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Groundstrokes: your arm should feel like a dead piece of meat?

2K views 1 reply 2 participants last post by  LawrenceOfTennis 
#1 ·
This is what my coach told me.

If you feel like you are using ANY muscles in your arm or shoulder during a forehand or backhand (especially forehand) then you are 'arming' the ball into play, and getting far less power and spin than adequate and you WILL injure yourself eventually.

Instead, he said the ENTIRE movement should be generated by your legs and core.

I've tried playing like this and not using any muscles in my arm or shoulder whatsoever (and gripping the racket just tightly enough so that it doesn't fly out of my hands) so that my arm flogs around my body like a dead piece of meat, but I can't get any accuracy on it, and I need to literally jump off the ground and spin 360 degrees around in the air on every forehand to get any sort of power on it either.
 
#2 ·
Try this:
I had almost the same conversation with my coach a year ago and I tried a lot of things out until I realised that I better follow what is the most comfortable for me. Instead using my legs for my groundstrokes, I just tried to hit them as relaxed as I can. By this I mean I don't use any muscle and hit it the way I hit the ball in table tennis. I let my wrist go free a bit, tho the rules say wrist should be fixed during shots. So my wrist is rather floppy. With this improvement, I can hit forehand a lot more precisely and alot flatter and stronger. Sounds weird but true. It will take a bit of time to get used to it,like 2-3 weeks of practice but will be a great feeling when you finally finds 'that' feeling.
 
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