From Theory to Habit: Develop Your Fault Tolerant Forehand

This website, and our YouTube channel, which will always remain free, are meant to grant you novel insights into the game of tennis. To give you that “aha” moment, where something feels great in a way it never did before.

How do you actually build those novel insights into repeatable, dependable habits that you can take onto the court?

That’s what our forehand development program will guide you through. The training techniques contained herein will drastically improve the quality of your practice, and that improved practice will then transform your stroke.

To join us, email us coaches@faulttoleranttennis. We’ll chat about your tennis, your goals, and your forehand, and then get you set up.

Repeatable, dependable habits.

Much of the things you’ll find in other online programs – things like discussions of biomechanical principles or stroke analysis of the pros – you can find completely free on this site, and on our YouTube channel. By this point, if you’ve been following our work, you have have at least a general idea of what you’re trying to do on the forehand side.

What’s missing is the how, and this program will guide you through it, for your body, your game, and your style.

Who Should Sign Up?

There is no quick fix for the forehand. This program will improve the way you are practicing your forehand, and then, over the course of many practice sessions, the forehand itself will get better and better. As such, this process only works for the kind of person who enjoys working toward a goal, and gets motivated by incremental progress along the way.

You Love Training

Not everyone enjoys practicing and training, which is perfectly fine. Many just want to get on the court, hit around a bit, take a few volleys and serves, and play a match. That’s an entirely valid way to enjoy the game of tennis, but if that’s you, then this is not the right program for you.

Hitting lots and lots of forehands will make the stroke you currently have marginally better, but in order to truly develop that stroke into the fault tolerant, explosive kind that you want, you’ll need to train off-court. The workouts you’ll receive will be brief and dense, but they will be workouts. They’ll be more challenging, especially more physically challenging, than casual tennis is.

Much of the program involves experimenting – playing around with a certain movement until it feels right, and then repping it out once you’re confident in that feeling. This process trains both your brain, to produce that movement on command, and your body, to produce that movement effectively. The off-court work will ultimately lead to an absolutely phenomenal feeling on court, but it requires patience and effort to get there. For some, this kind of training sounds exciting, while for others, it sounds tedious. This program is for the former kind of person.

You’re a Scientist at Heart

This program is for experimenters, people who love tinkering, testing, and improving things. Alexa and I will work along with you, but, fundamentally, only you have access to how your tennis feels from the inside, and that is your greatest asset when trying to improve.

Only you have access to how your tennis feels from the inside.

The drills contained herein are designed to get you to feel your own body and stroke. They’ll provide you with a maximally stimulating and productive environment to practice in, but that’s only useful if you enjoy the act of learning in that environment.

Do You Have Time?

We’ve helped train adults who lead busy lives. Your time is limited and valuable. The forehand workouts we’ve designed are dense, granting you maximal possible training benefit in minimal possible time.

Off-court workouts will take about 15 minutes, and will be most effective when performed 4 times per week. Actually hitting the ball is also, of course, very important. Realistically, you’ll need to hit at least twice per week in order to make meaningful progress towards a heavy, fast, fault tolerant forehand, and more is better.

Off-court work will take about 15 minutes.

Tennis is a complex sport requiring complex movement patterns, and complex movement patters require repetition to habituate. If you have access to a wall or a ball machine, that’s fantastic, because we know it can be difficult to find consistent hitting partners.

Program Resources

After signing up, you’ll immediately get access to our community, and to the entire forehand development program. We’ll help you ease into the physical training to prevent injury, and work with you to develop a practice schedule that fits your unique life and tennis goals. Here’s a more detailed breakdown of what you’ll have.

1. Video Demos of Drills/Workouts

We demo the drills you’ll use to train, explaining exactly why we use them and what makes them work. We’ll explain how to perform them in such a way that will generate the best possible training stimulus, and what to focus on so that your practice is maximally efficient.

2. Programming Guidance

There are two kinds of iterative video analysis we’ll use. The first kind involves looking at your match footage. Often, areas for improvement reveal themselves on the match court in a way that’s hidden during non-competitive hitting.

Everyone is has different strengths and weaknesses on the forehand. Some really need to work on their chest activation, others on getting the glutes to fire, others on connecting their eyes and feet to their swing, etc. Watching your competitive points shows us (and you) which camp you’re in. Of all the exercises and drills used in the program, we’ll help you knit them together into the workouts that’ll help you, on your particular forehand journey, the most efficiently.

3. Workout Analysis

We want to make sure you’re executing your training in a way that’s going to give you maximal benefit. Even though each training movement is intentionally simpler than the forehand itself, they’re still technically demanding movements, and getting that technique right is what makes the practice really shine.

Ultimately, you’ll master the technical elements each, but it likely won’t start out that way. Any time you’d like to check yourself, you’ll record a workout and send it to us. We’ll check for the critical technical elements of each, to make sure you’re on the right track.

4. Ongoing Correspondence

Lastly, you’ll probably have questions. Each member will have a private chat with You, Johnny, and Alexa to ask any assorted questions, and to post your video links. Occasionally, when necessary, we can even set up a video call to explain something that’s been particularly tricky for you.

The program is designed to take 4 months. After signing up, you’ll have access to the video library and community forever, and you’ll have access to personal correspondence with Johnny and Alexa for 4 months. After that time, you’ll have mastered the techniques in the program, and you’ll be able to evaluate your stroke, and train it effectively, totally on your own.

We do offer ongoing personal consultation for $20/month after that, but by that point, we don’t expect you’ll need it.

How Much is It?

The total cost for the program is about $550.

You pay us $500, and you may need another ~$50 for various simple pieces of equipment (like a medicine ball, resistance bands, stuff like that). We’ll give you recommendations if you don’t know what to buy.

But wait, aren’t other forehand courses usually $250, $200, or occasionally as low as $100? Why is this program $500?

The difference, simply put, is that this program works. Within four months, your forehand will be meaningfully, competitively better, and it’ll be really, really fun using it against players that used to beat you. Not only that, but you’ll have a coherent model for how to foster continuous improvement – from the moment you sign up, your forehand will get a little better, day-by-day, for as long as you decide to continue training.

On our website and channel, we explain biomechanics entirely for free. Want to know exactly how the pros play so well? Read any of our articles, or watch any of our videos. You’re not paying us for how they do it. You’re paying us to help you do it. In this program, you’ll work along side Alexa and me to develop your stroke, in a way that makes sense to you, while still building it off of the core fundamentals that’ll make it explosive and fault tolerant.

Email Us

Write us coaches@faulttoleranttennis.com if you’re interested. Even if you just want to tell us about your tennis, email us! We’d love to hear from you.

Below is an email I received from MJ, a 56-year-old photographer in New York, who worked with us after going 2-6 during his 2023 4.0 USTA season. Fast forward to 2024, and he’s been computer bumped to 4.5, with a record of 15-3, including a massive win at 4.0 sectionals.

Hi Coach,

I wanted to share some really exciting news with you, since you and your book had such a profound impact on my forehand for the past month. I just played 10 hours of tennis in the Men’s 4.0 USTA Eastern championships. I WON my final match!!!! 6-7 (9-11) 6-1, 1-0 (10-6) Most intense match ever. I hit the most insane drop shot and then won the match with a volley winner! I am SO HAPPY!!!!!!!!!!!!! I WON all MY EASTERN CHAMPIONSHIP MATCHES!!!!!!

BUT the real winner was my forehand and what YOU were able to do from your book and YouTube videos (and the weighted shadow swings). My forehand was on feugo! Ripping cross-courts with such FAULT-TOLERANCE – I just waited until I got my short ball.

MJ

Your own forehand transformation is right around the corner.

Email us coaches@faulttoleranttennis.com, and we’ll get you set up.

We can’t wait to work with you.