In this lesson, we take a closer look at the execution of the modern professional forehand. The key difference we want to focus on is this: At what point does the rotation take place in the stroke sequence? Below left is the typical rotation event for the beginning or amateur forehand. In the beginner and amateur forehand, the rotation begins as soon as the racquet starts forward from the takeback position. This fact makes it very difficult to execute this forehand at a high speed. In the professional forehand, the rotation takes place in two phases: (1) The body rotation stage (which is, relatively speaking, slow), which partially aligns the racquet with the path of the oncoming ball, and (2) the acceleration stage, in which upper arm rotation accelerates the racquet to maximum speed into the path of the ball for the strike. The modern forehand is illustrated in the movie below right.

In the movie below, we have superimposed the two preceding movies in order to provide a closer visual comparison of the two forehands. While the beginner's forehand is rotating, the professional forehand is still contracting toward the ball, being pulled by the butt. This phase of the motion is the one emphasized by Bollettieri in his video The Killer Forehand in the towel sequence with player X.

As we have noted in other lessons, the upper arm rotation aspect of the acceleration stage arises from driving the shoulder forward and does not require proactive movement. Because the upper arm is rotated so late in the stroke, it is moving the racquet very fast when executed, thus producing high ball velocity. Also, since the stroke starts by pulling the racquet by the butt, it is vastly more stable than the amateur forehand and thus will hold up under high-speed rallies, whereas the amateur forehand will break down when the rally speeds up.