The inside out forehand (or run around forehand) has become a major weapon in the tennis game both in the men’s and women’s game. The inside out forehand allows a tennis player to generate great power, to sting the opponent’s backhand, and when well set up, offers plenty of disguise as it is the same set-up with the inside-in forehand up the line. In your tennis playbook, it should not be be an occasional shot—the inside-out forehand should be a bread-and-butter shot that want to hit most often instead of the backhand, even if you have a very decent backhand. When you watch the best players, you will discover that that will choose to stand to towards the backhand side of the court to give themselves plenty of opportunities to get themselves into position to hit the run around forehand. TAG Coach Jeremy Maniago revels the 6 Keys to a Dangerous Inside Out Forehand.
- Work hard to get the Inside Out Forehand or Run Around Forehand Shot;
- Get into position with good footwork as quickly as possible;
- Use a semi-open to neutral stance to wind up and separate the shoulder from the hip;
- Consciously try to freeze your opponent with your set up;
- Throw your weight into the shot rather than falling off sideways; and
- Be on the hunt for whether you can close the net for an easy volley.
Work hard to get the Inside Out or Run Around Forehand Shot
The “upgrade” to the inside out forehand instead of a backhand usually comes from three opportunities: Firstly on Your Serve from a deuce court serve to any of the three serve targets (out wide, into the body, down the t) against a right-handed tennis player, secondly from a body serve or wide serve in the advantage court; and thirdly from a well struck backhand crosscourt that is likely to come back crosscourt. It is important to focus your mindset to “hunt” for run around forehand opportunities that may arise from these three situations.
Get into position with good footwork as quickly as possible
Spacing is extremely important for an inside out forehand. If you do not go far left enough against a ball that is headed in that direction, you are going to get jammed and unable to impart maximum force into the ball. In this photo, you can see how far to the left TAG Coach Jeremy Maniago has gone and his perfect spacing with the ball to unleash his racquet into the shot.
To do this well, get your back leg around using the backward crossover “jumps” and “gallops” to use as few steps as possible to create as much space as possible, and then a final few adjustment steps into the perfect semi-open position or neutral position. This is the quickest way to get set up, while concurrently facilitating a good deep knee bend and to store energy from the torque of your hips and shoulder to unleash both rotational and linear momentum into the ball at impact. If you’re jammed, you’ll lose power and have trouble hitting the ball on an inside-out path.
Use a semi-open to neutral stance to wind up and separate the shoulder from the hip
Once you recognize a ball that you can hit as an inside out forehand, you will turn your shoulders. The racquet will go back at the same time and you will begin to engage your hip turn as well. Again, the deeper your knee bend, and the more torque you store in your core, the more you will be able to unleash ferocious rotational and linear momentum into the ball at impact.
Consciously try to freeze your opponent with your set up
At this point, the more you set up the same way for an inside out and inside in forehand with no “tell”, the more rooted your opponent will be to the directional centre and unable to anticipate your shot. Whether you go inside out or inside in at should just be an addition turn of the hip and impact angle with the ball at the very last moment that your opponent is impossible to tell.
Throw your weight into the shot rather than falling off sideways
As you uncoil your kinetic chain into the ball, what separates the very best inside out forehands from the rest is that when the body weight transfers to the left side from the rotation into impact, there needs to be forward momentum as well to hit a straight, powerful and heavy ball. When you use this shot, your tactical intention has to be very aggressive. A weak inside out forehand is vulnerable to an opponent with a stable backhand down the line. The inside out forehand should hit with a relaxed and loose wrist to snap at the ball. On the follow through, your racquet should be swung around to your shoulder from the powerful forces you have imparted from the impact zone into the ball. In the photo immediately above, TAG Coach Jeremy Maniago shows how this is done.
Be on the hunt for whether you can close the net for an easy volley
If you follow the advice above, it is very likely that not only will your opponent be pushed back, but also stretched out wide from your powerful shot. Not only that, your weight and court position should be already into the court. If you sense that opponent might be unable to get fully behind your shot to counter it effectively, it is very likely that a “reset” or a safety shot, or a floating ball could be coming your way. Be on the “hunt”, and close the into the net for the an easy putaway volley should the opportunity arise.
The run-around forehand – Wrap Up
The Inside Out Forehand is a very effective style of play but one that requires a lot of hard work each match. However, if you master this style of play, it is one of the hardest styles of tennis to beat at almost all levels of the game.
The inside-out forehand requires a lot of instruction, repetition and practice to perfect the above tennis patterns of play. Master this style of play with the best private tennis coaches such as TAG Coach Jeremy Maniago from the best tennis academy in Singapore, TAG International Tennis Academy by taking private tennis lessons. We can be contacted at +6598395232, or contact us HERE.
We hope you have found this article informative and helpful. This article is part of the TAG Definitive Guide Series which encompasses the best tennis tips available online. If you enjoyed this article, some other interesting tennis instruction articles you may like:
- Best tips to a reliable Double Backhand by TAG Coach Israel Abarquez
- Best tips to a powerful serve by TAG Coach Michael Mantua
- Best tips to a single backhand return of serve by TAG Coach Peter Egos
- Best left-hander tips by TAG Coach Parekh Pratim
- Best tips to a devastating one hande d backhand by TAG Coach Bo Alburo
- Best tips to a knee buckling drop shot by TAG Coach Ten Rapeepat
- Best tips to an effective Serve and Volley Game by TAG Coach Ray Evan
- 9 Best tips to an impregnable defence by TAG Coach Rocky Paglalunan
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