The Reverse Forehand
Revisited

Robert Lansdorp

A few years ago, I wrote an article for Tennisplayer on the "Reverse Forehand."  It was the first article that really explained the shot, which has become one of the most important shots in pro tennis.  I called it the reverse forehand because during the followthrough the racket goes upward and backward, finishing on the right side of the player's body. (Click Here.)

I pointed out how players I had trained like Lindsay Davenport and Pete Sampras used the shot, and explained the mechanics of hitting it.  At the time I also predicted that one day, a player would come along who would hit the reverse forehand almost as his normal forehand.  And now that day seems to have arrived with Rafael Nadal. 

But, after all these years, it still amazes me how poorly the reverse forehand is understood by the so-called experts.  You never read about the reverse forehand in the magazines. You never hear any of the television commentators talk about it.  This is because the "experts" never take the time to study it, so they don't understand what they see.  

People never understood that the reverse finish was the key to Sampras's running forehand.  They'd talk about how he curves the ball into court, but nobody understood how he was doing it. All they knew is the ball was curving in the court. They didn't know he was reversing to make it happen.

The experts don't see the pivotal role it plays in the one of the most important match ups in the current game either. This is Rafael Nadal's ability to exploit Roger Federer's backhand, something I'll explain more about below.

It's the same at some of the big academies.  They don't understand the reverse, and they don't teach it.  If you hit a reverse forehand, they make you run around the lake. But they should be talking about the reverse, and they should be teaching it.  They are doing their players a disservice if they aren't. 

This may seem like a strong statement, but I feel teaching players the reverse is actually more important than teaching players the slice.  Of course you need to learn how to slice.  But the benefits of knowing how to hit the reverse forehand are greater. Being able to hit a reverse forehand can save you 10 points a set.  That's more than enough to change who wins most matches.

You don't have to look any further that Maria Sharapova's victory over Serena Williams at Wimbledon to understand how this works.  The toughness of Maria was huge, and also that she was serving well.  But what wasn't understood was how Maria used the reverse forehand to deal with Serena's power, even in the center of the court.  She also hit two reverse lobs at critical times. 

That was the payoff of a lot of developmental work over the years with Maria, in which I trained her to hit the reverse as a regular part of her game and to go back and forth between the reverse and her regular forehand.  And you know what? Now you see Serena reversing the forehand as well.

Jennifer Capriati is another great example.  She had one of the greatest forehands in the history of women's tennis. When Capriati was on top, she would reverse her forehand all the time. Nobody talked about it, and her reverse forehand was hit harder than you can imagine. She could rip the reverse. I still remember it.  So, it's not necessarily that the reverse is a slower shot.

I'm also sure that the reverse forehand isn't really new.  It's probably been around as long as the game itself.  All talented players have hit some type of reverse forehand in certain situations, even with wood rackets and continental grips.  It's always been there without people talking about it.

But when the game started becoming faster, that's when the reverse starting becoming more and more important. The pace of the ball has dictated that more players hit more reverse forehands. The deep hard balls, the hard low balls, the wide balls—they are all more suited to a reverse forehand.  Every player in pro tennis uses it at times.  Federer, Djokovic, Ivanovic, any player you want to name.

If you need any more proof that the shot is here to stay,  I've seen Federer hit a swinging forehand volley with a reverse finish You see other players like Maria do that as well.  But still no one is analyzing it or recognizing what is happening. 

I also think that with the more underneath grips in the pro game, the reverse is becoming even more prevalent.  It's more difficult to hit through the ball with the extreme grips when you are pulled wide or the ball is low. With the reverse, players with these grips can curve the ball into the court, or they can angle it.  With the reverse finish on these balls they actually seem to extend through the shot better.

With the extreme forehand grip, if you don't know how to reverse the forehand, I think you're in trouble. On a high ball, you don't have to necessarily reverse it.  But if it's a low, fast ball, you're dead if you don't have a reverse forehand.

The Secret of Reverse Spin

There is another major point that has been completely unrecognized about the reverse, which is the difference in the spin.  The difference is not in the amount of spin, but the type of spin.

When you hit a regular forehand topspin, the ball actually rotates more in a straight line.  It's more of a pure topspin.  But when you reverse it, it's not exactly the same spin.  When you reverse it, you get a combination of side spin and topspin on the ball.  The spin is different because you come across the ball a little bit different.

So with the reverse, the ball jumps and then moves. It doesn't jump and go straight. A regular topspin goes up, comes down, and goes up. The reverse spin comes in and then jumps away from you.  If you were trying to hit a backhand for example, it would jump and move away from you to your left. 

And this brings us to Nadal.  The reverse forehand is one big reason Federer has such a hard time with Nadal.  When Nadal hits the left-handed reverse forehand to Federer's backhand, the ball never sits in the same place. It jumps, and it jumps differently than a regular topspin.

A regular topspin, even if it's quite heavy, is not that difficult to time because the spin follows the line that the ball came on. But with Nadal, the ball jumps away.  I think that's why Federer cannot do enough with his high backhand against Nadal.

I've see the same thing when I feed in lessons.  I feed a regular topspin and then I feed the reverse.  And you can see the kids immediately having a more difficult time because of the way the ball jumps. 

It's true that on many balls, particularly on slower or medium paced courts, Nadal finishes around his shoulder, which is a normal finish considering his grip. But in my opinion Nadal doesn't get his game from hitting a great regular forehand drive. He gets his game from the reverse.

He hits more reverse forehands than anyone in the game, and this is especially true on fast courts where the percentage of reverses can be very high.  In the Tennisplayer videos you can see he hits it from everywhere on the court.  When the ball is fast, he reverses even out of the middle of the court. 

You can see the exact length and shape of Nadal's reverse finishes vary, depending on the ball, and where he is in the court.  When he can open up more through the shot, he will extend quite well and actually swing the racket over his head before going back to the opposite side.  But when he's reaching, or the ball is especially challenging, then he shortens it up, and just goes more straight up and then back on his left side.

Other Reverses

There are some other important applications of the reverse.  Reversed lobs for example.  The reverse forehand is the best way to hit a topspin lob. You see it all the time on TV. Almost every time you see a perfect lob, it's reversed.

Another application is in the approach shot.  The reverse works unbelievably well on the approach.  It seems that the timing is easier. The motion is a little quicker, a little more compact. And you get this natural topspin on it. You don't have to work the topspin as much.  You don't have the tendency to float the ball.

The footwork seems easier. When you hit a regular forehand, sometimes the feet don't quite follow the drive as much. But with the reverse, it all seems to fit. Sampras, Davenport, Maria, they all hit reverse approaches.

Once players understand the reverse, the reverse approach is simple. Once I see a player is able to hit a reverse forehand from the baseline I'll just hit them a short ball and say, "reverse it."  And maybe they miss the first one. But you don't have to explain that much. Once they understand the reverse, they adjust and make it work.

Teach It

With the extent that the shot is used in the game, you've got to teach the reverse. Let's see every player in the game uses it, not only at the baseline but to hit lobs, approaches and swinging volleys and you're not going to teach it?

To teach it, the first thing I tell players is to follow through on the same side as they're hitting from. I tell them to follow through on the right side if they're right-handed. That's the first thing I tell them.

And then I'll see what happens. And there are a lot of things that can go wrong. Sometimes maybe they'll hit the reverse and they pull their body to the left and they feel awkward. There are little pieces to watch for. But once they get the hang of it, you tell them to loosen up a little bit, not to be too tight. And then I tell them, get some topspin on it.

So, first I see how they manage the reverse, what it feels like and what kind of spin comes off the racket and where does the ball go. How they react to it depends on the type of player. Some kids are just drivers all the time, and some kids are spinners all the time, you know? So, when you have a spinner and you have a reverse, the ball probably will go pretty high. With those kids, you have to teach them to drive through the ball more, not come up as quick, but actually come through the ball and then make the reverse motion.

And then some kids are the opposite, they're always bangers. Those kids, you have to actually teach them to put a little more spin on it and sometimes get the ball a little bit higher over the net.

Next, I always teach them how to hit a reverse lob. It seems the reverse lob is a natural shot, so you don't have to spend a lot of time with a kid to actually get some very good reverse topspin lobs. They seem to naturally understand what they can do. I think they actually improve the regular reverse by feeling what it's like to hit a topspin reverse lob.

Going back many years, I have always incorporated the reverse into my regular teaching and feeding.  For example, I'll have a player hit regular drives, then suddenly I'll change and have him hit a series of reverses, and then back and forth.  Then I have them hit reverse lobs, then regular drives.  That's exactly the way I did it with Maria.  I want the reverse to become a completely natural part of what they do.

And then you know what? When the times come in a match, the players just seem to decide on their own when the best time is to drive and the best time is to reverse.  What happens is the kids will actually pick the shot. They don't even know they're doing it. They just do it at the right time.

As I said in my article on the three forehand finishes, players need to have a variety of options about how they followthrough.  (Click Here.) You need to train them to hit them all, including the reverse.  That's the only way to give them the tools they need to compete in the game the way it's played today.