The Forehand

Quick Look

• Everything starts before the ball arrives: ready position and grip are the two things you set first.
• An eastern grip is the traditional choice for the forehand. Newer and younger players often go semi western or western.
• Two hands on the paddle in the ready position, with the off hand resting on the throat.
• The very first move once you read a forehand is the shoulder turn, not the step.
• First step is the power step with your dominant foot, landing wider than your ready stance.
• Stance sits between open and closed, somewhere in the middle for most balls.
• A compact backswing is more repeatable than a big loop, and it is the only option against a fast serve.
• Contact happens out in front of the body, swinging low to high with a slight wrist rollover for topspin.
• Finish across the body, then recover straight back to ready position.

Ready Position

I strongly believe the ready position is one of the keys to every shot in pickleball, and the forehand is no exception. Before the ball is even hit toward you, you want to be on your toes with a stance a little wider than shoulder width, knees bent, and weight forward. Being on your toes is what lets you push off in any direction without a wasted step.

Both hands are on the paddle. My off hand sits on the throat of the paddle. That off hand does real work: it helps guide the paddle back on the turn and keeps the paddle from drifting or getting lazy while you wait. It matters even more on the backhand, but I keep the same habit on the forehand side so the setup is identical no matter which side the ball goes to.

Grip

For the forehand I use a traditional eastern grip. Check the grips page for the full breakdown of the options and how each one changes the face angle. A lot of newer and younger players are coming in with much more of a semi western or full western grip, which naturally closes the face and helps them generate topspin. I grew up in a different era and the eastern grip is where I feel most comfortable and most consistent.

The point is not that one grip is universally correct. The point is that the grip needs to be set before the ball comes, not adjusted mid swing. Ready position and grip are the two things you handle in advance so that everything after that is reaction.

Stance

Once I read that the ball is coming to my forehand, the stance is already mostly built from the ready position: feet a little wider than shoulder width, knees bent, on the toes. From there I adjust into the shot.

I generally do not use a fully open stance and I do not use a heavily closed stance. I land somewhere in between. A fully closed stance gives you more shoulder coil and more power but costs you recovery time. A fully open stance is fast to set up and fast to recover from but gives up some rotation. The in between position is the compromise that works for the majority of balls you will see.

The Shoulder Turn

The very first thing I do when I see the ball coming to my forehand is twist the trunk. I turn my shoulders back. For a right handed player that means the right shoulder goes back. This happens before the step, before the paddle goes anywhere on its own.

The turn is what loads the shot. If you skip it and just push the paddle back with your arm, you are hitting an arm shot and you will feel the difference immediately in both power and consistency. The two hands on the paddle help here, because the off hand on the throat pulls the paddle back with the shoulders as one unit instead of letting the arm work independently.

Footwork

Footwork is the part that determines whether your contact point is any good, and contact point determines almost everything else. You are moving your feet so that the ball ends up exactly where you want it in relation to your body.

My first step is with my outer foot, which is the same side as my paddle hand. For a right handed player that is the right foot. I think of this as the power step. From the ready position I take one step with the dominant foot and place it wider than where I was standing. That step does two things at once: it gets me toward the ball and it deepens the load into that back leg.

The other foot then adjusts to set the stance, again somewhere between open and closed. Small adjustment steps after that are fine and expected. The goal is never to reach for the ball with your arm because your feet did not get there.

Backswing

This is the section where I will be honest about my own habits versus what I would actually teach.

As a kid I learned a big backswing, a large Nike swoosh or C shaped motion that drops low and then swings low to high to generate topspin. That is what is grooved into my body and it is what I still do when I have time and space.

I am not convinced that is the best backswing. A simpler and more compact backswing with less motion is more repeatable, and repeatable is what wins points. Less moving parts means less that can go wrong under pressure. If you are building your forehand now, I would build the compact version.

The exception makes the case for me. When I am facing someone with a serve that has real pace, I cannot afford the big loop. I minimize the backswing and just bring the paddle straight back and low with no big motion, purely to save time. If the compact backswing is what I fall back on when the shot actually matters, that tells you something about which version is more reliable.

Contact Point

Contact happens out in front of the body. Not beside you, not behind you. In front. This is the single most common thing that goes wrong on the forehand, and it is almost always a footwork problem showing up as a contact problem.

The swing path is low to high through the ball. As I strike it, my wrist is turning over slightly, just enough to help brush up the back of the ball and generate topspin. It is a small rollover, not a violent snap.

My off hand is out to the opposite side, floating in the air. I do not consciously place it there. As the paddle goes back, the off hand naturally moves the other way for balance, and it stays there as a counterweight through the swing.

Weight Transfer

On most forehands I do not step all the way through the ball. My back leg comes around so that I end up roughly horizontal to the net. That gives me power while keeping me balanced and ready to recover.

If you want maximum power, you can step all the way through the ball and drive your body weight forward into it. Stepping into the ball absolutely generates more power. The tradeoff is recovery time, so save it for the ball that deserves it.

Follow Through

I let the swing finish. The paddle continues up and across and ends on the opposite side of my body. Do not decelerate into contact and do not chop the swing off right after the ball leaves the face. A full follow through is what keeps the swing path consistent and the pace honest.

Recovery

The shot is not over when the ball leaves the paddle. From the follow through I go straight back into the ready position: feet set, knees bent, on the toes, both hands back on the paddle with the off hand on the throat. Every forehand ends where the next shot begins.

Key Takeaways

• Set your grip and ready position before the ball comes. Those are the two things you never want to be figuring out mid rally.
• Turn the shoulders first. The trunk twist is the trigger for the whole shot.
• Keep two hands on the paddle with the off hand on the throat until the swing starts.
• Take the power step with your dominant foot, then adjust into a stance between open and closed.
• Build a compact backswing. It is more repeatable, and it is what you will need against pace anyway.
• Make contact out in front, swing low to high, and let the wrist roll over slightly for topspin.
• Follow through fully across the body, then reset to ready position immediately.