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[bc-05]

Hi... I have been noticing on the tennis court.. that actually the skinnier people actually serves faster than the fat people... Why is that? I thought people that are fatter would be stronger because they are bigger... So it comes to my question asking... what would be stronger? If a person have the same amount of muscle mass.. but the first guy have only 6% of body fat and the other have 20% of body fat.. Who would u reckon be stronger? (in terms of strength in serving, lifting weights, throwing, etc) Im not talking about speed in running...? And one more question... people said that andre agassi bench presses around 350lbs... but then again he serves like a chick... if he is that strong how much could andy and joachim lift!! think about it!! sorry if i ask a lot of questions... But I just wanted to get more strength as I'm very weak! thank you for the response

[PHSTennis]

Big guys are more bulky they cant swing as fast, my im in the middle I serve fast, go find a football player.. hes stronger.. but he can never play tennis a tennis body is not being big... its having strong muslces but small.

[perfmode]

tennis is a game for skinny players. look @ henman.

[Kobble]

I believe the reason why skinny people typically serve better than fat people is overall athletic ability. Skinny people typically have better acceleration toward the ball because they have less weight to carry off the ground. Skinny people are usually more flexible due to the fact that they have less muscle tissue to reduce the range of motion. Obese people typically do not exercise, so their leg muscles are underdeveloped and it leads to poor explosive ability. Overweight people are usually not flexible in general, so that can lead to a less that ideal service motion. By participating in minimal activity, overweight people have not allowed themselves to acquire the body awareness required for most sports. On the other hand, muscular people can have very explosive legs, but they typically lack in flexibility. Many tend to develop a habit of using muscle strength to overcome their lack of efficient technique. By doing so, they never truly achieve maximum racquet head speed.

Skinny people rarely have the disadvantage of less than average explosive ability, and they cannot resort to muscling the motion, so they rely on good technique to gain racquet speed. Also, skinny people are more likely to have participated in sports that develop the fundamental motor skills needed for successful tennis. Motor skills is the biggest influence in any activity.


To answer your question about what body fat percentage would require someone assuming that all other variables(height, strength, athletic experience etc.) to be equal. Actually, even if athletic experience was equal, they still have experienced different things. Mr. 6% has experience using his 6% body, and Mr. 20% has his own experience with his 20% body. This brings the specificity law into play. This leads to the fact that they can have the same muscle mass along with the varying bodyfat, but they will not have the same exact strength and proprioreception. I assume you are correlating the muscle mass to the guy's strength. It is impossible, because it does not take into consideration neurological factors along with leverage differences associated with varying skeletal structures. However, you could take two clones. Everything is the same, even bodyfat, and we would make both of them 6% for simplistic reasons. Now, just before the measured event, someone would magically make one guy 20%. If this were the case, we would have a much better circumstance for measuring. Serving, I would say the 6% guy. He would be able to accelerate his body toward the ball faster due to less dead weight. Now, if they had a truck pulling contest I would pick the 20%, because he has more weight to offset the weight of the truck. He may be better in the deadlift as well. Although, something like the benchpress normally would be extremely close because the weight of the body in relation to gravity is taken out of the equation dramatically. The 20% guy would likely have slightly heavier arms, because we would have distributed the magic fat in proportion to the other guy's fat distribution. However, if Mr. 6% does not have one fat cell in his shoulders and arms, then it would probably be a tie, because no added weight would be in the arms of Mr. 20% to lift. Most of this reasoning is dominated by the laws of proportions.

[gmlasam]

Originally Posted by perfmode

tennis is a game for skinny players. look @ henman.

WRONG!!!!!! Tennis or any other sport for that matter is for "FIT" people. It dosen't matter how small or large you are. If your unfit, then you willl not play as good as someone who is fit. If your fit, you have more endurance and your total body would be much stronger than an unfit person.

[Mikael]

Do you guys consider Philipoussis, Safin, Enqvist, or even Sampras to be skinny? They're all quite heavy/bulky and yet it certainly doesn't hinder their ability to serve...