Friday, 09 June 2017 / Published in ATP Tour, Rafael Nadal, Roland Garros

Rafael Nadal’s Phenomenal Forehand

It’s a sledgehammer / French = marteau de forgery

G’day from Roland Garros!

Rafael Nadal is blasting his way through the 2017 French Open draw. He is now in the semi-finals and will battle No. 6 seed Dominic Thiem for a spot in the final.

The beating heart of Nadal’s dominance is his forehand. The Nadal forehand has accounted for 61 groundstroke winners so far and forced many more errors.

So, how is Nadal hitting his winners? Where is he standing? Where are they being directed to? Is he standing inside the baseline? Glad you asked 🙂

There are seven separate focus points to the brilliance of Nadal’s forehand. The first thing to understand is to simplify the baseline. I cut it into FOUR equal areas – A, B, C, and D. Position A is always out wide in the Deuce court. The areas always stay the same, regardless of a left-handed or right-handed player.

Nadal Forehand Baseline Locations

We’ll break down our Nadal forehand analysis using these four locations.

FOCUS 1: Where Are Nadal’s Forehands Going?

Nadal loves to rally to the backhand side of his right-handed opponent. That means trading blows through the Ad court. But that’s not where he finishes – by a long shot. Here’s the breakdown of winner locations.

Baseline Winners

To Position A = 44 (72%)
To Position D = 17 (28%)

Almost three out of four forehand winners go to THE OPPONENT’S FOREHAND! This particular strategy works at all levels of our sport. You primarily rally to the backhand – which is not as potent. The opponent may miss less on their backhand, but you will get hurt less. You rally there to move your opponent back with depth. Then you move them wide. That opens up a big hole in… Position A. Yes, can also copy this strategy at home!

FOCUS 2 – Where Is Nadal Standing?

Nadal hits forehand winners from everywhere on the court. Here’s where he stood when he made contact with the 61 forehand winners.

Position A = 8 (13%)
Position B = 19 (31%)
Position C = 14 (23%)
Position D = 20 (33%)

Position D is the narrow winner. In the past two weeks, Rafa has really been feeling the running forehand out wide in the Ad court. The other area is run-around forehands in Position B. Opponents are trying to get it to his backhand, but a couple of shuffle steps later, and Nadal is pole-axing a forehand winner.

FOCUS 3 – Nadal Hits Forehands To Position A

As we know, the vast majority of forehand winners go to Position A. Here is where he is standing when they go to A.

From A to A = 3 (7%)
From B to A = 10 (23%)
From C to A = 12 (27%
From D to A = 19 (43%)

Wow! The down-the-line forehand from Position D to Position A is what he is feeling the most. Down the line forehand winners are not easy, but Nadal is crushing them so far this year at Roland Garros.

Now, let’s COMBINE A and B as a Deuce court category and C and D as Ad court.

From Deuce Court to A (cross court) = 13 (30%)
From Ad Court to A (down the line) = 31 (70%)

This is very telling. Nadal typically stands in the Ad court and crushes forehands cross court to his right-handed opponent’s backhand. He is still doing that at the beginning of the point. We now know, from that same court position, that he wants to change directions with the forehand for a winner down the line as well.

FOCUS 4 – Nadal Also Hits Forehands To Position D

Twenty-eight percent of total forehand winners went to this location. Let’s see where he was standing when he went there.

From A to D = 5 (29%)
From B to D = 9 (53%)
From C to D = 2 (12%)
From D to D = 1 (6%)

The key here is the disguise of the run-around forehand. The opponent hits the ball to Position B to hopefully make Rafa hit a backhand. He doesn’t. He runs around it, and now the open-stance of the forehand wonderfully disguises his intentions. Opponents think cross court, probably to Position A. As soon as they lean towards A, Rafa pulls the trigger to D, wrong-footing them.

FOCUS 5 – Serving / Receiving

What happens before the forehand winner matters. For instance, is he serving or receiving? Well, here’s the breakdown.

Serving = 35 (57%)
Returning = 26 (43%)

Nadal is having more success hitting forehand winners behind his serve. The serve instantly puts the opponent on defense, and then Nadal can lean on the ball much easier. Makes perfect sense. This dynamic is alive at all levels of the game.

FOCUS 6 – Nadal Forehands Come Inside & Behind the Baseline

Look at Nadal when he is returning. He stands sooo deep in the court to let the speed of the serve slow down, allowing him to make a bucket load of returns. But he does not stay back there. In fact, most of his forehand winners are actually hit standing inside the baseline.

Standing Inside The Baseline = 34 (56%)
Standing Behind the Baseline = 27 (44%)

This is so important to note. Nadal is not just a deep grinder. He may start back, but he is moving forward or “climbing the ladder” up the court as much as possible. Of the 34 winners he hit standing inside the baseline, 18 were approach shot winners he hit while on the way to the net to finish the point.

FOCUS 7 – Rally Length

The longer the rally goes, the more Rafa gains control. This is probably the most impressive stat of all. The following data is only for rallies of double digits – 10 shots or longer.

Forehand Winners in 10+ Shots Rallies

Rafael Nadal = 16
Opponents = 2

That’s mind-blowing. The longer the rally, the chance of Rafa’s opponents out-working and/or outmaneuvering him drops dramatically. You either attack Rafa early or not at all.

Average Rally Length When Forehand Winner Hit

Rafael Nadal = 7.0 shots
Opponents = 4.6 shots

A rally of four shots means that each player hits only two shots each – and one of them will be the serve or return. So, the best time to hit a forehand winner against Nadal is the first shot after the serve or return, called Serve +1 or Return +1. Once it gets past there, you may as well grab the ball and hit it up into the upper deck of Phillippe Chartier.

Rafael Nadal Forehand Analysis

Without Positions A through D, the baseline is just a big paddock. You have to break it down to understand it, which makes it much simpler to learn.

Dominic Thiem plays Rafa in today’s second semi-final – not before 3.30 pm. These exact same forehand patterns of play that Rafa has enforced to the semi-final will also be on full display against Thiem. Rafa will try and bully Thiem’s backhand in an Ad court with a forehand to backhand exchange. When Thiem ultimately drops a ball short, Rafa is going to move up and rip it down the line. Look for it. It will most certainly be there.

Positions A, B, C, and D are explained in greater detail in the 25 Golden Rules of Singles Strategy.

Cheers from Paris,

Craig

The practice court is clearly broken. Here’s the proof.

Points are "front loaded". By far the majority of the action, and the winning, takes place in THE FIRST 4 SHOTS. The practice court is full of long rallies. Matches are dominated by short rallies. There is a massive disconnect occurring.

We spend too much time grinding, banging balls up and down the middle of the court – that have no real benefit to winning tennis matches.

There are 3 specific rally lengths in tennis. Here is their percentage breakdown of total points.

0-4 Shots = 70%
5-8 Shots = 20%
9+ Shots = 10%

The First 4 Shots is specifically the serve, return, Serve +1 groundstroke and Return +1 groundstroke. Those are normally the shots that get practiced the least, but matter the most to winning tennis matches.

The net is an extremely high percentage place to be!

If you love playing tennis for fun, spend as much time at the baseline as you like. But if you compete – if the score matters – then you must turn your attention to the net to maximize your potential.

The “herd mentality” in tennis thinks it’s too tough to approach the net in today’s game. The conversation starts with improved string technology, more powerful rackets, and finishes with stronger, faster athletes. The herd think approaching is a relic of the past. The herd is WRONG!

AVERAGE WIN %
Baseline = 46%
Net = 66%

Data from ALL Grand Slams provides the facts about approach and volley, and the data is crystal clear – it’s immensely better than staying back at the baseline, grinding for a living.

The baseline is a tough place to create separation. Here's how to do it.

At the 2012 US Open, only 7 men and 14 women had a winning percentage from the baseline. At Wimbledon 2016, Andy Murray won the title only winning 52% of his baseline points - and he is one of the very best at it in the world!

Num3ers deeply explores the data that rules points, especially from the back of the court. Take a "deep dive" into all three rally lengths (0-4, 5-8, 9+), and winner and errors totals from the elite level of our game. The numbers will shock you!

All 4 Grand Slams

Forcing Errors = 41% Men / 37% Women
Winners = 32% Men / 29% Women
Unforced Errors = 27% Men / 34% Women

Num3ers is very much like putting a jigsaw puzzle together. It's about bringing together different data sets together to create the big picture.

Every recorded match from the 2015 Australian Open - Rd2 to the final.

There is a lot happening on a doubles court. Situations and strategies are constantly being adjusted to create mis-matches with court position. It's hard to keep track of - until now. Dou8les Num3ers is the most comprehensive analysis of doubles data in our sport. The focus is on how a point ends, and it's broken down eight ways to Sunday. Specifically, you find critical information on:

Winners rise to the #1 way a point ends (over forced & unforced errors)

- The last shot of the rally is overwhelmingly struck at the net.
- Center Window: the most important part of a doubles court to control.
- Stephen Huss: an in-depth interview on Wimbledon's Centre Court with the 2005 Wimbledon Doubles Champion.

Dou8les Num3ers leaves no stone unturned. Percentage breakdowns of how often the server or receiver hits the last shot highlight the dramatic influence of the serve. The last shot of the rally is significant, and is broken down into the following categories: volleys, overheads, passing shots, lobs and groundstrokes.

When you play a match, you actually play two matches.

When you walk out onto a tennis court, there are two matches that you are about to play. The first is during the point - a part of the match that you have spent a lot of time preparing for on the practice court. But there is a second match, that takes place in the 20 seconds between the points. This is where the mental and emotional aspects of our sport kick in.

Let's face it, there will be adversity in almost every tennis match that you play. The storm clouds are coming. How bug they are, and how long they last for, are up to you.

Between the points is very tennis specific. It provides a roadmap for the 20 seconds between the points, teaching how to handle the adversity that will surely come, and how to build on the successes that will also be present. Your mind is your biggest asset in a match, and Between the Points takes your hand off the self destruct button and stops you beating yourself.

You don't have to be good at everything, but you have got to be good at something.

You can break tennis down into four key elements - serving, returning, rallying and approaching. Each part has specific patterns of play that consistently deliver higher winning percentages than the others. No more guessing. No more opinions. All facets of our sport are covered in this exceptional product, clearly outlining what patterns to gravitate to, and how to best construct the practice court. Data comes primarily from the 2015 Australian Open.

Building Blocks

MEN = 70% errors / 30% winners
WOMEN = 74% errors / 26% winners

Forcing errors is the best way to construct a point.
You can simply break tennis down into primary and secondary patterns of play - and they are all covered here. Primary patterns include serve and return direction, forehands v backhands, and the best way to approach the net. Secondary patterns include drop shots, serve & volley and 1st volley options. If you play tournaments, this product will greatly help you simplify the singles court.

The conversation starts & ends with the Center Window.

The doubles court is like an hourglass. There are two big ends, but a small neck in the middle where all the action happens. Once you learn the power of the Center Window, where you stand to start the point will take on a lot more significance.

Doubles is a lot more about situations, with four people on the court all "dancing" with one another. Learn all the best doubles patterns, broken down for the server, returner, server's partner and the returner's partner.

Doubles Situations

The "J" - the most ideal movement for the returner's partner to attack the net.

The "V" - a better way of understanding where the server's partner should move to.

Volley Targets - there are four main areas to attack. Know which ones are higher percentage. Beach Volleyball - the idea of a "setter" and "spiker" is ideal for the doubles court.

There are certain parts of the court that the ball travels to a lot, and other low percentage areas that you really don't want to cover at all - like the alley! In general, the serving team wants to keep the ball in the middle of the court as much as possible (to help the server's partner), while the returning team benefits from hitting wider and creating more chaos in the point.

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