Help please on my Forehand concerning trunk rotation.

[millenium]

I have a problem with my forehand concerning hip and shoulder rotation. I have a good unit turn, and hit open stance with a windshield wiper motion. When i rotate my hip and shoulders into my shot i feel i am losing racket head speed and momentum. But when i just conciously try to stay sideways and then just hit through the ball only with my SHOULDER it feels i hit through the ball more and get more power and see that i am STILL USING upper body rotation. Is this how it should be done and feel?? :-?

 

[tricky]

When i rotate my hip and shoulders into my shot i feel i am losing racket head speed and momentum.

If you're treating your torso like a swivel, then the technique isn't correct.

Hip rotation is a function of weight transfer. That is, the loading of the outside foot is what actually rotates the hips. Torso rotation helps to load the shoulder. Most people confuse hip rotation with torso rotation. What they do is bend the right leg in order to "load" the leg (which doesn't load power anymore than, say, bending your knees in the serve for the sake of having a low "legbend") , and then they twist and release.

It's really a footwork issue. If the step patterns are right, then the hip rotation is automatically facilitated. That provides the power for all aspects of FH, and then the torso rotation can naturally turn the shoulder without throwing off the alignment or timing of the shot.

 

[millenium]

Thanks i will try using only upper body rotation.

 

[LeeD]

Consider.... if you twist your trunk into your forehands, your swing speed is increased until...... you twist too much, losing your ablility to hit centered and solid !!
So relax, PREP EARLY, and if you insist on hitting openstanced forehands, don't worry too much about trunk rotation.

 

[millenium]

Tricky what do you mean by this:
If you're treating your torso like a swivel, then the technique isn't correct.

Because perhaps this is what i might have been doing. But not really sure. What i do now, is that when i am in my unit turn and sideways i then imagine that i have to keep my belly button facing the side fence, and just imaginne hitting through the ball with my upper body mainly focusing on my hitting shoulder. I dont know if it is correct or not but it seems i have more power and better direction and also see that at the end of the stroke i have acheived good rotation.

 

[millenium]

LeeD, do you mean just to think hitting through the ball with my shoulder, and the rotation come by itself? Because as i said, by imagining my belly button staying facing the side fence, it makes me focus just on the hitting with arm and shoulder and when i hit through the ball with a winshield wiper motion i see that naturally my hip has turned aswell. Is this correct?

 

[LeeD]

You're way overthinking it.
Just RELAX. Get your racket back really early so you have time to wait for the ball, then swing relaxed and easy. That's how it should work.