How to Teach Forehand Drive - Beginner Lessons
1. Let the trainee do forehand shadow drills first before going to the multi-ball phase 30/set of 3 sets.
2. At the start of the lesson, emphasize more on maintaining the proper posture of the body and the position of the arm holding the racket.
3.Feet apart with left foot slightly more forward than the right foot (assuming you are right handed). Width of the between the each foot is supposedly the width a little wider than the width of your shoulders.
4. Maintain bent knees while the body leans forward. Teach the player that having bent knees but with a straight back will cause your knees and leg muscles to tire faster and the position is uncomfortable to players. This is solved by leaning forward.
5. Check the position of the elbow that it should be on a wide V position. At first do not emphasize extending the playing arm just to let the player concentrate more on hitting the ball first. Gradually, as the player learns swinging the arm, encourage him to slightly let the player extend the arm while doing backswing. Remind the player not to fully extend the elbow when doing backswing. There should be a space between the side of the body and the elbow like 5-8 inches depending on the body size. The elbow should not be pointing downward, It should be pointing diagonally downward towards the back.
6. Teach the player the importance of pivoting or turning the torso towards the right (if you are right handed). Let him hit the ball when the ball is at the side of his body.
7. Teach the player to wait for the ball to reach his side of the body when hitting it as this helps with proper timing.
8. Follow through is after hitting the ball the playing arm is at the position of almost a "salute position".
9. The angle of the bat when hitting the ball is at 30-45 degrees.
10. The most difficult part of the lesson is to master the pivoting or turning of the torso when doing backswing and then returning to the proper position by pivoting the body back to the ready position. Teach the player to learn weight shifting.
11. Weight shifting is when you transfer your weight from one foot to the other foot while turning the body. When the body is at ready position both feet have almost the same weight distribution. When the player does backswing, 80% of the weight is at the back foot. When you are pivoting back to the ready position, the weight transfers to the lead foot and then the weight is distributed back equally to both feet.
12. Teach weight shifting by emphasizing the use of the torso, partially by turning the head slightly together with the body. Also, let the player use his free arm to coordinate with the turning of the body. The free arm is important part of body turning because it helps the perform the movement.
13. Feed the ball at a slower rate and then gradually at a faster and continuous when the skill increases. Make the bounce a little bit higher at first so that the ball is slower and easier to hit the ball.
14. On point of contacting the ball, do not let the player do brushing at first as this might complicate the ball for the him/her. As the skill progresses, introduce brushing the ball but this is when you are transitioning from forehand drive to practicing topspin drives.
15. Encourage and praise your trainee even if he partially does the stroke correctly as positive reinforcement encourages a player to learn more.
N.B. - trainee is just on his 3rd day of training.