Bringing Balance to Your Tennis Universe

Open any tennis book, and 90 percent of online technical videos, and you will find some amazing information on swing lines, impact points and grips. Much like Harry Potter can’t cast a spell without his wand we are obsessed with the role of the racket and shape of the stroke. It’s logical that when you look to improve your game you dive into the details and focus on what the racket does, but it doesn’t move on its own and so in this article I am going to shed a little light on the importance of the non-dominant arm.

Your tennis weapon of choice is wielded by a human body, and we are odd creatures of bilaterality and symmetry. Two arms, two legs, two eyes, two ears; Even when we do something as simple as walking across the room there is a coordination between our arms and legs and our left and right side. We are designed to use them both in a connected way including a (contralateral) coordination between left leg and right arm and right leg and left arm.

And while we all know we have a dominant hand, although you may not realize that you also have a dominant eye, ear, and foot, that doesn’t mean that this side of the body is supposed to work unilaterally. In one article, it’s tough to examine the intricacies but let’s try to send a message to the other side of your body and help you to consider its role in good technical basics and how spending a little time focusing on it can help your game.

Balance

If I ask most people what balance as a physical skill is the response that they lean towards is “not falling over” but if I show them a set of traditional scales, they more quickly get to understand the concept. Balance is partly about using our body in unison sometimes, and in opposition at other times. The key is that there is always supposed to be a connection between the right and left sides of the body.

Preparation and Set Up

Apart from facilitating the grip change on groundstrokes the role of the non- dominant arm is initially to provide STABILITY through the action. Stability is a key principle of balance, and particularly important as in tennis we cross the mid-line of our body between 500 and 700 times in three sets of tennis. On every stroke we turn to put both hands on the same side of the body but in contrast, off the court, we rarely do things with the left hand on the right side of the body and vice versa. Just try to think of four things you did today off the court where you rotated your torso in a similar way off the court! When you move to the ball with a stable upper body you are more likely to arrive in a stronger position to hit and that is best facilitated by the non-dominant arm creating shape and posture on the turn.

Timing

But it is not just about preparation. Think of it like the non-dominant arm being the cage that keeps your monster stroke in place until it releases the door (uncoils) and allows your stroke to burst free. Without this arm “doing it’s thing” you will essentially be hitting using only one side of the body losing out on so much power and control as you are forced to swing faster to create the power you are looking for. There is supposed to be a synchronicity between the two arms in every shot in tennis.

Adjusting to different heights

The use of the non-dominant side is not unique to tennis, in many sports the non-dominant arm is used not just to determine rotation but also the stability of the body at different heights. Watch a baseball pitcher and you will see that the non- throwing arm stays around the height of the ultimate release and for us as tennis players the non-dominant arm moves towards the height of the eventual contact point. This supports the natural symmetry of the body and balance through the action, especially on those higher balls where we naturally have a harder time generating power.

A higher contact point starts with…

If you want to reach higher on the serve to create more power and spin the action is often described as shoulder over shoulder. After the ball toss, the dominant shoulder will drive the racket up as the non-dominant arm comes down and tucks into the body but consider that for the hitting arm and shoulder to go up the non- dominant tossing shoulder must initially go up higher that the dominant one. For so many players the shoulders are level at the point of release. They want to go higher and there is a great focus on the racket arm doing that but the reality is that the non-dominant arm and shoulder were not set up in opposition in the first place.

For others the non-dominant arm goes up to place the ball but then falls away too soon. Just like hitting a forehand without the support of the other side of the body, now the non- dominant side stops providing the stability or position of strength needed to drive up or for some, even swing with force and the serve lacks punch or even worse slides into the net. Again, before you blame your racket arm check to see if it’s just that the non-dominant side was out to lunch and not pulling its weight.

Hit the Courts

This was intended to be a quick question for you to make you more aware of that other arm and help you to get more control and power in your game by using it more effectively. Of course, every part of your body needs to be involved for great technique, but the chances are you have analyzed every part of your swing but focused on your hitting arm way more than your non-dominant side and asking a few questions about the neglected side of your body could pay dividends to your game!