Generating Forehand Power!
What's the simplest technique for generating more power on your forehand? It all starts with... well you already know the modern forehand kinetic chain starts from the ground up... The secret though is in timing your core rotation and arm action.
How can you time your core rotation and kinetic chain?
As you read this you probably think the kinetic chain starts from the ground up where the hips must fire first because this initiates the rest of the body to rotate forward and your arms are completely relaxed and your core/torso is responsible for generating all the power in your forehand. Whereas this isn’t wrong but we could argue that this way of thinking is very much backwards. Shocking! Let’s dive a little deeper to find a better way that can guarantee you the ability to time your forehand kinetic chain and of course get you more power.
Hips vs Shoulders
The common belief is that the hips fire first initiating the upper body to fling forward and this is backed by much biomechanical research. Think of this like a rubber band being used to fling forward; potential energy being propelled into kinetic energy. This is the relationship between your hip and trunk is similar; the delay between them creates a similar stretch, the more you stretch them the more they propel the upper torso forward with extreme force. The truck muscles involved in your acceleration forward include muscles such as obliques, back extensors, and erector spinae.
Role of arm in generating force
So, then what is so wrong with accelerating forward with your hips? To answer this, let’s first look at the arm action in the so-called modern forehand. How relaxed should your shoulder and wrist be? Most tennis coaches and academies teach keeping a relaxed arm and wrist in the forehand. This is very important in generating most racket head speed and anything less than that would be arming the ball. And so one could think then that arm should not have any energy and they should only be carried around by your hip and torso rotation.
Hmm this is in-fact harming your forehand. Work this through with me as you get ready to hit a forehand. You move to the align with the oncoming ball, prepare by loading up, and then what? Relax the arm? Relax the legs? Use all the muscle power into blasting the forehand with your arms? All of these sound good but they will not work optimally.
So then what is the best mix of controlling your racket, generating force, and being relaxed. To better understand this, we have to look at some more biomechanical research which suggests that high level forehands include horizontal shoulder adduction torque. Meaning, the players are actively and purposely bringing their arms forward to generate racket head speed. If this isn’t done deliberately, the angle of shoulder flexion won’t change enough from the beginning of the arm movement till contact to generate energy out of fully stretched positions, for example, when pulled out wide on full stretch to make contact with the ball.
How does this then tie back to how can you time your hip and shoulder rotation? If the top pros in the world are accelerating their hitting arms forward to hit the ball, then there has to be some degree of independent movement in the upper body. Meaning, just by focusing on the core and hip rotation, everything in your stroke won’t just fall into place.
The focus then should be on what to unlock the final pieces of the kinetic chain? To fully grasp the answer and understand everything that goes into developing your forehand, one must give up this idea of there being just one thing. The grip type, your backswing, your stance, and the optimal contact point will all determine this anwer. One thing for sure, if you focus on your hips to start your forward rotation, you will have difficulty in timing your forward rotation and you will over rotate in your shots and lack consistency.
To battle this, some coaches offer torts such as focusing on the hitting arm shoulder, or keeping both hands together, and while some will tell you to pull your hand forward. Whereas these torts do work for some they cannot be applied to all students due to there being a need to see how well a students’ neuromuscular connections behave with and without the racket in hand.
This is where a massive amount of coaches with book knowledge and certifications get stuck as they simply do not possess the clinical time to get a student across the threshold.