TennisOne Lessons

The Secret to Controlled Power

Doug King

It is said that nothing is more alluring than power. That statement certainly finds support in the game of tennis. Today’s style of tennis is synonymous with power; blistering serves, crushing topspin groundstrokes, and blinding speed of foot. Spectators cannot help but wonder how it is done and dream that one day, they will experience the thrill.

The sad reality is that for us mortal men and women, any attempt to generate that kind of positive power is simply an exercise in frustration. With limbs flailing wildly, balls struck with significant force almost always find their demise in the bottom of the net or crash into the back fence. To add irony to insult, attempts to regain a measure of control to the game can often result in stiffness and immobility that leaves one feeling paralyzed and overwhelmed.

In this article we will look at the secret to controlled power. We will start very logically by developing a model and we will compare that model to existing models. Then, in upcoming features, we will breakdown the model into specific components. By finding the correct paradigm we will reveal that the true secret to controlled power is the understanding that there is no contradiction, no polarity in the term “controlled power,” and that control and power are integrated into the same principle.

Debunking the “Whip Theory” of Power

Let me start by expressing my strong belief that whether you are hitting a flat first serve, a dipping topspin forehand groundstroke, or an underspin backhand volley, there is a single, underlying principle that applies to all strokes. Forehands are mirror images of backhands, serves are inversions of groundstrokes, underspin is the exact flip of topspin - and control and power are similarly linked.

The most common model of power is the whip or the kinetic chain. This has been the most dominant system guiding modern thought and in a way defines the very essence of modern tennis. But I would argue that it simply is not the perfect tennis model. The kinetic chain does a good job of explaining aspects of the stroke (the take back, primarily) but it does not replicate the actual stroke as we see it. The essence of the kinetic chain is that energy starts in the large muscles and works out to the small muscles. In essence it is a based on a whip principle. It  is held as the common model for tennis today, especially on the serve and overhead. Like many things that become so familiar to us, we become blind to what we actually see and do, and instead we reshape our thinking to fit something that we have already accepted.

This is the case with the whip theory in tennis. Let me explain: in a whip action force is created at one end and that force is then transferred outward, increasing in speed as it travels to smaller and smaller segments. The truth is we never see a whip action in a correctly produced tennis stroke. In a whip action the power leaves one segment and once it leaves that segment, the segment is left relatively passive. This never is the case in a tennis stroke, even the most powerful strokes like an overhead or a serve. There is always continuous shifting from the big areas, the source areas. The handle of the whip (to use the whip analogy) never stops shifting and driving in a tennis stroke. There is, in other words, follow through. Even players that are considered very whippy, like Roger Federer have tremendous follow throughs.

Imagine how Federer lifts himself higher off the ground after contact on a serve, and rotates his hips and shoulders as he follows through. Imagine how he rotates the trunk of his body on his most powerful forehand and backhand drives. This is not characteristic of a whip action. Yet because we see his hand going so fast and everybody calls it a whip and the experts always expound on the “kinetic chain,” we think that this is what we are seeing. In fact we even redefine what we mean by whip so that “whip” comes to be defined by what we see Federer do rather than the other way around.

The Pendulum Theory and Control

On the other side of the coin is control. The control model in tennis usually is associated with a very even back and forth shift similar to a pendulum swing or a gate swing. This is more of an “old school” approach and is typified by the “turn-step in-follow through” philosophy. It is characterized by long sweeping strokes stretching from back fence to forward fence. These are long, linear paths that give us a sense of control as though we are guiding the ball on a long straight path. The volley is also a taught as a very direct back and forth action, but much smaller and quicker – as in the “punch volley.”