Comparison Of Forehand Groundstrokes

In this paper, I will compare the most basic skill in tennis, forehand groundstroke from two sources, our textbook, ÐŽoGame, Set, Match, A Tennis GuideÐŽ± by James E. Bryant, and an article from the May, 1996 issue of Tennis magazine, ÐŽoBeckerЎЇs Booming ForehandÐŽ± by Tony Trabert.

Forehand groundstroke is probably the most common shot in tennis by far. It is crucial to the success in tennis. In our textbook, it mostly talked about the basics about the skills. For example, it talked about how one should hold the racket, the eastern forehand grip. How one should move ones feet and shoulders and so on. In TrabertЎЇs article, it concentrated on one famous playerЎЇs powerful forehand groundstroke, namely Boris BeckerЎЇs. This article didnЎЇt have as much detail on how to approach the shot as the textbook does. In addition, Becker used a western grip as compare to the standard eastern grip that suggested by our textbook.

One major difference between the two sources is how detailed they were. The textbookЎЇs intended audiences were beginner tennis players, so it focused on the details of the basics. For instance, Bryant wrote, ÐŽoThe basic forehand groundstroke has three stages: preparing to hit the ball, contacting the ball, and following through. Each stage must be performed in sequenceÐŽ± (13). And after that, he talked about each stage in more details and illustrated with pictures. In fact, the book even included a chart about Learning Experience Suggestions and a chart about how one can eliminate common errors in the end. Both charts were very helpful to beginners by the way. Well, to me at least. At the very end, the textbook also talked about how to hit a forehand slice groundstroke and a forehand topspin groundstroke. Although they are also illustrated with pictures, the book did not go into nearly as much details as it did on the basic forehand groundstroke.

On the other hand, TrabertЎЇs intended audiences were the more experience players. Therefore his article didnЎЇt talk much about the basics of the shot. Instead, it used BeckerЎЇs shot as an example to show how one could hit a powerful