Closed stance

The closed stance has the feet and body turned sideways to the net. It is sometimes also referred to as the classic stance. This is because during the wooden racket days when people played more matches on grass and more commonly used the eastern and continental grips, the closed stance was the way to hit almost all ground strokes.

The closed stance can be used on either forehand or backhand shots but is only recommended when a player is chasing down a ball on the run or is forced wide.

How: This stance closes the hips preventing them from rotating, and also requires extra recovery steps before any rotation from the shoulders or trunk can take place. Limited control, power, options, and slower recovery time are other drawbacks of this stance.

It involves the left foot (for the right-handed) stepping across and being the outside foot taking all of the weight, so the majority of the power has to be generated through the arms.

Points to remember: This stance often has to be used when a player has been caught off-balance, breathing relaxes the body and allows for better footwork, which lessens the chance of being off balance. So remember to breathe.

Breathing can also help with racket speed. Players should exhale as they start the forward motion as this can also reduce overall tightness.

It is also one of the best ways to combat nerves so breathing through and between points is very important.

The main advantage of this stance is that in ensures complete and proper shoulder and body turn. However, there are some situations where it is not always possible because of lack of time. Also, on some strokes, the positioning of the feet on the closed stance limits the uncoiling of the body into the shot since the front leg gets in the way of completing the follow through.

In the older days, the follow through usually ended forward from the body in the direction of the ball so this wasn’t much of a problem as it is now for the more modern style.

Also, in today’s game, shoulder turn is only one element of the full body turn needed to hit a world class forehand. Today, players are learning to develop a full body coil in addition to the sideways turn of the shoulder.