Racket head acceleration through impact

[dominikk1985]

Originally Posted by toly

Hand and racquet operate as unit. So, how the hand can transfer energy to the racquet by using its deceleration? It’s impossible.

do they measure the actual hand or wrist joint?

[toly]

Originally Posted by dominikk1985

do they measure the actual hand or wrist joint?

It doesn’t matter. Rotation of the hand and racquet about wrist accelerates/decelerates together because they rotate as single unit.

[Povl Carstensen]

Originally Posted by dominikk1985

Of course the racket head is decelerating at contact. but I still think you should try to accelerate through contact.

Originally Posted by TennisCJC

I think start slow smooth, pull faster thru contact and continue to complete follow thru.

This is just about what I would say. An exeption could be sometimes when you return a very fast shot, and you more counterpunch/block/lead the ball back.

[Povl Carstensen]

Originally Posted by dominikk1985

think cracking a whip: the handle is accelerated and then suddenly stopped which causes the whip to crack

Intuitively, I do not think its the stopping that causes the whip to crack, but the movement before, it is just delayed somewhat. But to crack a whip more, you can pull back a little, which might be in line with the pulling across the body.

[Povl Carstensen]

Originally Posted by toly

It doesn’t matter. Rotation of the hand and racquet about wrist accelerates/decelerates together because they rotate as single unit.

Which is why ofcourse the hand speed will also be slowed by the impact of the ball, I guess.

[Povl Carstensen]

Originally Posted by julian

Observations of APT pros (for example Federer) show that they do NOT accelerate AFTER the contact i.e the racket head speed decreases
See references in the link by toly
It is my last post on this subject in this thread.

Fair enough. Though I was curious to your answer to my post nr 27 , and also to which obeservation of Federer you were specifily referring to.

[Povl Carstensen]

Perhaps in a well timed shot you could consider the feel of the impact as a sign to stop accelerating, or to start going from acceleration to deccelleration. In that way you will have accelerated through impact, and of course you finish with a full followthrough, and no abrupt stopping.

[dominikk1985]

Originally Posted by Povl Carstensen

Intuitively, I do not think its the stopping that causes the whip to crack, but the movement before, it is just delayed somewhat. But to crack a whip more, you can pull back a little, which might be in line with the pulling across the body.

well physically energy is transfered by decelerating the prior body part. pulling back has the same effect as stopping.

successive accelerating and decelerating body parts is the foundation of the kinetic chain.

[Povl Carstensen]

Allright, I am no expert in these matters. I do find it interesting and important though, that the body and racket is more than just a whip. Muscle action influence the movement of all the joints involved in minute and decisive ways. It is like you have the kinetic chain as the basis, and then the muscle control of the final resulting motion on top of that.
If that makes sense. I have been at the computer for too long...