Alright, so everyone who follows tennis even a little bit knows Mikhail Kukushkin. Or at least, they know of him, mostly because of that forehand. Commentators always point it out. “Unorthodox,” they say. “Unique.” “Don’t try this at home, kids.” And I always wondered, okay, it looks different, but what’s the actual deal? Is it a secret weapon or a massive handicap he just learned to live with?
So, like any good obsessive, I decided this was my mission. I wasn’t just going to watch a few clips on YouTube. Nah. I was going deep. I wanted to understand the mechanics, the supposed pros and cons, everything. My goal? Maybe write something about it, you know, beyond the usual “it’s just weird” take.
My “Scientific” Approach (Spoiler: It Involved a Lot of Rewinding)
First thing I did was try to find some actual technical breakdowns. You’d think with all the tennis coaches online, someone would have dissected it properly. Wrong. Mostly what I got was either super basic stuff or just warnings not to copy it. No real deep dive. Frustrating, to say the least.
So, I figured, fine, I’ll do it myself. I started downloading whatever match footage I could find. Not just the big ATP tournaments, but Challengers, qualifiers, you name it. If Kukushkin was playing, I wanted it. My hard drive started to complain. My internet bill probably wasn’t too happy either. I spent hours, and I mean hours, watching him. Slow-motion, frame-by-frame. My wife started giving me that look, you know, the “are you okay?” look. “Still on that Kukushkin guy?” she’d ask. Yep, still on him.
- Observation 1: The take-back is even stranger up close. It’s like he’s trying to scratch an itch on his back with the racquet. Very compact in some ways, but then this loopy, almost behind-the-body preparation.
- Observation 2: His contact point is surprisingly consistent, given the wind-up. And he can flatten it out or add spin. It’s not just a one-trick pony shot.
- Observation 3: The amount of wrist he uses, or doesn’t use at certain points, is really hard to pin down. It’s not your classic Western grip forehand, that’s for sure.
What I Actually Learned (It Wasn’t What I Expected)
After all that, did I crack the Kukushkin forehand code? Can I now teach it? Hell no. And I probably wouldn’t want to. But I did learn something, and it wasn’t really about the forehand itself. It was about the whole tennis world, especially the coaching side for us regular folks.
See, Kukushkin has carved out a long, respectable career with that “weird” forehand. He’s been top 40, played epic Davis Cup matches, beaten some huge names. And he did it his way. What I realized is that so much of tennis instruction, especially at the amateur level, is obsessed with “perfect,” “textbook” technique. They want everyone to look like Federer, even if they don’t have Federer’s talent or body type.
This whole Kukushkin deep dive showed me that there’s a massive disconnect. Here’s a guy who clearly found what works for him. It might not be pretty, it might not be in the coaching manuals, but it got the job done for over a decade on the pro tour. How many players are out there who get their natural game coached out of them because it doesn’t fit the mold? How many potential Kukushkins are told their technique is “wrong” and then they just quit or never reach their potential because they’re trying to be someone else?
So, my practical experiment with Kukushkin’s forehand didn’t give me any magic bullets for my own game. If anything, trying to even mentally mimic his swing probably made me worse for a week. But it did make me appreciate the guys who find their own path. It made me way more skeptical of the “one size fits all” coaching advice. Sometimes, “weird” works. And maybe we should spend less time trying to fix the “weird” and more time understanding why it works for that person.
Honestly, after all that screen time, I just have more respect for the guy. Playing pro tennis is hard enough. Doing it with a style everyone questions? That takes guts. And a lot of wins, apparently.
