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

E. Paul Roetertis Managing Director of Coaching Education and Sport Science at the United States Tennis Association. The tennis forehand was now a shot dictated by snappy wrist action. The old coaching program for the basic table tennis techniques is outdated! 10. This involves having control over the racket head and swinging the racket with optimal speed. Once again, it looked as if there was a precisely timed snap of the wrist for this kind of tennis forehand. Long Island Tennis Magazine In the forehand, backhand, and serve, the abs contract and flex to generate power. 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. The hand plays an integral role in generating racket speed. In the upper-body: the muscles of your chest, upper back, shoulders, and arms. J Health Soc Behav. I think that they are important but there are certainly other factors that can result in tennis success. Preparation 4. The purpose of this article was to help coaches recognize the unique aspects of tennis groundstrokes, with specific implication for how they can train their athletes. Strength is bottom up, starting from the legs. 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. 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. Hold your racquet face vertical at the point where you normally meet the ball. Hit the back of the ball if you want to lift it to get the forehand high loop. 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. Forehand Swing: Anterior deltoid, pectorals, shoulder internal rotators, elbow flexors (biceps), serratus anterior Muscles Used In The One-Handed Backhand Volley And Drive: Push-Off: Soleus, gastrocnemius, quadriceps, gluteals If we want to fire the muscles as fast as possible, we need to first stretch the muscles and as soon as they're stretched Bjorn Borg, who would win five consecutive Wimbledon titles, revolutionized tennis by using a western grip to produce heavy but still fast topspin forehand drives. (a) Pronation (palm down). Coordination of body weight transfer is discussed as well. It throws the timing of the bodys kinetic chain out of synch, forcing the arm to swing with excessive action. The athlete flexes and extends the wrist to lower the weight. You may be trying to access this site from a secured browser on the server. There are three major causes of shoulder pain: Direct damage (trauma) to some part of the shoulder bone, muscle, or other tissue. Front Cardiovasc Med. 11. Slowly raise the weights to your sides keeping your elbows almost locked out. 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. You use the muscles of your lower body to twist into your swing to put more force behind the ball. For example: When hitting the serve the legs may not be utilized completely, resulting in the hips and trunk working harder to create arm and racket speed. An essential ingredient of footwork is to think of the body as a series of small, coiled springs that, when activated, sequentially result in propelling the player in the desired direction. Both these movements are used during tennis groundstrokes. This linear motion of the body and racket also encourages more racket force being applied in the intended direction of the shot. Wolters Kluwer Health If you're right-handed, place the racquet at the right side of your body and grip it with your wrist at the butt of the handle slightly to the right. United Sports Publications, Ltd. Invest into finding the right gear: Everything about your racketthe string . No stretching, no icing, no light weights, no ball squeezing, no work with a flexible bar, no pulleys. Bahamonde R and Knudson D. Kinetics of the upper extremity in the open and square stance tennis forehand. The racket was placed on the dominant side; then, it was directed towards the ball. 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. Obesity (Silver Spring). Learn How to Hit a Forehand Like Federer, Nadal and Djokovic. Modern players often hit aggressive high-speed groundstrokes to overpower their opponent. Again, the 2-fold approach of this article was to help practitioners realize the types of training that will (a) improve performance by creating more force within muscle groups, improve coordination between various body parts involved in each stroke, and develop overall power in the athlete's stroke production and (b) develop strength in the various body parts and across joints that would protect the athlete from injury. Regardless of grip type, backswing or follow-through, impact must be exact for a player to hit a specific shot. Here's What Trainers Say, Here's How Long To Spend In An Ice Bath To Reap All The Benefits, Get Even More From Bustle Sign Up For The Newsletter. The flexible racket has been shown to dampen the shock better. During the wind-up for a powerful forehand throw, counter-rotate your shoulders as if you're preparing to swing a baseball bat. V. Roetert, E Paul PhD1; Kovacs, Mark PhD, CSCS1; Knudson, Duane PhD2; Groppel, Jack L PhD3, 1United States Tennis Association, Boca Raton, Florida; 2Department of Health and Human Performance, San Marcos, Texas; and 3Human Performance Institute, Lake Nona, Florida. In the future, numerical simulations will necessarily support similar . Spend as much time as your practice time allows developing movement. Vigorous axial hip and upper-trunk rotation allow for energy transfer from the lower extremity to the upper extremity in the square stance forehand. Vitamin D for health: a global perspective. One of the keys to his teachings are the swings or, in other words, applying the principle of the pendulum to your groundstrokes. 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 As long as you can swing a racquet, chase after the ball, and hit a few volleys, youll be able to reap the strength and health-boosting benefits. I think that he weighed 140 pounds but he's in the top 1,000. 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. Elliott B. Biomechanics of tennis. The backhand underspin has an impact point that occurs closer to the front foot and closer to the body. If it sounds right and feels right and produces the right result, why say that it is wrong just because something that would otherwise never be seen is really happening? Professional players and champions of the past utilized the tennis forehand wrist position in a static manner, with the wrist hardly moving throughout the forehand swing. Once you know whether the ball is coming to your forehand or backhand side, turn your body right away in that direction so that your non-hitting shoulder faces the net. 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. 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. The purpose was to increase grip strength and endurance via forearm flexion and extension (Figure 9). 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. Tennis development is a natural consequence of biomechanics. J Sports Sci Med. Forward swing to impact requires more trunk rotation of the hitting shoulder. Polyester strings were more durable and it allowed Kuerten to stroke the ball with as much racket head speed as he could possibly generate. Whether that means playing with a partner or hitting against a practice wall, these are the muscles thatll get a major workout while youre focused on getting that ball over the net. Please try after some time. Players were taught to use the windshield wiper forehand with the wrist brushing the ball at contact and they were getting results. ; A muscle fiber generates tension through actin and myosin cross-bridge cycling. Using the upper body to lean forward toward the action just before the legs add their contribution is also the same way that players move to ground strokes. It is part of the momentum of the swing that takes the racket to the completion of the follow through. I'm sure forearm strength helps with endurance. As always, the best treatment is prevention. If the analysis of inefficient movements is followed, it can be of great assistance in locating a problem in stroke production. One aspect of inefficient movement is when one of the body parts is left out or the kinetic chain is broken. It seemed that in order to hit a proper tennis forehand, the wrist had to be firm and stable. 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. Every time you hit a groundstroke, you're primarily working the transverse plane (i.e. Because the rackets had become bigger and lighter with stabilizing and vibration-reducing technologies, hitting heavier topspin became possible without greatly compromising ball speed. Dermatoendocrinol. 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 . Lie on the ground on your back, spread your arms to the sides in a T position, pushing your palms to the ground. Tennis demands movement in all of these planes - and at times, multiple planes simultaneously. (a-f) One-handed backhand groundstroke-(a-c) illustrates the preparation phase of a 1-handed closed stance backhand, while (d-f) illustrates the forward swing. Aerobic exercise: Top 10 reasons to get physical. And Bjorn Borg in the late '70s made most of his forehand shots using open stance. You are new to table tennis or you just want to come back and learn, from the beginning, the correct table tennis techniques. Every tennis racket has a grip (or handle) with 8 different sides. The forearm flexors and grip musculature are also important in the tennis forehand. 2023 BDG Media, Inc. All rights reserved. Turn Your Shoulders Early. 2017;51(10):812-817. doi:10.1136/bjsports-2016-096822, Donnelly JE, Honas JJ, Smith BK, et al. Highlight selected keywords in the article text. This is because the milliseconds when the ball contacts and launches off the string bed and the milliseconds when the wrist does finally does start straightening out are seen and felt like it is all happening at the same instant. All aspects of your upper body are engaged when swinging in tennis.. your express consent. The flexor carpi ulnaris muscle, pronator teres and flexor digitorum superficialis form predominantly the musculo-tendinous unit overlying the AOL; all three muscles have been described to contribute to medial support as secondary stabilisers. In the forehand, two types of stances are used. Especially while playing tennis are many kinds of muscles. Backhand Natural gut provided power, control and feel but it broke easily as players started to swing harder and harder. 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. For the forehand specifically, the core and forearms are most important. If we get into the details of the movement, tennis is a complex sport that is made up of intricate movements. Mili uses various swing exercises to help players feel the swing and how to amplify it through the body movements. This movement is then repeated on the way back to the starting position focused on developing deceleration ability in this same plane of motion. Always warm-up: Performing warm-up exercises for wrists can go a long way in preventing injury. Vitamin D and Inflammation: Potential Implications for Severity of COVID-19. Additionally, the power for your serve, forehand and backhand originates in the legs and travels up through your body to your racket. 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. 2015;63(10):2014-22. doi:10.1111/jgs.13667, Umberson D, Montez JK. The athlete grasps the wrist roller device with both hands at shoulder height. As the ball left the racket, only then did the wrist start straightening out and the forearm start pronating. Forward rotation of the upper trunk coincides with a lag in the upper extremity resisted by eccentric muscle actions and large peak shoulder horizontal adductor and internal rotation torques (3). That tells us that the left shoulder (for right-handed players) is disconnected from the right shoulder, and therefore they do not rotate together as the forehand is being hit.. When I train my forearm, the next day the racket feels lighter Why would it be all shoulder?? Its not every day you think about the forearm muscles, but they come in clutch when playing tennis. The forearm muscles are most important to grip strength and a stronger grip allows for more power to be exerted in the swing, he explains. Luckily, these muscles respond quickly to training, unlike legs, which are a b$%# to train. When we observe the modern tennis forehand in slow motion video, it is apparent that the forehand wrist position has changed drastically than what was being utilized in the traditional forehand of the past. You may search for similar articles that contain these same keywords or you may I suppose I don't need to reconcile them. Grip (tennis) In tennis, a grip is a way of holding the racquet in order to hit shots during a match. Your quads are key for agility on the court, but also play a role in that swing, Frayna adds. Research indicates that the segmental contributions are influenced by grip type and ball level. Tilt the face of your racquet down more on your backswing. Stand so that the bar will be balanced in the middle of your upper back. Now some people talk about "core rotation", how that is important and how that can be used even without legs. Working out from home: How tennis can be played safely amid coronavirus pandemic. Training the wrist extensors is particularly important for tennis players using a 1-handed backhand. As the shuttle is struck behind the body the 'thumb' grip (often confusingly referred to as a backhand grip) should not be used. The world's best players like Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Juan Martin Del Potro and Stan Wawrinka use the forehand as a powerful weapon. This will turn the forehand swing into an arm swing by activating the muscles in the arm. It is, after all, a fun way to exercise without feeling like youre exercising. And that means youll be quicker on your feet both on and off the court. Players were still able to position themselves take the ball early and step into the shot. Counter-rotating your shoulders should make your hips want to turn with your shoulders. So just go out and concentrate on smoothness. For the forehand specifically, the core and forearms are most important. This will make the power from the swing come mostly from the arm instead of the body. Also a few exercises that tennis players should do. 22. The upper limb movements are responsible for the majority of racket speed at impact. The follow through was straight forward in the direction of the ball then wrapping slightly around the front past midpoint but not totally all the way over the shoulder or torso. Therefore, in a way, the coaches are correct to teach such a technique. These things are happening too fast for the eye and the mind to process accurately. Once your arms are parallel with the ground, slowly and in a controlled manner lower the weights back down to the starting position. These studies utilized even more precise slow motion captures and biomechanical correlations. Calories burned in 30 minutes for people of three different weights. Legs are the most important muscles for tennis in general, but very powerful and controlled forehands can be hit without much leg involvement. Federer's Lift your legs straight up toward the sky. Instead, the wrist stayed in the exact same laid back position at impact and beyond. 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. Just like pickleball, the classic sport of tennis has been making a comeback. For a forehand volley, slight external rotation and slight adduction followed by abduction of the shoulder allow the player to complete the stroke. After the racket made contact with the ball, the racket was directed to the opposite arm of the player in a way of swinging. Nadal generates huge power from the hips. The forehand tennis stroke is made with the dominant hand. The three most commonly used conventional grips are: the Continental (or "Chopper"), the Eastern and the Semi-Western. Knudson D and Elliott BC. The wrist is also a big part of table tennis and should always be taken care of. It is best to engage in functional exercises that will strengthen while also keep them loose and flexible. How well these factors are perceived by the coach will dictate how well the players will respond and initiate the movement needed to perform. Figure 10a demonstrates a forearm pronation movement, and Figure 10b demonstrates a forearm supination movement. Besides improving your flexibility, the racquet-based sport trains an assortment of muscles, too. If you want to jumpstart your forehand and play like the PROS, check out my 70+ page Tennis Ebook that will immediately show you how you can take your forehand to the next level. This article has summarized key biomechanical variables inherent in an elite-level tennis serve. Copyright 2023 Leaf Group Ltd. / Leaf Group Media, All Rights Reserved. Effective analysis of this kinetic chain is an essential ingredient in developing technique in stroke production and in determining the possible cause of an injury. Key Terms. The Differences Between Tennis & Badminton. Keyword Highlighting Biomechanics of tennis strokes. Two back swing techniques, multi- segment back swing and single-unit back swing, were compared. The purpose was to develop rotational hip and core strength in movement patterns and planes that are most used during tennis strokes (Figure 7). These exercises can also be performed with an inexpensive resistance band. The EMG activity of the subjects' anterior deltoid muscle and the forearm extensor muscle group was recorded with the subjects using racket grip sizes of 4 1/4, 4 1/2, 4 3/4 inches. There may be times when the execution of a serve is altered based on the environment - wind, sun, a noisy crowd. Moving efficiently on a tennis court requires changing direction and speed smoothly and quickly. Step 10. I'd like to see any evidence that bears on how Titin is triggered for the SSC. The backhand volley involves slight internal rotation and abduction followed by slight external . 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. Particularly, the catching phase of the medicine ball (MB) tosses in Figures 4-7 helps in improving both upper- and lower-body eccentric strength. Forward axial torque to rotate the hips achieves its peak at the initiation of the forward stroke (8). It hones in on the larger muscle groups listed below. 10. 20. This study aimed at investigating the relationship between the trunk and upper limb muscle coordination and mass of the tennis racket . Dynamic stretching has sustained effects on range of motion and passive stiffness of the hamstring muscles. Besides improving your flexibility, the racquet-based sport trains an assortment of muscles, too. What is it? The muscles involved would include: pectoralis major, latissimus dorsi, teres major, subscapularis, and deltoid (anterior fibers). SPECIFIC EXERCISES BASED ON THE FINDINGS IN THE RESEARCH LITERATURE WERE THEN OFFERED. Exercise for Your Bone Health. Muscles used in Badminton. Mayo Clin Proc. Knudson D. Forces on the hand in the one-handed backhand. 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. When watching a game, youll notice that tennis players are holding a squat pretty much throughout the entire game. The main kinetic chain motions that create racket speed in the forehand are trunk rotation, horizontal shoulder adduction, and internal rotation (4). Open Stance. I was kind of amazed at the guy that Matt played last year I think (he posted a video). 1228Wantagh Avenue I am on a tennis court and I do NOT have a good device to type. Your core also engages as you swing, says Sandra Gail Frayna, a physical therapist with Hudson Premier Physical Therapy & Sports. 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). 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. The forehand can be an aggressive and powerful attack shot that is used to return an opponent's shot and, when executed correctly, will manoeuvre an opponent around the court or win a point.. The arms should move in sync on the forehand either like this or . From this position, the athlete slowly rotates through the transverse plane as far as the athlete's flexibility allows. While typically, a forehand would be considered an 'open' skill. (a-f) Forehand groundstroke-(a-c) illustrates the preparation phase of the open stance forehand, while (d-f) illustrates the forward swing. The increase in EMG levels in the forearm This position will produce greater weight transfer, trunk rotation, and more effective stroke production on wide balls. A key thing to keep in mind, especially if youre playing tennis on a regular basis, is that tennis naturally uses one side of the body more than the other. In general, there are 2 styles of coordination in 2-handed backhands. The swing to impact involves the lower limb drive, together with trunk rotation that produces the shoulder rotation and represents 20 percent of the racket speed. Pinckard K, Baskin KK, Stanford KI. In order to move well, players need to efficiently coordinate their upper and lower body to enhance movement and footwork. But that's not always the case. Updated August 13, 2018. The 6 basic "strokes" are the fundamental movements a player performs to hit a tennis ball. Both these movements are used during tennis groundstrokes. This gets all of the big muscle groups connected through the shoulders, back, core and hips in position to fire. This strategy places extra stress on the player's body that strength and conditioning professionals should consider in designing training programs. This means that subsequent body parts must work harder. The purpose was to develop rotational core strength in the transverse plane (Figure 8). If impact is viewed as the most important part of a tennis stroke, and it is accepted that there are several backswings and follow-throughs a player could use, then the next step is to identify the other important attributes of sound stroke production. A strong core keeps you balanced and stable so that you can focus on hitting the ball. Some error has occurred while processing your request. Vigorous extension of the lower extremity in classic closed stance forehands creates greater axial torques to rotate the pelvis and hips than not using the legs (9). 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). Not only does your core connect your lower body to your upper body, most movements originate in your core. Suite 203 And it does this without feeling like a workout. Footwork, or movement, is another important biomechanical attribute. Most players change grips during a match depending on what shot they are hitting. Inflammation, which can arise beside repetitive injuries or on its own, often in the joints. Contents 1. 13. This is one of the toughest shots to play in badminton. Additionally, when working on movement there should be a coordinated effort between the legs and the upper body. To understand how your players develop coordinated skills, control, consistency, placement and power, it is important to consider the idea of a linked system of body segments. All they do is hold the racket and snap the wrist I think. Associations of specific types of sports and exercise with all-cause and cardiovascular-disease mortality: a cohort study of 80 306 British adults. These players nonetheless evidently thrived with this instruction. Note the hip and trunk rotation in the 2-handed backhand (Figure 3a-f). He may be reached by e-mail at .

. But what muscles does tennis work? Knudson D. Hand forces and impact effectiveness in the tennis forehand. While practicing and playing tennis will strengthen your upper body, conditioning these muscle groups off of the court will help your game. It's one of the keys to the whole modern fh. Rather, it is primarily an essential aspect of the follow through. I believe it. Muscles shoulders: deltoid, pectoralis major, coracobrachialis elbow/fore: biceps brachii, brachialis, brachioradialis, pronator quadratus & teres hand: flexor digitorum supinators, lumbricals, palmar interossei, opponens pollicis trunk: erector spinae group hips: hamstring group, gluteus medius & minimus knees: quadriceps group Roetert EP and Reid M. Linear and angular momentum. Keep in mind that: the function of the racket is to enhance the function of the player. The purpose was to train the athlete to move sideways and to be able to produce greater energy transfer from an open stance position (Figure 6). Perform two to three sets of 10 reps with each exercise and work both arms. The rotations of the upper arm, forearm and hand account for the remaining 80 percent of racket speed. 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.