what muscles are used in a tennis forehand

Both these movements are used during tennis groundstrokes. This movement primes the body in readiness for an explosive move in any direction. Effect of core training on dynamic balance and agility among Indian junior tennis players. The hand plays an integral role in generating racket speed. 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. This will have the effect of taking the arm out of sync with the body by putting the arm ahead of the body. 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. 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. It was preferred that they use a semi-western grip and prepare with a looped backswing and a laid back wrist. . to maintaining your privacy and will not share your personal information without Slowly raise the weights to your sides keeping your elbows almost locked out. You may be trying to access this site from a secured browser on the server. To improve your grip strength, squeeze an old, squishy tennis ball. Modern Tennis Forehand Ebook And Bjorn Borg in the late '70s made most of his forehand shots using open stance. 12. Particularly, the catching phase of the medicine ball (MB) tosses in Figures 4-7 helps in improving both upper- and lower-body eccentric strength. He is also a graduate of the High Performance Training Program. The quads aka the muscles on the fronts of your thighs get in on the action, too. Strength & Conditioning Journal31(4):41-49, August 2009. It is vital that teaching professionals understand this kinetic chain so that they can better recognize errors or inefficient movement. Therefore, in a way, the coaches are correct to teach such a technique. Watch his glutes, some huge powerhouses! Forward axial torque to rotate the hips achieves its peak at the initiation of the forward stroke (8). I guess it depends on the person? You need to smoothing accelerate from load and basically sling the racquet into the ball. Open Stance. 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 involves having control over the racket head and swinging the racket with optimal speed. Federer's Use a 3- to 5-pound dumbbell and perform isolation wrist flexion and extension exercises as well as forearm pronation exercises. In addition, it requires many short sprints and explosive movements, which will develop the fast-twitch muscle fibers necessary for athletic activity, adds ACE-certified personal trainer TJ Mentus. January 1, 2017. (a-f). 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. This leg drive utilizes ground reaction forces and is critical for linear to angular momentum transfer and the development of high racket speed. Tilt the face of your racquet down more on your backswing. 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. Exercise for Your Bone Health. 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). 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. Your racquet face naturally opens up (tilts upward) as you swing forward. And it does this without feeling like a workout. The purpose was to develop rotational core strength in the transverse plane (Figure 8). Lie on the ground on your back, spread your arms to the sides in a T position, pushing your palms to the ground. info@usptennis.com, Login | Advertise | About Us | Terms of Use | Privacy Policy, Copyright 2021United Sports Publications. An analysis of the muscles and joints used in a tennis forehand. Knudson D. Forces on the hand in the one-handed backhand. Broadly considered, human musclelike the muscles of all vertebratesis often divided into striated muscle (or skeletal muscle), smooth muscle, and cardiac muscle. Modern tactics dictate that the forehand be hit with varying degrees of topspin. Copyright 2022. The summation of this kinetic chain adds up to racket velocity and control. For example: When the two handed backhand is hit with no trunk rotation the arms must swing harder, increasing the chance of an error. The game of tennis has changed dramatically in the past 30 years. Another tennis grip which can be used in a forehand shot is the continental forehand grip. 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.. 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. There are three major causes of shoulder pain: Direct damage (trauma) to some part of the shoulder bone, muscle, or other tissue. In order to build up maximum racket head speed at contact, it has to be moving continuously even after contact. Coaches felt that these new forehand stroking styles were just a continuation of the evolution of the stroke from the 80s. Bernard Tomic had tiny legs when he was beating top 20 players as a teenager. By subscribing to this BDG newsletter, you agree to our. Mayo Clinic. Legs are the most important muscles for tennis in general, but very powerful and controlled forehands can be hit without much leg involvement. There are 3 planes of motion (figure 1) - sagittal, frontal and transverse. Instead, the wrist stayed in the exact same laid back position at impact and beyond. Who do you think hits the bigger FH, her or me? In order to move well, players need to efficiently coordinate their upper and lower body to enhance movement and footwork. 2. Front Cardiovasc Med. Make sure to maintain a straight wrist so that the ball travels in an upward motion avoiding the net. 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. According to Pant, youll quickly build up strength in your dominant arm aka the one holding the racquet which is why it helps to supplement your tennis game by strength training in other ways. Because the rackets had become bigger and lighter with stabilizing and vibration-reducing technologies, hitting heavier topspin became possible without greatly compromising ball speed. Look at the players at a open level tournament after their match, and see their bulging forearms, with veins popping out everywhere. What is it? 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. Key Terms. More on how tennis works your body, below. Just like pickleball, the classic sport of tennis has been making a comeback. Figure 10a demonstrates a forearm pronation movement, and Figure 10b demonstrates a forearm supination movement. For effective volleys, players need to execute a split step in preparation for both volleys. All things being equal, the kinetic chain is virtually the same for both types of backhands and should be observed as such. You must log in or register to reply here. Associations of specific types of sports and exercise with all-cause and cardiovascular-disease mortality: a cohort study of 80 306 British adults. Kawasaki S, Imai S, Inaoka H, Masuda T, Ishida A, Okawa A, and Shinomiya K. The lower lumbar spine moment and the axial rotation motion of a body during one-handed and double-handed backhand stroke in tennis. 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 Working out from home: How tennis can be played safely amid coronavirus pandemic. Lauer L. United States Tennis Association. 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). The upper limb movements are responsible for the majority of racket speed at impact. 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 rotations of the upper arm, forearm and hand account for the remaining 80 percent of racket speed. Cable rotation (in the transverse plane) drill. The serve is the most strenuous stroke in tennis and deserves critical analysis. Front-leg extensor torques are larger in the 1-handed backhand than the 2-handed backhand (19). 2019;18(1):13-20. 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. Muscle activation during the tennis volley In general, muscle activity increased with increasing ball speed. Now some people talk about "core rotation", how that is important and how that can be used even without legs. Improve Strength. Shoulder and arm just mostly transfer that energy forward into the racquet and the ball. 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). In the modern tennis forehand, pro players today are hitting the ball with much more power and topspin than ever before. 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. Iino Y and Kojima T. Role of knee flexion and extension for rotating the trunk in a tennis forehand stroke. Vitamin D and Inflammation: Potential Implications for Severity of COVID-19. The balls that were coming off his racket were fast and heavy like never before. During the forward movement of the racket, the left or right foot steps toward the ball. Always warm-up: Performing warm-up exercises for wrists can go a long way in preventing injury. In modern tennis, more and more players use an open stance. http://www.researchgate.net/publicaination_and_forehand_drive_velocity_in_tennis, http://www.cpaqv.org/cinesiologia/artigos/muscle_coordination_tennis.pdf, http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25123001, http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25120197, http://www.citeulike.org/user/tboats/author/Stossel:TP. Footwork At the competitive levels a great deal of cardiovascular conditioning and muscular endurance are needed. may email you for journal alerts and information, but is committed JavaScript is disabled. Once again, it looked as if there was a precisely timed snap of the wrist for this kind of tennis forehand. Show more Roger Federer Forehand: How To Generate Power Like Roger. I understand the theory, but in the real world, the forearm muscles get a hell of a workout in high end tennis. This movement sequence will mimic the movement and muscles used in a wide forehand. Concentrate on allowing your arm to swing through the service motion loosely and bring it up for contact. Ir Med J. Conclusion. As always, the best treatment is prevention. 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. This is strong retrospective evidence that training of the wrist extensors and grip may be useful to reduce the risk of the common overuse injury of the lateral epicondyle. 2013;21(3):E219-E228. Wrist extension is also a feature of the one-handed backhand of advanced players. BASED ON THE AVAILABLE RESEARCH, IT WAS DETERMINED THAT TRAINING EXERCISES SHOULD EMULATE THE SEQUENTIAL COORDINATION INVOLVED IN GROUND STROKE PRODUCTION, AS WELL AS STABILIZING MUSCULATURE THAT MIGHT BE INVOLVED IN DEVELOPING FORCE OR IN PROTECTING BODY PARTS FROM STRESSFUL ACTIONS. Knudson D and Elliott BC. A final aspect of inefficiency takes place when the kinetic chain is not properly synchronized. Data is temporarily unavailable. Preparation 4. Upper extremity angular kinematics of the one-handed backhand drive in tennis players with and without tennis elbow. 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. 2013;5(1):130-41. doi:10.4161/derm.23873, Savoye I, Olsen CM, Whiteman DC, et al. Several reviews of the biomechanics of tennis are available for interested readers (5,15,18). 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! Experienced law . Finally, biomechanics involves the design and function of equipment. Assuming we're talking about a modern fh, I will respectfully disagree with this post. 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. Flow with the swing motion so that your stroke ends with your hips square to the table and your paddle in front of your face. In: 8. These are the open and neutral stance. The muscle that is contracting is called the agonist and the muscle that is relaxing or lengthening is called the antagonist. Is it the deltoid, shoulder? Knudson and Bahamonde (16) reported nonsignificant differences in racket path and speed at impact between open and square stance forehands of tennis teaching professionals. ; concentric: An isotonic contraction where the muscle shortens. Tennis demands movement in all of these planes - and at times, multiple planes simultaneously. Biomechanics of tennis strokes. The two-handed backhand is a three-segment sequence (hips and trunk / upper arms and hands) as opposed to the five-segment sequence of one handed backhands (hips, trunk, upper arm, forearm and hand). The glutes also light up as you swing to return the ball. In the future, numerical simulations will necessarily support similar . Reid M and Elliott B. Indeed, when their shots were analyzed through slow motion video, it would seem that the wrist was indeed straightening out at contact and rolling over the ball for topspin or whipping through it for power. J Sports Sci Med. Luckily, these muscles respond quickly to training, unlike legs, which are a b$%# to train. All games of tennis consist of six basic strokes: the serve, forehand groundstroke, backhand groundstroke, forehand volley, backhand volley, and the overhead smash. Research indicates that the segmental contributions are influenced by grip type and ball level.

Branislav Grujic is a USPTA Professional 1, tester and USPTA Sports Science Specialist. One of the keys to his teachings are the swings or, in other words, applying the principle of the pendulum to your groundstrokes. The stiffer the racket, the more shock will be sent to the arm. Harvard Health Publishing. From hair trends to relationship advice, our daily newsletter has everything you need to sound like a person whos on TikTok, even if you arent. In todays modern tennis forehand that has changed. 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. If the analysis of inefficient movements is followed, it can be of great assistance in locating a problem in stroke production. Besides improving your flexibility, the racquet-based sport trains an assortment of muscles, too. Grip the bar with your hands slightly more wide than your shoulders. In fact, the preferred style of grip and height of the ball at impact used by the player significantly affects the potential contribution of the hand/wrist rotation to racket speed (4). Get new journal Tables of Contents sent right to your email inbox, Biomechanics of the Tennis Groundstrokes: Implications for Strength Training, Articles in PubMed by E Paul Roetert, PhD, Articles in Google Scholar by E Paul Roetert, PhD, Other articles in this journal by E Paul Roetert, PhD, Biomechanics of the Tennis Serve: Implications for Strength Training, Preseason Strength and Conditioning for Collegiate Tennis Players, A Performance Evaluation of the Tennis Serve: Implications for Strength, Speed, Power, and Flexibility Training, Energy System-Specific Training for Tennis, Efficient Deceleration: The Forgotten Factor in Tennis-Specific Training, Privacy Policy (Updated December 15, 2022), National Strength and Conditioning Association. Two-handed backhand groundstroke-(a-c) illustrates the preparation phase of a 2-handed open stance backhand, while (d-f) illustrates the forward swing. Does Mode of Contact with Different Types of Social Relationships Predict Depression in Older Adults? I'd do squats and deadlifts, and work on power cleans. 7 of 8. 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 . Two-handed backhands have larger extension torques in the rear leg, which result in larger axial torques to rotate the hips and trunk than 1-handed backhands (2,10,19). The windshield-wiper follow through was now a common thing and this particular tennis forehand appeared as if it required a perfectly-timed wrist snap at contact. The muscles used when playing tennis are: In the lower body: calves, hamstrings, quads, and glutes. (a) Pronation (palm down). Search for Similar Articles Perform two to three sets of 10 reps with each exercise and work both arms. 516-409-4444 Copyright 2023 Leaf Group Ltd. / Leaf Group Media, All Rights Reserved. According to Nelo Phiri, a tennis coach at Life Time Westchester, the action of swinging a tennis racquet fires up your ab muscles. 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. Place your wrist against the handle. Modern players often hit aggressive high-speed groundstrokes to overpower their opponent. A second form of inefficient stroke production occurs when all of the body parts are used but not employed correctly. Rather, it is primarily an essential aspect of the follow through.