Cheetah, the heel thing

[Power Player]

Tricky this feels right to me. To be honest I never thought about all the nuances, but once I did, what you are saying is how I do it.

[LeeD]

I have skinny weak calves.
My heels always touch the ground on every step, and I push off my heels when I get weight transfer, using the calf muscles.

[Cheetah]

tricky,

I won't be able to try this on court till later tonight but doing some shadow swings if I load on the heel and push off with the heel it sort of feels like the heel wants to stay down because your pushing on it of course. So you'd have to work in heel to toe transfer which is not actually pushing of the heel (i think). It's more a case of putting your weight on the heel, doing the transfer to the toes and then doing the actual push off the balls of the feet. That's how it feels to me currently.

Can you explain further in detail on how posterior would do a better job loading for an open stance? When I try it here at home I don't feel anything is better. (yet). All i feel is that loading on the heel loads posterior better and loading on the balls loads anterior better. So why would posterior be better?

Also, are you sure the pros are split stepping from the heel and hamstrings? I don't see that. To me it appears they are pushing off the ball and toes and simply lifting their heel as can be seen here in this ferrer/murray footwork vid
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UG5Z5fs4-Ms


thanks

[boramiNYC]

Yes, what I wanted to emphasize was the importance of using the posterior chain as in dead lift and squat. thanks tricky for clearing that up.

cheetah, what you are describing sounds right. can't push off from the heel. only load. but loading must be done on the heel. heel toe transfer for push off.

[LeeD]

However you discribe the pushing off process, you have to push off using your CALF, or calves or calf's.

[Cheetah]

Here's a good vid w/ Berdych.

He loads over the inside of the right foot. The push off from the right leg appears to me like it's anterior. Also the heel on his left foot doesn't touch the ground so he's pushing off a bit with his toes there too which is definitely anterior motion. so how can a person be using posterior with the right and anterior with the left?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...&v=SSVpIJ4zF80

[Cheetah]

Match report:

I tried it tonight and hit many balls with it. It definitely gives a solid feel and has power. The contact feels good and you feel stable on the hit. It also feels a little easier to lift of course because your using the hammies.
However, I don't think it's for me. It makes me kind of ... stop. When I set up with weight on the heel it stops my momentum and springiness. The hit feels good but after that i have restart my engine it feels like. It took me a while to get the heel to toe transfer but even after I got it down it doesn't gel w/ my style. It's not fluid enough for me. I also found it hard to load on the inside of the foot this but I guess that could be because I've only tried it for one day. Also it feels like too many steps to the procedure. You have to load on heel, then transfer weight to the front and then push up as opposed to just load and push all in the same area of the foot in the same motion.

It's definitely a solid and stable feeling and has power but I can't justify the down shift feeling i get when i used it. When I hit this way I could feel the hit in my gluts. Whereas with the front of the foot method i feel the hit in my thighs, hips and chest.

Anyway, it was a fun experiment. I hit with another tt member tonight. Good hitting.

[boramiNYC]

Good report. I'm glad you tried it out. yeah it's not something that can be easily changed over night. it involves very large muscles and those need to be conditioned and it takes time. but as tricky mentions, for the safety sake it's worth working on imo. but the best part is smooth and easy power you can generate this way. to me consistency improved as well. hope you don't dismiss it too quick cuz it takes many hittings and some effort off the court as well to see the real benefits. anyways thanks for good sport.

[albesca]

i do something as Borami does... but instead to think about the right foot on its heel, i think about the left foot on its toe. Probably i feel good this way because the movement of the left leg counterbalance the raquet arm position .. then, i feel better my balance.

Gluteus and core work much better and more in relation to the right quadriceps.

"leg push" often is exchanged with "leg extension" ... isn't... by me leg push is more about femoral rotation by gluteus instead leg extension by the quadriceps.

[boramiNYC]

Originally Posted by albesca

Gluteus and core work much better and more in relation to the right quadriceps.

"leg push" often is exchanged with "leg extension" ... isn't... by me leg push is more about femoral rotation by gluteus instead leg extension by the quadriceps.

I agree about the femoral rotation, about which there was a thread recently as 'hip internal rotation'. At the hip joint, pelvis-femur joint, the force pushing up against the ground by extending the leg is converted into a rotational force of the pelvis which is relayed to torso and upper body rotation and arm swing. And the glutes are one of the strongest muscles in the body and initiates that rotation. So it's obvious the importance in tennis.

Found a good article about glutes for anyone interested further.
http://ezinearticles.com/?Facts-Abou...ink&id=1682172

Furthermore, importance of glutes in highly coordinated activities, attraction to nice tight butt for both male and female, the performance of glutes in sex, and the evolutionary advantage are all closely related imo.