what muscles are used in a tennis forehand

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. He was using a new kind of string made of polyester, instead of the traditional natural gut. 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 . A final aspect of inefficiency takes place when the kinetic chain is not properly synchronized. 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. 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. A second form of inefficient stroke production occurs when all of the body parts are used but not employed correctly. 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. The extensor carpi radialis was more active than the flexor carpi radialis during both forehand and backhand volleys, suggesting the importance of wrist extension/abduction and grip strength. This follow-through, where the racket actually finishes over the head, is an adaptation that many players have implemented, and although the follow-through is initially still toward the target (Figure 1e), the overall pathway of the stroke (Figure 1f) ending up over the shoulder allows the player to impart greater spin on the ball. 17. The latissimus dorsi, anterior deltoid, subscapularis, biceps and pectoralis major all contract concentrically during the acceleration phase to bring the racket to the ball for contact. It's not theory. Note the hip and trunk rotation in the 2-handed backhand (Figure 3a-f). J Am Geriatr Soc. The upper back, chest, shoulders, biceps and triceps all come into play during a tennis swing or tennis serve. The upper limb movements are responsible for the majority of racket speed at impact. Recent developments in forehand and backhand stroke production have created a needed change in coaching methodology. Other players started using polyester strings and hit with this style. While practicing and playing tennis will strengthen your upper body, conditioning these muscle groups off of the court will help your game. to maintaining your privacy and will not share your personal information without During the wind-up for a powerful forehand throw, counter-rotate your shoulders as if you're preparing to swing a baseball bat. The muscle that is contracting is called the agonist and the muscle that is relaxing or lengthening is called the antagonist. J Back Musculoskelet Rehabil. Suite 203 Mili's Split method introducing tennis dance, 1st tennis lesson with Miss Serbia Finalist 2015 The backhand underspin has an impact point that occurs closer to the front foot and closer to the body. Additionally, players could now also commonly afford to hit off the back foot or from wide open stances when rushed and still create shots that were heavy and penetrating. 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). 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. 2013;88(7):720-755. doi:10.1016/j.mayocp.2013.05.011. Pro players today use the tennis forehand wrist position to accentuate the movement of a whip. This type of swing is utilized by modern tennis players such as Federer, Nadal, Justine Henin and the majority of the top pro tennis players in the game today. But what muscles does tennis work? This will have the effect of taking the arm out of sync with the body by putting the arm ahead of the body. I guess that muscles aren't everything. Data is temporarily unavailable. The three most commonly used conventional grips are: the Continental (or "Chopper"), the Eastern and the Semi-Western. Lie on the ground on your back, spread your arms to the sides in a T position, pushing your palms to the ground. The rotations of the upper arm, forearm and hand account for the remaining 80 percent of racket speed. Footwork, or movement, is another important biomechanical attribute. 1. 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. Lastly, the wrist must be firm (fixed) at impact. Kovacs MS, Roetert EP, and Ellenbecker TS. Forward swing to impact requires more trunk rotation of the hitting shoulder. The arms should move in sync on the forehand either like this or . The arm is one of the weaker parts of the body. It was preferred that they use a semi-western grip and prepare with a looped backswing and a laid back wrist. Use a 3- to 5-pound dumbbell and perform isolation wrist flexion and extension exercises as well as forearm pronation exercises. 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. 20. In general, there are 2 styles of coordination in 2-handed backhands. When moving laterally, lunging to the side or changing direction . Working out from home: How tennis can be played safely amid coronavirus pandemic. 9. For the forehand specifically, the core and forearms are most important. 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). Its this stance that enables you to change directions and sprint across the court. Tennis players need to create differing amounts of force, spin, and ball trajectories from a variety of positions, and this has resulted in adaptations of stroke mechanics and stances. Social relationships and health: a flashpoint for health policy. It is part of the momentum of the swing that takes the racket to the completion of the follow through. It's all about technique. The athlete grasps the wrist roller device with both hands at shoulder height. Upper extremity angular kinematics of the one-handed backhand drive in tennis players with and without tennis elbow. In the forehand, backhand, and serve, the abs contract and flex to generate power. Lastly, an up and out hitting action is a key feature of a mature swing. 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. 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. This movement can also be performed using an open stance catching position. 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. 2018;28(1):27-33. doi:10.2188/jea.JE20160166, Teo AR, Choi H, Andrea SB, et al. 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. And whats even better is you dont have to be a pro like Serena Williams to give it a try. Natural gut provided power, control and feel but it broke easily as players started to swing harder and harder. What kind of muscles are used to hit the tennis ball? Look at the players at a open level tournament after their match, and see their bulging forearms, with veins popping out everywhere. And it does this without feeling like a workout. Beth Rifkin has been writing health- and fitness-related articles since 2005. Well-coordinated sequential rotations up the kinetic chain through the trunk and upper extremity take advantage of the stretch-shortening cycle of muscle actions. A motion analysis system was used to collect the motion trajectories of the shoulder, elbow, and wrist joints and the trunk. 2015;63(10):2014-22. doi:10.1111/jgs.13667, Umberson D, Montez JK. In Figure 5, the athlete is demonstrating a closed stance catching position. The rotation of upper arm, forearm, and hand, account for the remaining 75% of racket speed at impact. Additionally, when working on movement there should be a coordinated effort between the legs and the upper body. 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.. This means that subsequent body parts must work harder. The follow-through is across the line of the body and a recovery step brings the player into the ready position. Duane Knudsonis Chair of the department of Health and Human Performance at Texas State University. 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 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. 2019;6:69. doi:10.3389/fcvm.2019.00069, Oja P, Kelly P, Pedisic Z, et al. I'd like to see any evidence that bears on how Titin is triggered for the SSC. . ; concentric: An isotonic contraction where the muscle shortens. Training the wrist extensors is particularly important for tennis players using a 1-handed backhand. A players positioning, and how he or she uses the ground is vital to stroke production. Updated August 13, 2018. Br J Sports Med. Your core also engages as you swing, says Sandra Gail Frayna, a physical therapist with Hudson Premier Physical Therapy & Sports. These are the open and neutral stance. Furthermore, there is peak activity of the gastroc and quadriceps towards the end of this phase. At the competitive levels a great deal of cardiovascular conditioning and muscular endurance are needed. It is best to engage in functional exercises that will strengthen while also keep them loose and flexible. Forward axial torque to rotate the hips achieves its peak at the initiation of the forward stroke (8). Dermatoendocrinol. 11. All rights reserved. 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? You must log in or register to reply here. Shoulder speed has been shown to contribute 25% of racket speed. This will turn the forehand swing into an arm swing by activating the muscles in the arm. The muscles used when playing tennis are: In the lower body: calves, hamstrings, quads, and glutes. In the future, numerical simulations will necessarily support similar . Luckily, these muscles respond quickly to training, unlike legs, which are a b$%# to train. 2. And Bjorn Borg in the late '70s made most of his forehand shots using open stance. Join our mailing list to receive tips, analysis, handy guides and more - direct to your inbox. This ground action force is necessary to decelerate the body from one direction and accelerate the body in another direction. Calories burned in 30 minutes for people of three different weights. One aspect of inefficient movement is when one of the body parts is left out or the kinetic chain is broken. J Sports Sci Med. These studies utilized even more precise slow motion captures and biomechanical correlations. Figure 10a demonstrates a forearm pronation movement, and Figure 10b demonstrates a forearm supination movement. It's one of the keys to the whole modern fh. Your quads are key for agility on the court, but also play a role in that swing, Frayna adds. Efficient deceleration: The forgotten factor in tennis-specific training. Work these muscles on and off the court and youll have Wimbledon-level tennis abilities in no time. This movement is then repeated on the way back to the starting position focused on developing deceleration ability in this same plane of motion. The racket was placed on the dominant side; then, it was directed towards the ball. 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. The old coaching program for the basic table tennis techniques is outdated! An analysis of the muscles and joints used in a tennis forehand. Make sure to maintain a straight wrist so that the ball travels in an upward motion avoiding the net. No stretching, no icing, no light weights, no ball squeezing, no work with a flexible bar, no pulleys. This lean into the ball tends to level out the racket path, resulting in a longer, more stable hitting zone. 12. National Osteoporosis Foundation. The open stance in forehand is not new as this was used in men's tennis championships. J Epidemiol. Front-leg extensor torques are larger in the 1-handed backhand than the 2-handed backhand (19). A strong core keeps you balanced and stable so that you can focus on hitting the ball. Tennis volleys require smaller muscle and joint movements than either groundstrokes or serves. Updated April 30, 2020. A specific pattern of sequence phasing was seen in all subjects, and amplitude ratio between the muscles was constant. 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 . There may be times when the execution of a serve is altered based on the environment - wind, sun, a noisy crowd. He is also a graduate of the High Performance Training Program. If we get into the details of the movement, tennis is a complex sport that is made up of intricate movements. 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. Each one of these sides is called a bevel, and they are numbered from 1 to 8 for easier identification. From this position, the athlete slowly rotates through the transverse plane as far as the athlete's flexibility allows. 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. Tennis also requires a high amount of agility, flexibility, quick reflexes and aerobic and anaerobic conditioning. 516-409-4444 This leg drive utilizes ground reaction forces and is critical for linear to angular momentum transfer and the development of high racket speed. Please try after some time. Associations of specific types of sports and exercise with all-cause and cardiovascular-disease mortality: a cohort study of 80 306 British adults. The current study uses point-light displays to isolate the suspect's motion and remove potentially biasing information (e.g., skin tone, facial expression, clothing). These players nonetheless evidently thrived with this instruction. Counter-rotating your shoulders should make your hips want to turn with your shoulders. 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). For a forehand volley, slight external rotation and slight adduction followed by abduction of the shoulder allow the player to complete the stroke. Jack Groppelis co-founder of the Human Performance Institute. Elliott B, Takahashi K, and Noffal G. The influence of grip position on the upper limb contributions to racket-head speed in the tennis forehand. Iino Y and Kojima T. Role of knee flexion and extension for rotating the trunk in a tennis forehand stroke. info@usptennis.com, Login | Advertise | About Us | Terms of Use | Privacy Policy, Copyright 2021United Sports Publications. Open Stance. (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. The forehand tennis stroke is made with the dominant hand. Strength is bottom up, starting from the legs. This movement sequence will mimic the movement and muscles used in a wide forehand. 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. Especially while playing tennis are many kinds of muscles. During the forward movement of the racket, the left or right foot steps toward the ball. 1. (a-f) Forehand groundstroke-(a-c) illustrates the preparation phase of the open stance forehand, while (d-f) illustrates the forward swing. The internal rotators of the shoulder (pec major, lats, subscap) and the trunk muscles are the primary movers in this phase. Knudson D. Hand forces and impact effectiveness in the tennis forehand. Concentrate on relaxing. Energy from the left leg is transferred as the hips open up first, followed by the shoulders. ; isotonic: A muscular contraction in which the length of the muscle changes. It's characterized by pain from the elbow to the wrist on the inside (medial side) of the elbow. Concentrate on allowing your arm to swing through the service motion loosely and bring it up for contact. 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 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. 2. following information explains the steps and muscles used to create this serve. The forearm flexors and grip musculature are also important in the tennis forehand. 22. 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. Generally the forehand is the first stroke that beginners learn when they start playing tennis. (a) Pronation (palm down). NIH Osteoporosis and Related Bone Diseases National Resource Center. Legs are the most important muscles for tennis in general, but very powerful and controlled forehands can be hit without much leg involvement. How to reconcile this with other posts claiming that the power comes from pushing off the ground? Traditional tennis groundstrokes were hit from a square or closed stance with a long flowing stroke using simultaneous coordination of the body. How could that be? 5. Now some people talk about "core rotation", how that is important and how that can be used even without legs. This linear motion of the body and racket also encourages more racket force being applied in the intended direction of the shot. The legs take the force and add to it by transferring the force to the hips, from the hips force is transferred to the trunk, from the trunk to the arm, and from the arm to the racket. The main kinetic chain motions that create racket speed in the forehand are trunk rotation, horizontal shoulder adduction, and internal rotation (4). Wrist extension is also a feature of the one-handed backhand of advanced players. 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. A strong swing requires good upper body strength . your express consent. Besides improving your flexibility, the racquet-based sport trains an assortment of muscles, too. This position will produce greater weight transfer, trunk rotation, and more effective stroke production on wide balls. 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. Research focused on police officers' decision-making in ambiguous use-of-force situations has yet to investigate the role that a suspect's biological motion plays in unknown-object identification. 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 athlete grasps the handle of a cable pulley machine at the height of the waist. Contents 1. Research indicates that the segmental contributions are influenced by grip type and ball level. What Women Need to Know. Anyone who has ever hit a tennis ball using modern equipment and techniques will tell you that it feels like the wrist is snapping through the ball or rolling over it at contact. Forehand SPECIFIC EXERCISES BASED ON THE FINDINGS IN THE RESEARCH LITERATURE WERE THEN OFFERED. 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). People think that 90% of the swing comes from hips/legs/core, but the arm is still swinging fast. Hold your racquet face vertical at the point where you normally meet the ball. The forehand is the weapon for most tennis players and building a game plan behind a powerful forehand makes winning matches much easier. This linked system, or KINETIC CHAIN, works in a very systematic fashion with the legs interacting with the ground. 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. 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.