Ernests Gulbis Forehand- Is it really that different??

Gulbis

Ernests Gulbis Forehand- Is it really that different??

By Jawad Bisharat

Berdych

Every time I watch Ernest Gulbis on televison I repeatedly hear the commentators discussing how awkward Ernests Gulbis's forehand is. One commentator went as far as saying "Dad paid a lot of money for that forehand". 

So I wanted to break down Gulbis's forehand for myself and see if it was really that different. After all he was ranked as high as 13 in the world, how bad could it be right? 

The reality is it is not bad at all. You will see by the pictures of Berdych, Murray, and Djokovic that Gulbis's forehand is very similiar and in someways better. That said, Ernest has been working with Larry Spefanki in Rancho Santa Fe, Ca to make his forhard more traditional. I saw a preview of his new forehand when he played for the San Diego Aviator's in the summer of last year. The main advantage of this new stroke is time. He has shortened his swing allowing his to prepare for on coming shots quicker. However, see below how the stroke was really not much different. 



Djokovic

Notice the similarity in the right arm of every player when preparing to hit the ball. Lets call this part 1. In part 1, all four players have their right arm nearly straight out towards the back fence as well as the face of the racket parallel with the ground. If I were to cover the faces of the players and showed you only part 1 of the take back you would not be able to determine who is who. Yes, I know Novak plays with Head and Gulbis Wilson, but you get my point. 



Murray

The commentators are either looking for something to talk about or merely focusing on Gulbis's left arm which he extends out towards the ball. They described Gulbis's preparation as " He looks like he is stopping traffic". 







Yes, this is not how the forehand is traditionally tought and looks akward at first glance. Players are tought to bring their left arm further across their body and more parallel with the baseline to create shoulder turn and body preperation. However, I would argue that Gulbis creates the same amount of shoulder rotation as any of the examples shown. 



Figure 1

See figure 1. If you were to draw a line from the tip of Gulbis's racket straight across his shoulders it would be nearly identical to Murray's eventhough Murray brings his left arm across his entire body. He is the opposite extreme as most players keep it at 90 degrees from their shoulder. 

 Now that I have shown how Gulbis's preperation is not far off convential and more popular forehands lets focus on point of contact. Thats what really matters right??

At contact all players have moved into the same and most common position to strike the ball. 

The elbow bends (Federer and Nadal do straighten their elbow at contact) and slides along the right hip. The player also allows the racket head to drop below their hand. This is important as they do not drop their hand much lower then the height of the ball. With the racket head dropped, they move their hand across the same plane as the ball giving them penetration and spin. 

Of coarse different situations will call for the stroke to be adjusted but in this illustration I clearly show that Gulbis's forehand is very similiar to those of the world's top players. It's not necessarily how you start the stroke but more importantly how you finish it.