what muscles are used in a tennis forehand what muscles are used in a tennis forehand

Several reviews of the biomechanics of tennis are available for interested readers (5,15,18). (We hardly ever get any unsubscriptions though, so we must be doing something right!). (b) Supination (palm up). Tennis is an intermittent sport in which players entail a mixture of physical components, such as linear sprint and change-of-direction speed, agility, muscle power, and cardiovascular fitness. 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. Other players simply keep the non-dominant arm dangling down next to the body from the start to the finish of the forehand. Back in the day of wooden rackets when grass courts ruled and most professional players used eastern forehand grips or even continental grips, it was unheard of to be taught that you should use your wrist during the forehand swing, with good reason. Given a modern fh, the key point is that if you are using the muscles in your forearm to create power or spin then you are not swinging correctly. If we get into the details of the movement, tennis is a complex sport that is made up of intricate movements. . This adaptation is partially the result of technology changes in the tennis racket and strings allowing for more power and spin generation resulting in more margins for error on the strokes. No stretching, no icing, no light weights, no ball squeezing, no work with a flexible bar, no pulleys. Does Mode of Contact with Different Types of Social Relationships Predict Depression in Older Adults? 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? Finally, there is a demonstration of how the legs, hips, and torso should move in synchrony as well as instruction on how to develop coordination so the athlete can utilize the kinetic chain more effectively. The athlete places their forearm on a table or bench while grasping a head heavy instrument (a weighted bar and hammer are both good options). J Sports Sci Med. You use the muscles of your lower body to twist into your swing to put more force behind the ball. In a split step the feet should be shoulder width apart, with legs flexed, the upper body leaning slightly forward and the weight on the balls of the feet. 13. Repetitive stress injuries caused by repeated motion of the shoulder, such as in tennis. When moving laterally, lunging to the side or changing direction . SUMMARY. 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 . And it does this without feeling like a workout. I think that he weighed 140 pounds but he's in the top 1,000. When I train my forearm, the next day the racket feels lighter Why would it be all shoulder?? This will mimic the movement and muscles used during a short attacking forehand. 4. Upper extremity angular kinematics of the one-handed backhand drive in tennis players with and without tennis elbow. The most common situations where open stance forehands are applied include wide and deep balls when the player is behind the baseline or requires greater leverage to produce the stroke. Two-handed backhand groundstroke-(a-c) illustrates the preparation phase of a 2-handed open stance backhand, while (d-f) illustrates the forward swing. 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. Coach the player to initiate the first movement with the upper body and not the legs. Step 9. 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. Grip the dumbbells so that they hang by your sides with the palms of your hand facing your sides. It is best to engage in functional exercises that will strengthen while also keep them loose and flexible. Please try again soon. Position 3. Eccentric strength both in the upper and in the lower body can assist in maximizing tennis performance as well as to aid in the prevention of injuries (12). Energy from the left leg is transferred as the hips open up first, followed by the shoulders. The flexible racket has been shown to dampen the shock better. The forehand specifically relies on the pectorals, deltoids and biceps to provide much of the upper body and arm activity in a tennis stroke, with the forearm and wrist "following along for the ride" after the hips open and generate internal shoulder rotation. Vitamin D for health: a global perspective. 8. It was preferred that they use a semi-western grip and prepare with a looped backswing and a laid back wrist. Spend as much time as your practice time allows developing movement. This linear motion of the body and racket also encourages more racket force being applied in the intended direction of the shot. For example: Some players have a hitch in their service motion. Additionally, when working on movement there should be a coordinated effort between the legs and the upper body. Let me clarify how I understand rotations on a modern FH: The way I use the term "core rotation," I include not only the abdominal and torso region but also the hip joints. 516-409-4444 Reid M and Elliott B. 12. Updated August 13, 2018. Although the movement begins in your legs and travels up through the core, your upper body is responsible for the final execution and follow through on the shot. During the wind-up for a powerful forehand throw, counter-rotate your shoulders as if you're preparing to swing a baseball bat. 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. The exercises denoted in this article are designed to help the coach with on-court and off-court training so that various training sites can be utilized for effectiveness in training. Each one of these sides is called a bevel, and they are numbered from 1 to 8 for easier identification. Keep a loose wrist so when you make contact it meets it dead on. Knudson D and Elliott BC. The one- and two-handed backhand in tennis. Using your core in tennis is the core of better control and balance when hitting your shots, Phiri tells Bustle. For a forehand volley, slight external rotation and slight adduction followed by abduction of the shoulder allow the player to complete the stroke. Isometric: A muscular contraction in which the length of the muscle does not change. Situation-specific forehands refer to the need to produce different types of forehands depending on where the player is in the court, the purpose of the shot (tactics), amount of preparation time available, as well as where the opponent is during the same scenario. following information explains the steps and muscles used to create this serve. PURPOSE To broaden our understanding of muscle function during the tennis volley under different ball placement and speed conditions by examining the activity of selected superficial muscles of the stroking arm and shoulder (flexor carpi radialis, extensor carpi radialis, triceps brachii, deltoids, and pectoralis major) and muscles related to These are the open and neutral stance. Effects of exercise to improve cardiovascular health. I suppose I don't need to reconcile them. Every tennis racket has a grip (or handle) with 8 different sides. The summation of this kinetic chain adds up to racket velocity and control. We promise to protect your privacy, never to spam you, and you are free to unsubscribe at any time. If the analysis of inefficient movements is followed, it can be of great assistance in locating a problem in stroke production. For example: When the two handed backhand is hit with no trunk rotation the arms must swing harder, increasing the chance of an error. Hold your racquet face vertical at the point where you normally meet the ball. To improve your grip strength, squeeze an old, squishy tennis ball. A student is never taught to stop his racket at impact because the ball has already left and any extra motion of his racket is useless, even though in purely physical terms there is truth to this statement. Whatever the technique adopted, the strength and conditioning professional should work with the tennis coach to customize training programs for the specific techniques used by players. Bahamonde R and Knudson D. Kinetics of the upper extremity in the open and square stance tennis forehand. 18. Once again, it looked as if there was a precisely timed snap of the wrist for this kind of tennis forehand. His swing style on the forehand featured a western grip and a follow through that ended by wrapping way past his left side so that his right shoulder was pointing toward the net with the racket head behind him. Figure 10a demonstrates a forearm pronation movement, and Figure 10b demonstrates a forearm supination movement. Forward axial torque to rotate the hips achieves its peak at the initiation of the forward stroke (8). 1. The rotations of the upper arm, forearm and hand account for the remaining 80 percent of racket speed. This focuses stress on the medial elbow region in the bent-arm sequential coordination in these strokes. One way to remember which muscle is the agonist - it's the one. Tennis volleys require smaller muscle and joint movements than either groundstrokes or serves. SPECIFIC EXERCISES BASED ON THE FINDINGS IN THE RESEARCH LITERATURE WERE THEN OFFERED. Tennis is a sport that allows you to enjoy yourself while improving your physical fitness. He is also a graduate of the High Performance Training Program. Here are a few crucial steps any tennis player can take to avoid wrist injury: Use wrist guards: Even the most basic wrist guards can help stabilize the wrist and absorb shock. Inclusion of these key training exercises in a tennis player's . Due to the swinging of the racket, tennis is often thought of as an upper-body sport, but your leg muscles, including your glutes, quadriceps, hamstrings and calves, are doing most of the work out on the court. To make the most of your tennis game, Mentus recommends playing for a half-hour at least twice a week. Concentrate on allowing your arm to swing through the service motion loosely and bring it up for contact. While moving forward, backward and side to side, your core helps you make quick changes in direction. Besides improving your flexibility, the racquet-based sport trains an assortment of muscles, too. 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. From the sports medicine point of view it is important to consider how the racket dampens vibration and reduces shock. tennisinstruction.com is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com. ; eccentric: An isotonic contraction where the muscle lengthens. Most importantly, a split step must occur just as the opponent is starting the forward swing. Six male national representatives performed a tennis forehand stroke in the laboratory. It has highlighted the key movement patterns and muscle activations of the serve and in so doing provided the framework for the exercises recommended for the tennis player. This article will summarize recent research related to the biomechanics of tennis technique and propose specific conditioning exercises that logically would tend to improve performance and reduce the risk of injury in tennis. Forehand Lastly, an up and out hitting action is a key feature of a mature swing. 2. All aspects of your upper body are engaged when swinging in tennis.. Vigorous axial hip and upper-trunk rotation allow for energy transfer from the lower extremity to the upper extremity in the square stance forehand. 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. J Epidemiol. Background:The open stance forehand has been hypothesized by tennis experts (coaches, scientists, and clinicians) to be more traumatic than the neutral stance forehand as regards hip injuries in te. For the forehand specifically, the core and forearms are most important. Always warm-up: Performing warm-up exercises for wrists can go a long way in preventing injury. This ground action force is necessary to decelerate the body from one direction and accelerate the body in another direction. Big forehands use the whole kinetic chain, from the feet up to the hand, so you're going to need to do overall strengthening. Torques about the wrist in 1-handed backhands are greater than direct force loading (14) and can create a rapid stretch of the wrist extensors that is more pronounced in players with a history of tennis elbow (17). While it is believed that optimal use of the kinetic chain will maximize performance and reduce the risk of injury (6,11), the transfer of force and energy to the small segments and tissues of the upper extremity do place them under great stress. While theres a lot of emphasis on your lower body and core in a game of tennis, your upper body, arms, shoulders, and chest are key components, too, says Frayna. Experienced law . More on how tennis works your body, below. Keep in mind that: the function of the racket is to enhance the function of the player. The completion of the swing shows a follow-through in the direction of the target until well after contact is made followed by the racket swinging back over the head as a result of the forceful rotational component of the swing. Copyright 2023 Leaf Group Ltd. / Leaf Group Media, All Rights Reserved. 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. The athlete grasps the wrist roller device with both hands at shoulder height. The racket was placed on the dominant side; then, it was directed towards the ball. O ne of the characteristics for the tennis evolution over the past decade is a preferential use of the forehand drive in the construction of the point (15) that appears as a key stroke of the modern game . supplement your tennis game by strength training. Medicine ball wall open stance groundstroke drill. As the ball left the racket, only then did the wrist start straightening out and the forearm start pronating. How could that be? The internal rotators of the shoulder (pec major, lats, subscap) and the trunk muscles are the primary movers in this phase. The purpose was to train the athlete to move efficiently to deep balls behind the baseline and to be able to produce greater energy transfer from open stance position that will translate into greater weight transfer, trunk rotation, and more effective stroke production from deep in the court (Figure 4). 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. Strength is bottom up, starting from the legs. Your racquet face naturally opens up (tilts upward) as you swing forward. Preparation 4. 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. Concentrate on extending the arm and making contact. . Watch his glutes, some huge powerhouses! 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. 2020;113(5):81. Br J Sports Med. In: 2. While practicing and playing tennis will strengthen your upper body, conditioning these muscle groups off of the court will help your game. This movement is then repeated on the way back to the starting position focused on developing deceleration ability in this same plane of motion. Iino Y and Kojima T. Role of knee flexion and extension for rotating the trunk in a tennis forehand stroke. The rotation of upper arm, forearm, and hand, account for the remaining 75% of racket speed at impact. I am on a tennis court and I do NOT have a good device to type. Both these movements are used during tennis groundstrokes. 2. Forward swing to impact consists of trunk rotation initiating racket movement and is responsible for the forward movement of the hitting arm. The pain is caused by damage to the tendons that bend the wrist toward the palm. Mark Kovacsis Senior Manager of Strength and Conditioning/ Sport Science at the United States Tennis Association. Evidence from a Nationally Representative Survey. 10. This linked system, or KINETIC CHAIN, works in a very systematic fashion with the legs interacting with the ground. This will make the power from the swing come mostly from the arm instead of the body. The Modern Forehand Domination Ebook is guaranteed to improve your tennis technique, and increase power, topspin and accuracy of your tennis forehand! This will have the effect of taking the arm out of sync with the body by putting the arm ahead of the body. It is not possible to uniquely track the transfer of mechanical energy in a 3-dimensional movement of the human body, but it is generally accepted that most of the energy or force used to accelerate a tennis racket is transferred to the arm and racket from the larger muscle groups in the legs and trunk (5,15,21). You need to smoothing accelerate from load and basically sling the racquet into the ball. Mili uses various swing exercises to help players feel the swing and how to amplify it through the body movements. Obesity (Silver Spring). Long Island Tennis Magazine He may be reached by e-mail at .

. The old coaching program for the basic table tennis techniques is outdated! ; A muscle fiber generates tension through actin and myosin cross-bridge cycling. But that's not always the case. Akutagawa S and Kojima T. Trunk rotation torques through the hip joints during the one-and two-handed backhand tennis strokes. And whats even better is you dont have to be a pro like Serena Williams to give it a try. The program conditions for speed the muscles used in all of the following: One handed forehand; Two handed forehand; One handed backhand; Two handed backhand; Tennis . 1. 9. For the forehand specifically, the core and forearms are most important. The modern forehand was now proven to be almost like the classic forehand. Iino Y and Kojima T. Torque acting on the pelvis about its superior-inferior axis through the hip joints during a tennis forehand stroke. In the future, numerical simulations will necessarily support similar . Much of the power in the volleys comes from this step. This study aimed at investigating the relationship between the trunk and upper limb muscle coordination and mass of the tennis racket . Training exercises should, therefore, emulate this sequential coordination, as well as stabilizing musculature. An analysis of the muscles and joints used in a tennis forehand. 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. Strength & Conditioning Journal31(4):41-49, August 2009. Nadal generates huge power from the hips. Once the weight is lowered as far as possible, the athlete then flexes and extends the wrist to lift the weight back up to the starting position. (a) Pronation (palm down). In Figure 5, the athlete is demonstrating a closed stance catching position. They did this by whipping the racket steeply upward and way over the head using a very fast action of the shoulder, arm and wrist. How to reconcile this with other posts claiming that the power comes from pushing off the ground? For more information, please refer to our Privacy Policy. On the other hand, from a biomechanical standpoint, the follow through is just as important a part of the entire swing all the other parts. Tennis demands movement in all of these planes - and at times, multiple planes simultaneously. Wantagh, NY 11793 Working out from home: How tennis can be played safely amid coronavirus pandemic. A backhand clear is usually only played when a player is not in a position to play a forehand ('round the head') shot and as such, this is a defensive shot. The muscles involved would include: pectoralis major, latissimus dorsi, teres major, subscapularis, and deltoid (anterior fibers). Make sure to maintain a straight wrist so that the ball travels in an upward motion avoiding the net. I'm sure forearm strength helps with endurance. The athlete starts on the center service mark and the coach/trainer throws the MB about 3 to 5 feet behind and to the right. The backswing, commencing with flexion of the lower legs and irrespective of style, is characterized by a loop, which has shown to increase racket speed (as opposed to the straight backswing which provides control), and a large rotation of shoulders and trunk. There may be times when the execution of a serve is altered based on the environment - wind, sun, a noisy crowd. 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). For example: When the two handed backhand is hit with no trunk rotation the arms must swing harder, increasing the chance of an error. 9. In the end, the role of the wrist on the tennis forehand was there all the while, but for a long time, it was just attributed to the wrong part of the swing! 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. Once your arms are parallel with the ground, slowly and in a controlled manner lower the weights back down to the starting position. 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. I'm pretty sure I can do double Maria Sharapova's best in any exercise. It's not theory. Knudson D and Blackwell J. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding. It's one of the keys to the whole modern fh. Improve Strength. The upper limb movements are responsible for the majority of racket speed at impact. 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. doi:10.1177/0022146510383501. But what muscles does tennis work? One aspect of inefficient movement is when one of the body parts is left out or the kinetic chain is broken. All rights reserved. Updated October 2018. Examples are described for forehands (right-handed players), but they should also be performed on the opposing side to mimic movements required for backhand strokes. Fitness," "Triathlon Magazine," "Inside Tennis" and others. Recent developments in forehand and backhand stroke production have created a needed change in coaching methodology. The purpose was to develop forearm strength and endurance in pronation and supination (Figure 10). 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). The wrist is also a big part of table tennis and should always be taken care of. Mayo Clinic. Some error has occurred while processing your request. Her bylines include "Tennis Life," "Ms. Roetert EP and Reid M. Linear and angular momentum. All things being equal, the kinetic chain is virtually the same for both types of backhands and should be observed as such. Biomechanics, stated simply, can be defined as the study of human motion in its physical entirety. In modern tennis, more and more players use an open stance. I'd like to see any evidence that bears on how Titin is triggered for the SSC. Lower body strength and endurance are important to the badminton player. Particularly, the catching phase of the medicine ball (MB) tosses in Figures 4-7 helps in improving both upper- and lower-body eccentric strength. 2018;28(1):27-33. doi:10.2188/jea.JE20160166, Teo AR, Choi H, Andrea SB, et al. This phase involves the trunk muscle to make the adequate momentum and cancelation. V. Simply playing. Legs are the most important muscles for tennis in general, but very powerful and controlled forehands can be hit without much leg involvement. Your quads are key for agility on the court, but also play a role in that swing, Frayna adds. Because the rackets had become bigger and lighter with stabilizing and vibration-reducing technologies, hitting heavier topspin became possible without greatly compromising ball speed. The purpose was to develop rotational core strength in the transverse plane (Figure 8). This lean into the ball tends to level out the racket path, resulting in a longer, more stable hitting zone. While this transfer of energy has not been tested in open stance forehands, it is logical that vigorous leg drive also transfers energy to trunk rotation. But what muscles does tennis work? Even so, as graphite rackets became more mainstream, players started to adapt strokes that were loopier and featured more of a whipping action. These muscles are especially used in tennis because they are "predominantly used to control the movement of the arm" and the arms are used when swinging a racket (Ted Temertzoglou . to maintaining your privacy and will not share your personal information without