Ground strokes and full extended arm?

[MTXR]

Wow, I came back today and my elbow started to hurt a bit. I tend to hit my ground strokes with a bent elbow.

I was watching federer slow mo video and he seems to hit all of his ground strokes with a full extended arm.

Is this how you are supposed to hit?

You are supposed to hit with a full extended arm for the serve to correct?

[Political Thunder]

Its preference. Gonzalez who has one of the biggest forehands on tour hits with a bent arm. So do Roddick, Djokovic,etc

[MTXR]

well i am going to try it out to hopefully prevent injury.

[[ GTR ]]

For the forehand, the arm doesn't have to be straight or the 2 handed backhand but I think in all other strokes the arm has to be straight.

Every stroke I hit on contact, my arm is straight and extended: volleys, one handed backhand, slice, serve, smash. Of course this excludes shots I hit when I am jammed.

[seb85]

Its personal preference. Not everybody's body is capable of having the arm perfectly straight- sometimes the straightest it can be is slightly bent.

Personally, I have my arm bent on forehand and volleys. Arm is 'straight' for all backhands (1HBH) although there is a slight bend throughout the stroke. For serves and overheads, of course, the arm is straight at contact.