All the great juniors do this. Who can explain?

[HunterST]

There was junior's tournament at my club a few weeks ago. It was boys and girl's 12s and some of the kids were ranked as high as 25 in the nation.

These kids had AMAZING pace and technique for their size. Good pace for anyone, but especially impressive coming from a 85 pound kid.

I noticed that all of the kids that I watched did a kind of sit and lift motion. Here is a video of Federer doing precisely what they did:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VPgb8XVt_V8&NR=1

The difference, though, is that pros and college players seem to stop doing this in regular rally balls (fed is going for a winner in the vid).

What exactly is the function of this motion? Is it simply to get the legs more involved in the stroke? It seems like that could be accomplished simply by having bent knees and then extending.

Could this be useful to the rally balls for players who are not children? Or, is this simply done by the kids because they don't have the strength to create pace without it?

 

[LeeD]

Kids have more energy than 61 year olds...
Using legs certainly ADD to the power supplied.
Big strong adults generally have more power than their technique can handle.
Is it better to use more energy per shot or less energy per shot, if both shots are functional and adaquate so it can't be attacked, but can attack if needed?

 

[Funbun]

I'm sure you have seen this before.

From a junior's perspective, sometimes we have to go for a nice, high sitting shot. The flat, forehand drive feels very good and, personally, a mental spiker. I'm psyched whenever I'm given a chance to do this especially on short balls.

Other cases are when you realize you can't just plant yourself against a high topspin shot because of the bounce.

It's actually preferable that you don't do this to every shot. You lose a tad bit of power. But it looks and feels awesome. Federer was on the run, and that was the most preferable, aggressive shot against that sitting ball on his forehand side. Jumping on each rally shot will not work.

I'm a tad surprised by the OP; Hunter, have you ever done this shot before? If you face aggressive, heavy topspin baseliners, you'll find yourself sometimes needing to do this just to get the height on the ball, especially if you need some room for error judging the sharp, dipping ball.

Then again, I forgot that you could just be a bit on the less jumpy side. In that case, I apologize.

 

[Zachol82]

It definitely is to get the legs and the body more into the shot.

Yes, bending your knees would almost do the same thing, however, by hopping up a little like that, you can actually deal with higher balls better AND you can hit down on the ball as well. Bending the knees would lower your stance and therefore you'd have to hit from bottom up more, creating a loopier path and therefore slower pace. With today's modern game of topspin, the ball tends to take a pretty high bounce, therefore this technique is better for getting to those higher bouncing balls.

My college teammates and myself still does this, we don't do it regularly simply because it does take more effort than normal shots and it has a higher percentage of error.

 

[HunterST]

I'm sure you have seen this before.

From a junior's perspective, sometimes we have to go for a nice, high sitting shot. The flat, forehand drive feels very good and, personally, a mental spiker. I'm psyched whenever I'm given a chance to do this especially on short balls.

Other cases are when you realize you can't just plant yourself against a high topspin shot because of the bounce.

It's actually preferable that you don't do this to every shot. You lose a tad bit of power. But it looks and feels awesome. Federer was on the run, and that was the most preferable, aggressive shot against that sitting ball on his forehand side. Jumping on each rally shot will not work.

I'm a tad surprised by the OP; Hunter, have you ever done this shot before? If you face aggressive, heavy topspin baseliners, you'll find yourself sometimes needing to do this just to get the height on the ball, especially if you need some room for error judging the sharp, dipping ball.

Then again, I forgot that you could just be a bit on the less jumpy side. In that case, I apologize.

It's not about jumping. It's about the little hop before sitting down into the shot. Yes, I've done it, but these kids did it on EVERY shot.

 

[Dreamer]

It's not about jumping. It's about the little hop before sitting down into the shot. Yes, I've done it, but these kids did it on EVERY shot.

He does this with the jump because of the height of the balls. Jumping to put it into his strike zone and hitting on the rise. He often see him moving away from the ball when he runs around it to create that space which shouldn't be there really.

If juniors are doing something like this. They are probably adapting to a high contact point.
Also you have to load your legs more if you plan to jump.

 

[Funbun]

He does this with the jump because of the height of the balls. Jumping to put it into his strike zone and hitting on the rise. He often see him moving away from the ball when he runs around it to create that space which shouldn't be there really.

If juniors are doing something like this. They are probably adapting to a high contact point.
Also you have to load your legs more if you plan to jump.

@Hunter: Jumping, hopping, whatever. You're loading and exploding your legs into the shot, whichever word you use.

Yeah, we're not used to footworking into these shots. When it's tough to take it on the rise, we have to take a higher contact point.

That, or we're not going to sit 5 feet behind the baseline all day. I'd do that, though.

 

[sonicare]

I do this sometimes.

It also allows you to turn more cos your feet arent being dragged on the ground.

Watch Feds body rotation closely. No way you can do that if you don't jump.

 

[Blake0]

You kind of stated the answer yourself..there isn't enough time to load and unload your legs that much in every shot at that level. This plus the fact that LeeD stated are the main reasons. You'll see players take a good rip at the ball on sitters and stuff though.

 

[Limpinhitter]

It's not about jumping. It's about the little hop before sitting down into the shot. Yes, I've done it, but these kids did it on EVERY shot.

I don't see anything unusual about it. If you have time to set up like that, you do it. If you're on the run, you can't.