Branislav Grujic is a USPTA Professional 1, tester and USPTA Sports Science Specialist. doi:10.1002/oby.20145. (a-f) One-handed backhand groundstroke-(a-c) illustrates the preparation phase of a 1-handed closed stance backhand, while (d-f) illustrates the forward swing. Tilt the face of your racquet down more on your backswing. Turn Your Shoulders Early. (a) Pronation (palm down). In Figure 5, the athlete is demonstrating a closed stance catching position. Not only does your core connect your lower body to your upper body, most movements originate in your core. But he was considered a genius and a natural so his style wasnt widely accepted as something that could be taught to the new generation of players. It was preferred that they use a semi-western grip and prepare with a looped backswing and a laid back wrist. Tennis is a sport that allows you to enjoy yourself while improving your physical fitness. This will mimic the movement and muscles used during a short attacking forehand. One essentially involves straight arms and 4 major kinetic chain elements (hips, trunk, shoulder, and wrist), while the other adds rotations at the forearm (7,19). It was during this period when players were first taught to develop a swing that incorporates the tennis forehand wrist position to create a whipping heavy topspin effect. This means that subsequent body parts must work harder. Both these movements are used during tennis groundstrokes. That tells us that the left shoulder (for right-handed players) is disconnected from the right shoulder, and therefore they do not rotate together as the forehand is being hit.. And Bjorn Borg in the late '70s made most of his forehand shots using open stance. As long as you can swing a racquet, chase after the ball, and hit a few volleys, youll be able to reap the strength and health-boosting benefits. Broadly considered, human musclelike the muscles of all vertebratesis often divided into striated muscle (or skeletal muscle), smooth muscle, and cardiac muscle. Harvard Health Publishing. Results The experimental group's stability increased significantly, from 1.78 0.67 to 2.25 1.34 before training, and backstroke strength increased significantly, from 6.21 to 10.21; total . Whatever the technique adopted, the strength and conditioning professional should work with the tennis coach to customize training programs for the specific techniques used by players. Concentrate on relaxing. V. This movement sequence will mimic the movement and muscles used in a wide forehand. Grip the bar with your hands slightly more wide than your shoulders. Not because these muscles create a great deal of joint rotation to accelerate the racket (4) or because grip forces increase ball impulse (13), but because the energy from the lower body and trunk must be transferred to the racket in the later stages of the stroke. I'm sure forearm strength helps with endurance. J Sports Sci Med. These things are happening too fast for the eye and the mind to process accurately. Grip (tennis) In tennis, a grip is a way of holding the racquet in order to hit shots during a match. Power can come from pushing off the ground, but can also come from other sources. I was kind of amazed at the guy that Matt played last year I think (he posted a video). The wrist and forearm need to be loose. This movement primes the body in readiness for an explosive move in any direction. To improve your grip strength, squeeze an old, squishy tennis ball. Vitamin D and Inflammation: Potential Implications for Severity of COVID-19. Training the wrist extensors is particularly important for tennis players using a 1-handed backhand. A second form of inefficient stroke production occurs when all of the body parts are used but not employed correctly. Torques about the wrist in 1-handed backhands are greater than direct force loading (14) and can create a rapid stretch of the wrist extensors that is more pronounced in players with a history of tennis elbow (17). Additionally, the power for your serve, forehand and backhand originates in the legs and travels up through your body to your racket. Iino Y and Kojima T. Torque acting on the pelvis about its superior-inferior axis through the hip joints during a tennis forehand stroke. Tennis is an intermittent sport in which players entail a mixture of physical components, such as linear sprint and change-of-direction speed, agility, muscle power, and cardiovascular fitness. Every time you hit a groundstroke, you're primarily working the transverse plane (i.e. Wellness Massachusetts recommends doing seated rows, overhead presses, bench presses and lat pull-downs. People think that 90% of the swing comes from hips/legs/core, but the arm is still swinging fast. Elite tennis always had these 2 styles of groundstrokes (1), but since that time, there has been a reversal from primarily simultaneous to sequential groundstroke technique. The rotation of upper arm, forearm, and hand, account for the remaining 75% of racket speed at impact. His swing style on the forehand featured a western grip and a follow through that ended by wrapping way past his left side so that his right shoulder was pointing toward the net with the racket head behind him. Muscles used in Tennis Tennis is a sport that places demands on all the major muscle groups of the body. Figure 1a-c show the preparation phase of the open stance forehand. J Back Musculoskelet Rehabil. But as proven by video analysis, this is not part of the hit or contact and it is not strictly the reason why so much spin and ball speed can be produced by the pros. You may search for similar articles that contain these same keywords or you may In fact, the preferred style of grip and height of the ball at impact used by the player significantly affects the potential contribution of the hand/wrist rotation to racket speed (4). Youll feel it when serving, doing forehand or backhand swings, and whenever you make quick movements around the court. If you're right-handed, place the racquet at the right side of your body and grip it with your wrist at the butt of the handle slightly to the right. With the right technique you not only win a lot of points, but also save valuable energy in the match. Learn How to Hit a Forehand Like Federer, Nadal and Djokovic. The toss should be positioned in front and slightly to the left of the front foot, and should be impacted at the top of its flight. There are 3 planes of motion (figure 1) - sagittal, frontal and transverse. Kinetic chain contributions to elbow function and dysfunction in sports. If you were doing a backhand swing with your racket in tennis, you would be doing horizontal extension (also called horizontal abduction) and lateral rotation at the shoulder joint. Most importantly, a split step must occur just as the opponent is starting the forward swing. Forehand fast serve. I guess that muscles aren't everything. The purpose was to develop forearm strength and endurance in pronation and supination (Figure 10). Please try after some time. Additionally, players could now also commonly afford to hit off the back foot or from wide open stances when rushed and still create shots that were heavy and penetrating. Wrist extension is also a feature of the one-handed backhand of advanced players. With hard hitting such a huge part of the modern game, having a base of strength . http://www.researchgate.net/publicaination_and_forehand_drive_velocity_in_tennis, http://www.cpaqv.org/cinesiologia/artigos/muscle_coordination_tennis.pdf, http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25123001, http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25120197, http://www.citeulike.org/user/tboats/author/Stossel:TP. The athlete takes 3 to 5 steps from the machine to increase the tension and lowers the body into a quarter squat position. What Women Need to Know. Improve Strength. Repetitive stress injuries caused by repeated motion of the shoulder, such as in tennis. The exercises denoted in this article are designed to help the coach with on-court and off-court training so that various training sites can be utilized for effectiveness in training. Figure 10a demonstrates a forearm pronation movement, and Figure 10b demonstrates a forearm supination movement. J Health Soc Behav. Like the forehand, racket speed at impact is derived from a sequencing of trunk and shoulder rotation as well as arm and hand extension. Forward swing to impact consists of trunk rotation initiating racket movement and is responsible for the forward movement of the hitting arm. Iwata M, Yamamoto A, Matsuo S, et al. This movement is then repeated on the way back to the starting position focused on developing deceleration ability in this same plane of motion. In the upper-body: the muscles of your chest, upper back, shoulders, and arms. Footwork, or movement, is another important biomechanical attribute. It is in this sense that brushing the tennis ball from low to high via the windshield wiper forehand and pronating the forearm became an integral part of the tennis forehand. Regardless of grip type, backswing or follow-through, impact must be exact for a player to hit a specific shot. When watching a game, youll notice that tennis players are holding a squat pretty much throughout the entire game. Whether that means playing with a partner or hitting against a practice wall, these are the muscles thatll get a major workout while youre focused on getting that ball over the net. Tennis requires several bursts of short-distance running; if you cant get to the ball, you can't hit it back over the net. Tennis Forehand Tips - Improve the Tennis Forehand Shot, The Tennis Forehand And The Role Of The Wrist, Learn How to Hit a Forehand Like Federer, Nadal and Djokovic, Some quick tips to improve your tennis serve, Keys of the ATP Tennis Forehand Technique - Differentiating World Class Forehand Technique. Vigorous extension of the lower extremity in classic closed stance forehands creates greater axial torques to rotate the pelvis and hips than not using the legs (9). Legs are the most important muscles for tennis in general, but very powerful and controlled forehands can be hit without much leg involvement. torpantennis Legend Apr 20, 2015 #9 Bendex said: Legs are the most important muscles for tennis in general, but very powerful and controlled forehands can be hit without much leg involvement. The most common situations where open stance forehands are applied include wide and deep balls when the player is behind the baseline or requires greater leverage to produce the stroke. Iino Y and Kojima T. Role of knee flexion and extension for rotating the trunk in a tennis forehand stroke. . According to Pant, youll quickly build up strength in your dominant arm aka the one holding the racquet which is why it helps to supplement your tennis game by strength training in other ways. Nadal generates huge power from the hips. The next sections will summarize recent research on technique issues specific to each groundstroke that are important to consider when planning conditioning programs. While typically, a forehand would be considered an 'open' skill. One-handed backhands have the hitting shoulder in front of the body and rely less on trunk rotation and more on coordinated shoulder and forearm rotations to create the stroke (Figure 2a-f). This leg drive utilizes ground reaction forces and is critical for linear to angular momentum transfer and the development of high racket speed. 11. The hand plays an integral role in generating racket speed. It's one of the keys to the whole modern fh. Several reviews of the biomechanics of tennis are available for interested readers (5,15,18). The muscles involved would include: pectoralis major, latissimus dorsi, teres major, subscapularis, and deltoid (anterior fibers). She holds a Bachelor of Business Administration from Temple University. The quads aka the muscles on the fronts of your thighs get in on the action, too. When I was actively on gym, the legs responded by far the best for training. 2019;32(2):245-252. doi:10.3233/BMR-170853, Hossein-nezhad A, Holick MF. Figure 10a demonstrates a forearm pronation movement, and Figure 10b demonstrates a forearm supination movement. Counter-rotating your shoulders should make your hips want to turn with your shoulders. Kibler WB. . The glutes also light up as you swing to return the ball. 16. (b) Supination (palm up). For a forehand volley, slight external rotation and slight adduction followed by abduction of the shoulder allow the player to complete the stroke. Note the hip and trunk rotation in the 2-handed backhand (Figure 3a-f). It is vital that teaching professionals understand this kinetic chain so that they can better recognize errors or inefficient movement. It is, after all, a fun way to exercise without feeling like youre exercising. The forehand is the weapon for most tennis players and building a game plan behind a powerful forehand makes winning matches much easier. Suite 203 While moving forward, backward and side to side, your core helps you make quick changes in direction. Spend as much time as your practice time allows developing movement. 2015;63(10):2014-22. doi:10.1111/jgs.13667, Umberson D, Montez JK. Concentric and eccentric contractions of the obliques, back extensors and erector spinae cause the trunk to rotate. A strong core keeps you balanced and stable so that you can focus on hitting the ball. This will have the effect of taking the arm out of sync with the body by putting the arm ahead of the body. Given a modern fh, the key point is that if you are using the muscles in your forearm to create power or spin then you are not swinging correctly. 5. The stiffer the racket, the more shock will be sent to the arm. It seemed that in order to hit a proper tennis forehand, the wrist had to be firm and stable. Most players change grips during a match depending on what shot they are hitting. Smooth muscle is under involuntary control and is . The forehand specifically relies on the pectorals, deltoids and biceps to provide much of the upper body and arm activity in a tennis stroke, with the forearm and wrist "following along for the ride" after the hips open and generate internal shoulder rotation.