, you can rotate the shoulders or the hips. In this figure, both have been used.

A good starting point for exploring this stage is to keep the arm position fixed relative to the hips and use the hips to rotate using the exercise mentioned in the elbow page. As with the previous photos, the left arm is placed behind the back only to make the most important aspects of the figures clear.

Rotation can have a destabilizing effect on your swing. This is an advanced discussion for those who are ready to produce high racquet velocities.

The Acceleration Stage

The acceleration stage is where a final burst of acceleration occurs just before striking the ball. This is very difficult to show in a figure because it is subtle. The acceleration stage is produced by upper arm rotation and not a wrist adjustment. This stage can be explored using the elbow exercise on the elbow page.

The Strike Stage

In this stage, the racquet is driven forward without rotation as seen in the strike discussion.

The strike is executed with a motion that is somewhat unexpected. To get an internal sense of this motion, you can practice our strike exercise.