This will mimic the movement and muscles used during a short attacking forehand. Your quads are key for agility on the court, but also play a role in that swing, Frayna adds. The next sections will summarize recent research on technique issues specific to each groundstroke that are important to consider when planning conditioning programs. 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.. Some of the energy stored in this leg is converted to predominantly upward (vertical linear) momentum but also forward (horizontal linear) momentum. How to Improve as an Outside Hitter in Volleyball. physiological and biomechanical analysis of the tennis serve, forehand and backhand, as well as a 3D Newton-Euler dynamical analysis of the tennis racket motion during these shots. We promise to protect your privacy, never to spam you, and you are free to unsubscribe at any time. Another essential thing to consider is that the motion of the wrist and forearm after impact is actually part of the follow through. human muscle system, the muscles of the human body that work the skeletal system, that are under voluntary control, and that are concerned with movement, posture, and balance. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding. I think that they are important but there are certainly other factors that can result in tennis success. I guess what I'm asking is what muscle I should be working out in the gym, so I can get more pace on the ball. For example: Some players have a hitch in their service motion. Lie on the ground on your back, spread your arms to the sides in a T position, pushing your palms to the ground. Please try again soon. 20. The purpose was to develop rotational hip and core strength in movement patterns and planes that are most used during tennis strokes (Figure 7). Hit the back of the ball if you want to lift it to get the forehand high loop. Key Terms. Professional players and champions of the past utilized the tennis forehand wrist position in a static manner, with the wrist hardly moving throughout the forehand swing. Forearm drill. Calories burned in 30 minutes for people of three different weights. Your message has been successfully sent to your colleague. Wrap your fingers around your racquet's grip at the butt end. Footwork 2019;18(1):13-20. To improve your grip strength, squeeze an old, squishy tennis ball. Make sure that you hit the ball on the top of the ball to get it to move forward. As the ball approached, the player swung at it maintaining this position of the arm and wrist but firming up the grip at impact and hitting through the ball. It is anticipated that coaches will be able to provide a safer yet more productive and effective strength training regimen for their athletes. I'd do squats and deadlifts, and work on power cleans. Bahamonde R and Knudson D. Kinetics of the upper extremity in the open and square stance tennis forehand. 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. J Sports Sci Med. Takahashi K, Elliott B, and Noffal G. The role of upper limb segment rotations in the development of spin in the tennis forehand. Note the hip and trunk rotation in the 2-handed backhand (Figure 3a-f). Legs add a great deal to the FH, but to call them the most influential muscle group to the FH isn't correct. Lauer L. United States Tennis Association. This linear motion of the body and racket also encourages more racket force being applied in the intended direction of the shot. Wantagh, NY 11793 doi:10.1177/0022146510383501. While moving forward, backward and side to side, your core helps you make quick changes in direction. The forehand can be an aggressive and powerful attack shot that is used to return an opponent's shot and, when executed correctly, will manoeuvre an opponent around the court or win a point.. He is also a graduate of the High Performance Training Program. Backhand Mili uses various swing exercises to help players feel the swing and how to amplify it through the body movements. following information explains the steps and muscles used to create this serve. This change in the coordinated use of the kinetic chain suggests that the loading and injury risk to major segments of the body may have changed in tennis (11). There are 3 planes of motion (figure 1) - sagittal, frontal and transverse. Effect of core training on dynamic balance and agility among Indian junior tennis players. Pro players today use the tennis forehand wrist position to accentuate the movement of a "whip." This type of swing is utilized by modern tennis players such as Federer, Nadal, Justine Henin and the majority of the top pro tennis players in the game today. And whats even better is you dont have to be a pro like Serena Williams to give it a try. 516-409-4444 Updated October 2018. Lastly, the wrist must be firm (fixed) at impact. The rotator cuff, the muscles and tendons between the shoulder blade and arm bone, is important for hitting serves and forehands and for decelerating during follow-through. All things being equal, the kinetic chain is virtually the same for both types of backhands and should be observed as such. People think that 90% of the swing comes from hips/legs/core, but the arm is still swinging fast. Theyre also required to accelerate and catch up to the ball, he says. That is almost all shoulder How do the forearms contribute a lot of power? This stroke is often referred to as mostly closed in nature because a player has total control over it. Particularly, the catching phase of the medicine ball (MB) tosses in Figures 4-7 helps in improving both upper- and lower-body eccentric strength. Modern tactics dictate that the forehand be hit with varying degrees of topspin. From this loading position (Figure 7 demonstrates an open stance loading position), the athlete forcefully rotates the hip and upper body to release the MB as hard as possible against the wall. Get new journal Tables of Contents sent right to your email inbox, Biomechanics of the Tennis Groundstrokes: Implications for Strength Training, Articles in PubMed by E Paul Roetert, PhD, Articles in Google Scholar by E Paul Roetert, PhD, Other articles in this journal by E Paul Roetert, PhD, Biomechanics of the Tennis Serve: Implications for Strength Training, Preseason Strength and Conditioning for Collegiate Tennis Players, A Performance Evaluation of the Tennis Serve: Implications for Strength, Speed, Power, and Flexibility Training, Energy System-Specific Training for Tennis, Efficient Deceleration: The Forgotten Factor in Tennis-Specific Training, Privacy Policy (Updated December 15, 2022), National Strength and Conditioning Association. 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). (We hardly ever get any unsubscriptions though, so we must be doing something right!). Legs are the most important muscles for tennis in general, but very powerful and controlled forehands can be hit without much leg involvement. Six male national representatives performed a tennis forehand stroke in the laboratory. Again, this is thanks to the half-squat position that keeps the tension in your legs so you can spring into action. The backhand volley involves slight internal rotation and abduction followed by slight external . This article has summarized key biomechanical variables inherent in an elite-level tennis serve. 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. Kovacs MS, Roetert EP, and Ellenbecker TS. Exercise for Your Bone Health. I believe it. I understand the theory, but in the real world, the forearm muscles get a hell of a workout in high end tennis. The follow-through is across the line of the body and a recovery step brings the player into the ready position. Fast forward to the late 70s and early 80s when wood started giving way to graphite and the majority of courts started changing from slick grass to higher bouncing asphalt and slow clay, players began adapting by moving to stronger eastern and semi-western grips. Wolken D. USA Today. THE PURPOSE OF THIS ARTICLE WAS TO SUMMARIZE RECENT RESEARCH RELATED TO THE BIOMECHANICS OF TENNIS TECHNIQUE IN GROUNDSTROKES AND THEN TO RECOMMEND SPECIFIC STRENGTH AND CONDITIONING EXERCISES THAT WOULD TEND TO IMPROVE TENNIS PERFORMANCE AND PREVENT INJURY. Biomechanics of tennis strokes. Br J Sports Med. During the wind-up for a powerful forehand throw, counter-rotate your shoulders as if you're preparing to swing a baseball bat. An essential ingredient of footwork is to think of the body as a series of small, coiled springs that, when activated, sequentially result in propelling the player in the desired direction. The hand plays an integral role in generating racket speed. How could that be? Muscle activation during the tennis volley In general, muscle activity increased with increasing ball speed. While it may seem like a tennis swing comes from the arms, its actually a motion that engages your whole body, she tells Bustle, including the core. I'm pretty sure I can do double Maria Sharapova's best in any exercise. Other players simply keep the non-dominant arm dangling down next to the body from the start to the finish of the forehand. A lot of junior players were taught to snap the wrist through the ball at contact because that was the way to produce maximum racket head speed. This position will produce greater weight transfer, trunk rotation, and more effective stroke production on wide balls. The purpose of this article was to help coaches recognize the unique aspects of tennis groundstrokes, with specific implication for how they can train their athletes. 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). Tennis Forehand Exercise #1: Squat find the power rack at your gym, put minimal weight on it to start and stand with your feet at shoulder's width apart. How well these factors are perceived by the coach will dictate how well the players will respond and initiate the movement needed to perform. ; concentric: An isotonic contraction where the muscle shortens. 17. Harvard Health Publishing. Tennis is a sport that allows you to enjoy yourself while improving your physical fitness. The latissimus dorsi, anterior deltoid, subscapularis, biceps and pectoralis major all contract concentrically during the acceleration phase to bring the racket to the ball for contact. Forward movement of the upper arm is a key feature of forehand mechanics, producing 30% of the racket speed. Both these movements are used during tennis groundstrokes. It was preferred that they use a semi-western grip and prepare with a looped backswing and a laid back wrist. to maintaining your privacy and will not share your personal information without Improve Strength. 11. Especially while playing tennis are many kinds of muscles. The quads aka the muscles on the fronts of your thighs get in on the action, too. Grip the bar with your hands slightly more wide than your shoulders. According to Nelo Phiri, a tennis coach at Life Time Westchester, the action of swinging a tennis racquet fires up your ab muscles. It is important to examine how the equipment protects the players during performance. The current study uses point-light displays to isolate the suspect's motion and remove potentially biasing information (e.g., skin tone, facial expression, clothing). This is one of the toughest shots to play in badminton. Concentrate on extending the arm and making contact. Look at the players at a open level tournament after their match, and see their bulging forearms, with veins popping out everywhere. Instead, the wrist stayed in the exact same laid back position at impact and beyond. When the shoulders are connected well - meaning there is a certain firmness across . Please enable scripts and reload this page. 2010;51(Suppl):S54-S66. Forward swing to impact requires more trunk rotation of the hitting shoulder. This resulted in unprecedented spin and pace. More on how tennis works your body, below. This gets all of the big muscle groups connected through the shoulders, back, core and hips in position to fire. Copyright 2023 Leaf Group Ltd. / Leaf Group Media, All Rights Reserved. Ir Med J. Ultra-heavy topspin drivers like Rafael Nadal as well as flatter power hitters like Novak Djokovic took the tennis world by storm. From the sports medicine point of view, when a player is out of position, it is difficult to use the body properly in generating force to hit the ball which means that the upper arm must work harder than it should. In order to build up maximum racket head speed at contact, it has to be moving continuously even after contact. For one, tennis is a great way to get your cardio in, says Ajay Pant, the senior director of racquet sports at Life Time gyms. It's not theory. Forward axial torque to rotate the hips achieves its peak at the initiation of the forward stroke (8). BASED ON THE AVAILABLE RESEARCH, IT WAS DETERMINED THAT TRAINING EXERCISES SHOULD EMULATE THE SEQUENTIAL COORDINATION INVOLVED IN GROUND STROKE PRODUCTION, AS WELL AS STABILIZING MUSCULATURE THAT MIGHT BE INVOLVED IN DEVELOPING FORCE OR IN PROTECTING BODY PARTS FROM STRESSFUL ACTIONS. Perform two to three sets of 10 reps with each exercise and work both arms. 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. All rights reserved. Indeed, when their shots were analyzed through slow motion video, it would seem that the wrist was indeed straightening out at contact and rolling over the ball for topspin or whipping through it for power. Flow with the swing motion so that your stroke ends with your hips square to the table and your paddle in front of your face. How to reconcile this with other posts claiming that the power comes from pushing off the ground? Players were still able to position themselves take the ball early and step into the shot. Spend as much time as your practice time allows developing movement. Two-handed backhands have larger extension torques in the rear leg, which result in larger axial torques to rotate the hips and trunk than 1-handed backhands (2,10,19). It hones in on the larger muscle groups listed below (including the core and glutes), all thanks to the constant swinging and serving you do as you play. This leg drive utilizes ground reaction forces and is critical for linear to angular momentum transfer and the development of high racket speed. Position 3. This phase involves the trunk muscle to make the adequate momentum and cancelation. All games of tennis consist of six basic strokes: the serve, forehand groundstroke, backhand groundstroke, forehand volley, backhand volley, and the overhead smash. This is strong retrospective evidence that training of the wrist extensors and grip may be useful to reduce the risk of the common overuse injury of the lateral epicondyle. Reid M and Elliott B. If it sounds right and feels right and produces the right result, why say that it is wrong just because something that would otherwise never be seen is really happening? The follow through was straight forward in the direction of the ball then wrapping slightly around the front past midpoint but not totally all the way over the shoulder or torso. In todays modern tennis forehand that has changed. You need to start your forehand swing with it facing somewhat downward in order for it to end up at vertical as it meets the ball. If we get into the details of the movement, tennis is a complex sport that is made up of intricate movements. The Modern Forehand Domination Ebook is guaranteed to improve your tennis technique, and increase power, topspin and accuracy of your tennis forehand! For the forehand specifically, the core and forearms are most important. Youll feel it when serving, doing forehand or backhand swings, and whenever you make quick movements around the court. I guess that muscles aren't everything. Bjorn Borg, who would win five consecutive Wimbledon titles, revolutionized tennis by using a western grip to produce heavy but still fast topspin forehand drives. Iino Y and Kojima T. Torque acting on the pelvis about its superior-inferior axis through the hip joints during a tennis forehand stroke. 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 . Ariel GB and Braden V. Biomechanical analysis of ballistic vs. tracking movements in tennis skills. When I was actively on gym, the legs responded by far the best for training. Place your wrist against the handle. Figure 10a demonstrates a forearm pronation movement, and Figure 10b demonstrates a forearm supination movement. Several reviews of the biomechanics of tennis are available for interested readers (5,15,18). I guess it depends on the person? Greater upper-trunk rotation has been observed in 2-handed backhands than in 1-handed backhands (19). At impact the racket shoulder moves more toward the net than the topspin stroke. Forward swing to impact consists of trunk rotation initiating racket movement and is responsible for the forward movement of the hitting arm. This strategy places extra stress on the player's body that strength and conditioning professionals should consider in designing training programs. 12. You need to smoothing accelerate from load and basically sling the racquet into the ball. Other players started using polyester strings and hit with this style. SUMMARY. For example: When hitting the serve the legs may not be utilized completely, resulting in the hips and trunk working harder to create arm and racket speed. Practical exercises have been offered that will emulate the stroke coordination to improve the efficiency of stroke production as well as exercises that will improve the athlete's ability to decelerate specific body parts to assist in recovery after the execution of the specific stroke. Tennis also requires a high amount of agility, flexibility, quick reflexes and aerobic and anaerobic conditioning. Using your core in tennis is the core of better control and balance when hitting your shots, Phiri tells Bustle. The arm is one of the weaker parts of the body. Now some people talk about "core rotation", how that is important and how that can be used even without legs. Wrist extension is also a feature of the one-handed backhand of advanced players. A final aspect of inefficiency takes place when the kinetic chain is not properly synchronized. Bashir SF, Nuhmani S, Dhall R, Muaidi QI. Shoulder and arm just mostly transfer that energy forward into the racquet and the ball. Like the forehand, racket speed at impact is derived from a sequencing of trunk and shoulder rotation as well as arm and hand extension. This study aimed at investigating the relationship between the trunk and upper limb muscle coordination and mass of the tennis racket . . In order to move well, players need to efficiently coordinate their upper and lower body to enhance movement and footwork. Lift your legs straight up toward the sky. I suppose I don't need to reconcile them. 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. Preparation 4. J Health Soc Behav. Great agility, quickness and quick reactions are essential to be successful in badminton. Medial epicondylitis is also known as golfer's elbow, baseball elbow, suitcase elbow, or forehand tennis elbow. Effective analysis of this kinetic chain is an essential ingredient in developing technique in stroke production and in determining the possible cause of an injury. You use the muscles of your lower body to twist into your swing to put more force behind the ball. Both these movements are used during tennis groundstrokes. Strength and trained muscles are required for a player in order to achieve a good backhand, forehand, volley or flat stroke. Following impact in all tennis strokes, the racket and arm retain the vast majority of the kinetic energy from before impact, so the eccentric strength of the musculature active in the follow-through should also be trained. In addition, every time you hit a forehand or backhand, you work your abdominal muscles, especially the obliques, which run down the sides your torso. Strength is bottom up, starting from the legs. The athlete will need to move forward and across quickly to catch the MB (loading phase) and then while maintaining dynamic balance produce a forceful hip and trunk rotation to throw the MB. He recommends doing a strength routine that targets the arms, legs, and core, playing other sports, and practicing yoga to ensure your non-dominant side gets attention, too. Assuming we're talking about a modern fh, I will respectfully disagree with this post. The main kinetic chain motions that create racket speed in the forehand are trunk rotation, horizontal shoulder adduction, and internal rotation (4). So wrapping this up, your contention is that the muscles in the forearm are a significant source of power on a modern fh. As you rotate your hand around those bevels, you will end up with your hands in a new position or grip. Then, in the late 90s, a young and charming Brazilian player named Gustavo Kuerten shocked the world by coming out of nowhere and winning the French Open. 2019;6:69. doi:10.3389/fcvm.2019.00069, Oja P, Kelly P, Pedisic Z, et al. The forearm is mostly just helping set the racquet angle. During a serve the abs are needed to help create a big enough pre-stretch. The racket was placed on the dominant side; then, it was directed towards the ball. So just go out and concentrate on smoothness. The old coaching program for the basic table tennis techniques is outdated! Besides improving your flexibility, the racquet-based sport trains an assortment of muscles, too. In the core: abs, obliques, erector spinae, and latissimus dorsi. Natural gut provided power, control and feel but it broke easily as players started to swing harder and harder. ; isotonic: A muscular contraction in which the length of the muscle changes. Ajay Pant, senior director of racquet sports, TJ Mentus, ACE-certified personal trainer, Trainers Reveal How Long You Should Rest Between Sets, How Many Squats Should You Do? Shoulder speed has been shown to contribute 25% of racket speed. The athlete starts about 5 to 8 feet from a solid wall and loads the hips and core while also putting the oblique muscles on stretch. Open Stance. Effects of exercise to improve cardiovascular health. When playing table tennis, muscles such as calf muscles, ankles, hamstrings, lower back, rotator cuffs, deltoids, triceps, and biceps are trained the most, even when the whole body really is active during an intense game. . Additionally, the power for your serve, forehand and backhand originates in the legs and travels up through your body to your racket. A key thing to keep in mind, especially if youre playing tennis on a regular basis, is that tennis naturally uses one side of the body more than the other.