|
TennisOne Lessons 
Gearing Up For Better Stroke Construction Doug King One of the most important aspects of good stroking is the concept of rhythm. Rhythm refers to the creation of a continuous flow of movement that allows speed to develop in the most efficient manner possible. When motion incurs stops and starts the action becomes very herky-jerky. Newton’s Law of Physics tells us that anytime there is a stop in the motion of an object additional force is required to get that object going again and this "forceful" action is full of over exertion and over compensating movement resulting in a loss of coordination, control, and energy. This is a critical issue to tennis, as it is to all sports. In this article we will look at the notion of how to construct a proper stroke model for developing rhythm in your game. We will also examine a few simple exercises designed to help you develop the skills necessary to execute your strokes in a rhythmic way. Stroke Construction and Proper Movement Tennis strokes are not back and forth sweeping movements but instead they are an assembly of coordinated pieces. For the last 50 or so years we have described this segmenting of the stroke through the “Kinetic Chain” model. The Kinetic Chain states that energy is passed from the larger segments (legs, hips, shoulders) out to the smaller segments (arms and wrist) in a sequential action akin to a whip. I have modified this approach by suggesting that this segmenting and energy transfer is more like a wave action that pulsates energy in and out, building from the big parts and developing into the small parts, but doing so in circular rolls that flow in and out of each other, maintaining continuity to all parts and creating phases and variations in the nature of the energy as it develops. In either model (the Kinetic Chain of the Kinetic Wave), what is articulated is a flow of movement that changes (accelerates and decelerates) as it progresses in a sequential pattern through segmented body parts. There is a very specific way in which this movement should build and develop, and we call this “Stroke Construction.” In much the same way that a wave develops by starting with a big swell and then extending out in a large roll until it finally breaks into smaller, tighter, and faster rolls, so too does a stroke follow a specific pattern of development. This construction is the key to good movement as it is really the essence of energy management and energy management is another way of saying "balance." Balance in tennis (and in all sports) is really more about “controlled imbalance” rather than staying “steady." If traditional balance keeps us steady then it is imbalance which makes us mobile and this is the reason we stay on the balls of our feet – to stay “imbalanced.” It is because we have toes that we are able to manage this instability. In a very real way the more unstable we are the lighter we are on our feet. But to stay in control of this precarious state of imbalance we must be very careful with the positions and movements of our upper body. All of the nuances of stroke construction become critical if we are going to be able to maintain control of this delicate state of imbalance on the balls of our feet. Our form and the patterns of movement of the arms and torso must be very exact in order to stay light on the feet. How we start, how we turn, how we lean, how we breathe, even how we think and feel greatly affect our ability to stay mobile and light on our feet. In truth, staying light on one's feet can come down to an "attitude" of lightness – of being open, patient, focused, responsive, and un-forceful. When we become too forceful with our movements and our attitudes, too often we become "top heavy" and we cannot stay in control on the balls of our feet and we stumble. The result is that we end up "catching" ourselves flat footed rather than rotating and shifting lightly on the balls of the feet. It is something like a ballerina moving on toes. Ballerinas will hold their arms above their heads in a specific form in order to maintain control of the instability created by being on their toes. This shape that ballerinas form with their arms is very similar to the shape that a tennis player holds the arms in the ready position and through many subsequent movements throughout the stroke – and for the same reason – to maintain control on the balls of the feet. Remember that the arms are used to establish “form” and manage balance as much as they are used to maneuver the racquet.
The Gear System As the wave analogy offers a way of describing how the stroke is built from the smooth lifts and turn of the larger parts of the body followed by the smaller parts of the body, so too does the notion of considering the movements of the stoke as being similar to how a transmission on a car manages the flow of energy through a set of gears. Imagine your body is composed of series of gears. Your hips would be gear one, shoulders gear two, elbow gear three, and wrist gear four. Now imagine how energy (motion) would pass from gear one to gear two to gear three and to gear four in order to accelerate and then it would down shift from gear four to three to two and to one to start again in the same way that you would shift gears on a bicycle or in a car. When you move in gear one you are moving the most slowly and in a way the most forcefully. This is because it takes a lot of energy to break inertia and to get the entire body moving. Once movement is initiated then it can be passed along to the smaller gears and speed can be built up very naturally and with ease as energy/movement is passed from larger parts to smaller parts. The body works this same way. It takes a lot of energy to move the entire body and this is relatively slow. The primary function of the low gears is break inertia, initiate force, and to move the body into position and create "leverage" in the stroke. Leverage is created by getting the body properly positioned behind the hands at contact (much like how the body would position itself if one were to simply catch a ball). But once the body gets going we can then use that energy to cycle into the smaller parts which accept the energy and turn much more quickly and with relative ease. The higher gears move much more quickly and are easier to move. These gears are less forceful but faster. The higher gears are designed to create speed, quickness, dexterity, and also the delicate actions of connecting and aligning to the ball.
A good way to understand these different roles is to stand next to a net post and imagine what it would take to move a net post. A big truck moving at a slow speed would move the net post and yet if you swung your racquet as fast as you could at the post you would not budge it. The same concept applies to our strokes. In tennis, the ball offers almost no resistance compared to the net post, so we use our hands much more to create racquet and ball speed. Our low gears (the "body") are still critical to initiate motion and to create more pushing or guiding force to our strokes. The volley, for example, is generally more of a "guided" stroke with very little emphasis on power. Instead you are trying to either absorb power to enhance guiding (maximizing "hold" on the ball) or you are redirecting the power that is already on the ball. The volley strokes are very "low gear" strokes that are played out of the body while the hands are actually taking power off of the ball in most instances. People have trouble with the volley because they think it is a fast stroke since they don't have much time at the net. But in reality it is a relatively slow stroke and the proper way to react to the fact that you have less time is not to go faster but to do less. What we do less of is winding up. Most people are much too quick with their hands on the volley and this causes them to move their hands around too much resulting in a "swing" (a punch is a swing with no follow-through). Instead the hands should be kept very quiet, much like how an infielder keeps his hands quiet in front of his body and moves his feet to get in position to catch a ball. This allows the hands to absorb the ball properly rather than to swing, hit, or punch at the ball (which is what they tend to do if they move too quickly).
Compare this volley technique to the service motion. For the service action we access the high gears (the hands) and we try to "snap" the wrist. In the case of the serve and overhead the stroke is felt much more in the hands and although there is a great deal more speed put into the hands there is very little "force" put into them. This is because in a properly constructed stroke the hands naturally develop speed without force and the hands should be allowed to produce speed in a light but quick action. Still there is some guiding to the service stroke and the body is still utilized to establish proper position (leverage) and to help direct the ball. And since it requires more force to move the body there is "force" put into the upward drive of the body,allowing the body to move up and behind the hands, while the hands are activated to produce speed in a relatively relaxed and "light" action. The problem that people have with the serve is that they swing too soon, before they give the energy time to wind into the hands. Typically people try to swing hard from the "back-scratch" position. This is too early – before the hands have time to wind up. When this happens they are said to be "muscling" the ball, meaning they are trying to get speed in the stroke by using the body instead of the hands. The body is a low gear and is not designed to produce speed in the stroke. Speed comes out of the hands (the small gears) so, for a service stroke, one should not swing forcefully at the ball from the back-scratch position but instead continue to wind up as the hands approach the ball (the smallest and fastest gear), getting the release of energy to occur quite close to the contact of the ball. Swinging from the back scratching position (or the bottom of the backswing) is the common mistake that players also make in golf when they swing from the top of the backswing. In golf we always hear “Don’t swing from the top.” In both cases (swinging from the top in golf and swinging from the bottom in the tennis service), the result is not adequate winding up into the smaller parts and releasing energy too early causing too much effort with very little speed – what we call "muscling" the ball. This is the most common cause of shoulder injury, as it puts tremendous stress on the shoulder. What the larger gears should do on the serve is the same on all shots and that is to initiate motion and then create leverage for the hands at contact. This is exactly what the body does when it springs up into the serve – it is trying to get behind the hand, racquet, and ball as speed is released out of the hand on contact. Always feel the small gears working in the more powerful shots. Most people make the mistake of "overswinging" when going for power and they over use the big parts of the body. The irony is that the more powerful shots are triggered by tiny, quick movements that aren't forceful, and should be felt in the smallest parts of the body. Gear Range and Rhythm Looking at the stroke process in terms of a gear mechanism can be useful in developing a sense of rhythm to your stroking. Some strokes are quite simple, such as a volley or a blocked return of serve, and others are much more complex, such as a serve, an overhead, or a powerful groundstroke. By using a “gear application” to these various strokes we can get a sense of the various stages that a stroke goes through and how to progress through them. For example a volley is kept in a single low gear and the subsequent rhythm reflects that singular speed and move. You can actually use an audible count (similar to a metronome in music) to describe this rhythm. In the case of a volley it would be a regular beat of “one – two.” A serve on the other hand would progress through a number of gears starting in the low gear of a hip and torso turn, followed by another shift into the shoulder lift, followed by another shift into an elbow move, and the final gear involving the hand. In this case the count could go “one-two-three-four-five” and the beat would increase rhythmically in tempo as it progressed.
What you can see if you watch the pros is that their more powerful strokes are built though a series of individual movements. Although they are put together fluidly and relatively continuously so as to avoid stiffness and jerky movements, you can still see very specific “stages” or independent actions. On the turn, for example, you may notice that the hands are kept still and in front of the body, with only a grip change occurring, while just before contact you may notice a flexing back and roll in the wrist. Just like a good driver, a good tennis player knows how to shift, and what gear to shift into at the right time. And like a good driver the top players can make their movements flow and purr like a well oiled machine, achieving power and control with efficiency and consistency. To access the higher gears, it takes time to go through the proper gear cycle (reflex volley, where there is no “positioning,” are the exception), so you must be able to determine what gear is appropriate for the amount of time and the position that you are in. Like everything else, the final (and perhaps first) piece of the puzzle always comes down to being able to make good judgments, and this is acquired through experience only. Exercises To get the feel and to develop the skill of using the body gears I have included a few exercises (see the video on the right). To learn to move the large gears there are a few exercises that I have demonstrated. One is to hold the top of the net post and skip around the net post using side steps. By holding the net post you keep the hands steady and train the feet to move around the hands. You can also hold the racquet to the top of the net post in order to better simulate how the body moves around the racquet in the initial turn. If you watch any decent player getting ready to return serve or getting ready at the net you will see them rhythmically swaying their body around the hands and racquet held out in front in the ready position. This is because it is the body that shifts first, while the racquet is held quietly during this initial move. Remember the feet will move the racquet but the racquet will not move the feet so the first thing you must do is react with the feet. In fact, if the hands move too quickly, they will actually throw you off balance and cause the feet to flatten and the legs to stiffen. So remember, feet first. Another good exercise to develop the low gear/big muscle movements is to do shadow play without a racquet and with the hands held behind the back. Simulate all of the movements of a point, while holding your hands clasped behind your back. This will eliminate the high gear/quick muscle groups and focus entirely on the legs and core. All core strengthening exercises are really designed to help develop the low gear movements. For the high gear actions I have included a fun exercise of catching a ball in a cup. This is designed to get the feeling of letting the wrist relax and fold back so as to let the racquet head drop below and behind the knuckles. This is a fully wound position, as the racquet head starts both in front and above the hands in the ready position. Remember that the high gear motions are triggered relatively effortlessly, and you barely need to think of them, as they happen almost automatically. The hard part is getting yourself to wind these small parts as the tendency is to keep the wrist to stiff and the racquet too “lined up” to the ball. If you are successful in properly winding the wrist prior to contact you will find that as you go into contact the hand will automatically tighten in anticipation of the contact of the ball. This tightening will shoot the racquet forward and up and this subtle action will add considerable speed to the racquet and pace of the ball. Remember there is still a fair amount of guiding after contact even on powerfully hit balls so the body is still necessary to help guide the ball as well as help to recover the energy of the stroke after contact has been made. The development of the high gear/small muscle groups is perhaps the most difficult part of the game for players to master as it takes a great deal of confidence and timing to make the last moment windups and releases that occur in the hands that are responsible for speed. Conclusion
It is very important to understand that a tennis stroke is built through a very specific and ordered series of movements that are designed to produce control and power and to give the player the ability to utilize various options to handle varying situations. This is what you could regard as “well organized movement” and it is the key to staying light on the feet and to proper stroke construction. Well organized, rhythmic movement is a critical part of the game. This was painfully evidenced in the recent men’s final at Wimbledon. Roddick was playing with more patience, fluidity, and control – basically moving better. Losing some weight and calming his mind (what we refer to as “maturing” or better put “more focused”) was key. Unfortunately for him he resorted to his old (anxious) ways at 6-5 in the second set tiebreaker when he overreacted on a high backhand volley. By charging the net too aggressively instead of staying a bit more neutral and reading Federer’s passing shot before he moved on it, he over-committed and lunged forward just as Federer was hitting and Roddick was unable to convert a relatively easy volley opportunity. At this level of play a mistake like that can make all of the difference in a match and these mistakes, as you would expect, often happen at the most critical junctures. Thinking of how a transmission in a car or a gear mechanism on a bicycle works can be useful in developing the correct imagery and feel of how to get the body to move energy rhythmically and efficiently through the stroking action. This analogy may help to get the rhythm and timing of how energy and movement flows through a stroke and also give you various options for different situations. Like shifting in a car, the progression from one gear to another takes time and rhythm. Speed is built up smoothly and through a defined series of shifts. Speed is recovered in a similar but opposite manner. The important thing is to understand that the shifts must be smooth and continuous but must also follow a specific order and rhythm. Speed will be the natural result of smooth shifting if the gears are used properly. This will minimize excessive force applied to the wrong gears which will cause poor results and possible injury. Your comments are welcome. Let us know what you think about Doug King's article by emailing us here at TennisOne.
Doug is one of the country's foremost tennis teaching innovators. Founder of Acceleration Tennis, a revolutionary teaching system, King is leading the way in reinterpreting the traditional tennis model. Doug King is currently Director of Tennis at Meadowood Napa Valley ( www.meadowood.com ), a Relaix Chateau Resort in St. Helena , CA . For more information on Acceleration Tennis please email Doug King at dking@meadowood.com. |
|||||||||||
Doug King studied with legendary tennis coach Tom Stow and was a
former California State Men's Singles Champion
and the former number one men's player of Northern California.