Moving Toward Better Tennis

If you study sports movement long enough, you learn that most moves are considered to be either rotational (circular) or linear. In reality, most moves are some combination of both, but for easier understanding, it is helpful to look at them as separate moves.

Many of you may remember the early teachings on how to hit a forehand. Point the racket tip toward the back fence, and follow through by pointing at your opponent. With this stroke, the racket moves along what is nearly a straight line. Heavier rackets may have needed this style of hitting just to break through inertia, but modern equipment has produced changes in forehand production. With lighter rackets that are easier to move through the air, the emphasis has changed to a rotational movement. If you consider your belly button as the center of a circle, then the stroke rotates around that center.  This forehand produces more speed/power when striking the ball, and a better-balanced recovery position.

I have read that one of the fundamentals for producing power in the Chinese fighting arts is to always have one body part pulling while the other is pushing. A simple way to understand this is to try to hit a simulated karate punch using only one hand. Place your fist by your hip, then thrust it forward as if striking a target. Now, extend your left hand in front of you and quickly pull it back as you punch with the right fist. You should feel a surge in power using both hands.

So to quickly review the circular aspects of a modern forehand we make a unit turn, keeping in mind that our belly button is the center of the circle, then stroke forward and around with our racket as we pull back and around with our non-dominant hand.

You will find this easier to understand by trying it rather than relying on the text.

The traditional one-handed backhand is a perfect example of a linear application. It doesn’t matter if you take your racket back above the shoulder or below the waist. At some point, you will have to move forward in a straight line. And remember, you will want your hands moving in opposite directions to increase power.

A fun exercise to help practice these techniques is to take a square stance in the doubles alley grasping an open page of The New York Times with two hands about eight inches apart. Imagine you are hitting your backhand into the opposite doubles alley while upping the power level by ripping the paper in opposite directions while you lean forward simulating a backhand drive.

The serve is a complicated stroke that incorporates both rotational and linear movements. A graphic way to watch how movements change from linear to rotational on the serve is to look at a pinwheel. I have not seen one for a while, but a pinwheel is simply a fan on a stick.

In the modern high performance serve, we are told to drive straight up from our rear foot through our knee and then our hip (contrast this with traditional teaching that wants us to transfer our weight onto the forward foot so we can move into the court in preparation for the return of serve). When the energy has reached our shoulder, it then changes into a series of circles. The shoulder is the center of one circle, the elbow is the center of another circle, and the wrist is the center of the last circle. It might be helpful to imagine that you are looking into the back of a watch with a see-through window. You will see many wheels of different sizes, maybe even moving at different speeds. 

Although the serve is a continuous series of movements, breaking it down into its components can help us understand and improve how we produce the stroke. Toss the ball straight up, drive straight upward into the pinwheel, and let the turbine effect of the circles propel the ball into an unreturnable ace. At least that’s the hope.