Tennis stances for attacking forehand and backhand shots

Check out our tennis lesson to learn tennis stances for attacking shots.

In today's tennis lesson we are going to show you tennis stances and correct footwork in order to successfully attack the ball and take control of the point. Javi is demonstrating the stances on both forehand and backhand sides. He is explaining how to put your feet correctly and technically execute the shot for each stance.

If you are an intermediate player who is looking to learn how to hit more attacking shots in a tennis match, this video will greatly help you structure the available footwork options for that. After watching this video you will be better prepared to hit aggressive shots that put pressure on your opponent.

What is an attacking tennis stance?

In tennis, everything starts from the feet and players with great footwork will have a cutting edge over their opponents. There are many areas of tennis footwork including speed, agility, coordination, changes of direction, acceleration, deceleration and last but not least, the tennis stances.

A stance in tennis is the way you place your feet and load your body weight before you hit the ball. As a general guideline there are four different stances which are neutral, closed, semi-open and open. Within those four options we can list basic beginners stances and more advanced modified stances such as attacking or defensive stances.

An attacking tennis stance is the one that allows you to generate more power to hit a strong, aggressive shot. It is a stance where a player can effectively store and release the energy through a sequence of upward and forward body movements and rotations thus creating linear and angular momenta which consequently transfer power into the shot.

An attacking tennis stance helps a player create more powerful shots.

Attacking tennis stances for the forehand

There are two main tennis stances that should be used to attack the ball on the forehand side: the semi-open stance with a jump forward and the neutral stance with a jump forward. The first, semi-open stance, is usually used to hit balls in the back of the court, close to the baseline or at 3/4 of the court. The second, neutral stance, is more for the mid-court play for shorted balls and when a player is approaching the net.

Check out our tennis lesson to learn tennis stances for attacking shots.

SEMI-OPEN stance with JUMP forward

In terms of feet position this stance is somewhere between the open and the neutral stance. Your feet should be positioned at about 45 degrees to the baseline. When you coil and turn your upper body to the right while keeping your feet at that angle, you start storing elastic energy in your muscles. This energy is released when you uncoil the body forward. It is passed on to the racket as power when making contact with the ball.

put your right leg outside towards the ball, load and stabilize on it
keep the right foot a bit behind the left
when impacting the ball rotate your hips and feet
land on the left leg
lift the right leg backwards for balance

Forehand stance 1.1

Semi-open stance with a jump forward

from behind the baseline

Forehand stance 1.2

Semi-open stance with a jump forward

from the baseline

Forehand stance 1.3

Semi-open stance with a jump forward

from 3/4 of the court

NEUTRAL stance with JUMP forward

In this stance you should stay sideways to the net, therefore your feet should be positioned at about 90 degrees to the baseline. Prepare a short backswing as you are closer to the net. At the same time as you swing at the ball, jump forward and land on the front leg, lifting the right leg backwards to help you stay balanced. The objective is to transfer the bodyweight forward and have more power. In this way you step into the court taking advantage of the short bounce of the ball and go up to the net to hit volleys. Consequently, this shot is also called an approach shot.

place your feet, hips and shoulders sideways
prepare short backswing
when impacting the ball transfer bodyweight forward
load on the front foot, jump forward and land on the same foot
lift the right leg backwards for balance

Forehand stance 2.1

Neutral stance with a jump forward

approach shot

Forehand stance 2.2

Neutral stance with a jump forward

from the mid-court

Attacking tennis stances for the backhand

On the backhand side, we also have two main tennis stances that players use to attack the ball: the closed stance and the neutral stance with a jump forward. The first, closed stance, is usually used to hit balls in the back of the court, close to the baseline or at 3/4 of the court. The second, neutral stance, is more for the mid-court play for shorted balls and when a player is approaching the net.

CLOSED stance with LEG LIFT

The closed stance is the most common stance used for backhand. In this stance you should place your body laterally where both feet point to the left side of the court. When you turn the upper body to the left in preparation for the shot, you close from the court, so in order to look at the coming ball you must turn your head to the right and put your chin over your right shoulder. Prepare the racket upright and high in order to hit the ball at shoulder or chest height. When striking the ball raise the left leg backwards so that you raise the body and attack from above.

turn your upper body to the left
load on the right leg
when impacting the ball lift the left leg backwards for stability
after the strike step out to the side with your back leg
pivot and return to the middle

Two-handed backhand stance

Closed stance with a leg lift

behind the baseline

One-handed backhand stance

Closed stance with a leg lift

from the baseline

NEUTRAL stance with JUMP forward

place your feet, hips and shoulders sideways
prepare short backswing
when impacting the ball transfer bodyweight forward
load on the front foot, jump forward and land on the same foot
lift the left leg backwards for balance

One-handed backhand stance

Neutral stance with a jump forward

from the mid-court

Key takeaways

Check out our tennis lesson to learn tennis stances for attacking shots.

The main learning points from this tennis lesson for beginners are:

It is possible to attack the ball from any place on court as long as you are in a comfortable position to hit it.
There are 2 attacking stances for the forehand and 2 for the backhand that depend on the depth of the ball from your opponent.
When you hit an attacking forehand from the baseline you should use semi-open stance and impact the ball at your shoulder or chest level, so higher than when you play a normal ball.
For an attacking backhand from the baseline you should use closed stance, lean forward, hit and lift the back foot.
In case of attacking shots from the mid-court you should use neutral stance, prepare a short backswing, and jump forward when you hit the ball.

Hi guys! How are you? It is Javier from fitintennis.com. Today we’re gonna talk about attacking stances. We’ll start from the baseline, and slowly progress forward. You can attack a ball from any part of the court, it all depends on what kind of ball your opponent hits. So we’ll start with the most difficult situations, the furthest ones, and move on to the ones closer to the net which are the winners to end points.

We will start at the back of the court, then we will go to the baseline, then to 3/4 of the court, for which there are two different types of balls, and then we’ll go to mid-court.

The stances are very similar for shots from behind the baseline, the baseline, and the two ways to do the ones at 3/4s. This would be an open stance, or even better - semi-open. The important thing is when I prepare, as a right-hander, I put all the weight and pressure onto the right leg, and turn the hips, turn the shoulders back, and place the racket, if I am further back it will be a more open swing, and as I move into the court, I shorten the backswing. I shorten it because as I have less court to hit into and can use the power of the opponent’s strike, I won’t need to use that much power.

The stance is semi-open, always loading heavier on the right leg. We coil the body from the feet to the shoulders, so that later when this leg moves forward - the right leg, the knee, the hip, everything uncoils forwards, and you have to jump. Why? Because if I jump, I hit from above, because the attacking balls are hit from above. The majority at shoulder-height, if possible, so as to have a better height and angle. This is for when the ball is dropping at shoulder height, and when I hit as it’s rising, which is the other of the two ways to attack from the 3/4 position, as I mentioned before there were two - one is when it drops at shoulder height and another is when it is rising - I would hit at chest height. Why? Because it's rising. If I let it rise too much, it becomes more complicated and usually results in an error.

In all of these, you have to jump. Strong support, jump, and turn. Land on the left leg, while the right one is lifted and stays behind, why behind? To help me stay balanced. Why jump? Because I need to hit a high ball. So if I need more height, I need to jump to produce more energy.

In the mid-court, which is a short ball, it is already a shot in which we are going to finish the point or where we can do an approach to the net. It is a ball that can be hit both from high or low, it also depends a bit on the opponent, how they have hit it. The point is to arrive and throw yourself at the ball. The stance is the same, it would be sideways. All the force is on the left leg, and I would jump towards the ball. I start running towards the ball, I turn sideways, short backswing, and there I jump and land the same way. Then I continue running. Maybe for setting up a point, maybe for approaching the net. It’s important to remember that when you jump, keep the right leg behind so that it helps my body stay balanced. If the leg goes out, the body loses balance and I would probably make an error. These are the forehand stances. For the backhand it's more or less the same.

From the back of the court, we don't need to jump because the ball isn't short, for now from the back of the court, with both one and two-handed backhands, just bending and lifting the back leg for balance is enough. For the one-handed backhand it's the same - which leg do I load on? I should try to load more on the right. Here my whole body should go forwards, and here I would bend, and then go upwards, to hit the ball from the top, to have a good angle of attack. It’s important to always remember to bend the knees in tennis. Even more so when attacking a high ball. For the backhand, as we mentioned before, you don’t need to jump at least not for the balls at the back, on the baseline, or at 3/4.

At mid-court it becomes useful to jump. Why? Because I’m already travelling a long distance, and I need to throw myself at the ball to hit a winner or to go to the net. So with two-hands that would mean - running towards the ball, turning sideways, and jumping here. For one-handed it’s the same, the force onto the right leg. To generate power we would coil the body from the ground upwards, turning the core, turning the shoulders, keeping the backswing short because we are at mid-court, and then I would have to jump when hitting. I would jump, end up on the right leg - the left would keep me in balance - and then I would keep going forward to volley, or if the point is finished, it's over. But the point is to accompany the shot. I can hit this ball both from below and from above. The stance is the same, it doesn't matter if the ball is higher or lower.

Well guys, I hope you liked the props that we have taught you. If you have any questions or there's a ball where you're not sure what the exact stance is for executing a good shot, you can write us a comment and from there I can help you and give you an explanation of what support I would use to hit that kind of balls. Thank you very much, see you next time, bye guys!

All tennis stances for attacking shots on forehand and backhand

What is an attacking tennis stance?

Attacking tennis stances for the forehand

SEMI-OPEN stance with JUMP forward

Forehand stance 1.1

Forehand stance 1.2

Forehand stance 1.3

NEUTRAL stance with JUMP forward

Forehand stance 2.1

Forehand stance 2.2

Attacking tennis stances for the backhand

CLOSED stance with LEG LIFT

Two-handed backhand stance

One-handed backhand stance

NEUTRAL stance with JUMP forward

One-handed backhand stance

Key takeaways

All about tennis footwork

All tennis stances for attacking shots on forehand and backhand

Learn 4 basic tennis stances for forehand and backhand

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