i love t3nn1s
Banned
i always hear bending knees is soo important....what i wanna now is what it helps you with and while hitting a forehand and bending knees how long are you supposed to keep yor knees bent????
bending knees really helpful?
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The Gorilla
Banned
low shot=bend your knees
Sit and lift is a phrase you'll often hear from coaches. Bending the knees is the sit part, but you also need the lift part. I guess it's assumed when people say bend your knees, you understand this is part of your stroke.
Even if you don't use it as part of your stroke, it's still good for balance, being in an athletic stance, and for low balls. The athletic stance is very similar in basketball. When u guard someone on defense, you always bend your knees and stay very low. Your center of gravity is lower, and you'll able to use your leg muscles more. Basically, whoever is lower will get the first step and blow past the other person. Even if the dribbler is standing tall, you still need to stay low. So you can see how staying low is very important for agility. You can try moving while standing straight up like a bean pole. Try running with both of your arms still at your side, and try using only your lower legs to move, meaning your calf muscles. Besides looking silly, you'll find how inefficient it is to run like this without bending your knees. If u run like this, then it probably means you didn't play any sports. Like I said, this is a very inefficient way to run, move, and change directions.
Even if you don't use it as part of your stroke, it's still good for balance, being in an athletic stance, and for low balls. The athletic stance is very similar in basketball. When u guard someone on defense, you always bend your knees and stay very low. Your center of gravity is lower, and you'll able to use your leg muscles more. Basically, whoever is lower will get the first step and blow past the other person. Even if the dribbler is standing tall, you still need to stay low. So you can see how staying low is very important for agility. You can try moving while standing straight up like a bean pole. Try running with both of your arms still at your side, and try using only your lower legs to move, meaning your calf muscles. Besides looking silly, you'll find how inefficient it is to run like this without bending your knees. If u run like this, then it probably means you didn't play any sports. Like I said, this is a very inefficient way to run, move, and change directions.
boojay
Hall of Fame
If you don't like my penguin dance, so be it!!
Noisy Ninja
Semi-Pro
ubel
Professional
Bending your knees is good because it gets your body down to where the ball is in your ideal hitting zone, making hitting the ball more comfortable. If you're more comfortable, you'll feel freer to hit through the ball with more power and spin. By crouching you're also lowering your center of gravity which helps you to maintain your balance easier. This is similar to getting the ball into your strike zone in that it allows you to focus more on what you're doing with the ball rather than keeping your body from falling over if you were to try and bend over at the back for a shot. It's also better for your posture and makes you look very cool:
However, it takes time and deliberate practice to learn how to crouch on every shot, and it won't happen naturally until you've practiced doing it for a while. Best of luck tho
However, it takes time and deliberate practice to learn how to crouch on every shot, and it won't happen naturally until you've practiced doing it for a while. Best of luck tho
bending your knees help you put more power into shots, help you react faster side to side to an opponents shot (especially the serve), and helps you get low balls and half volley with more consistency. like stated above, you don't play defense in basketball with your knees straight.
boojay
Hall of Fame
gmgpistons
New User
I feel like when I bend my knees and get my lower body more involved I am able to hit deeper shots, more powerful shots. It also makes things a little easier on the arm if you get your legs into the shot.
Lendl's Forehand
New User
This is entirely correct. I play both sports and since strengthening my quads (and being able to stay lower) I play better tennis AND am able to guard a guy at the top of the circle better.
Also, the one obvious reason for some knee bend is that for last minute corrections, you can go up or down - wioth straight legs, you can only go down!
For great strenthening of legs which is ideal for tennis, try the elliptical trainer - it never lets you relax your quads.
enishi1357
Semi-Pro
It's a mental trick. By telling yourself to bend your knees, if you lose, you can tell yourself you did everything you can and the opponent is just better than you.
hehe 15y old thread, and i'm still making obvious mistakes (i tend not to load... still need to remind myself to do it)
for a while i used to load & hold... which wasn't as useful as the effort required
but later realized it was another way to leverage the SSC, so the load is more like a moment/pulse in the middle of the swing (eg. around the time i "pat the dog" is when i load/bend)... but its taking me some time to get used to doing it for every shot (changes my timing slightly, and previously i didn't have the conditioning to do it consistently)
duh. knowing and doing are not the same thing, especially when your opponent has a say.
innoVAShaun
Legend
hmm might have to get those...
mad dog1
G.O.A.T.
I’ve considered it as well.
ChaelAZ
G.O.A.T.
Does it help, yes.
Is it important and going to change your game, depends.
All other things set in your stroke or serve, using knee band to add force up into the stroke or serve is free power. However, if you have a late contact point, not enough spacing, or any other number of hitches, trying to focus on knee bend is not going to do as much to improve your stroke or serve as fixing those first, in my opinion.
Is it important and going to change your game, depends.
All other things set in your stroke or serve, using knee band to add force up into the stroke or serve is free power. However, if you have a late contact point, not enough spacing, or any other number of hitches, trying to focus on knee bend is not going to do as much to improve your stroke or serve as fixing those first, in my opinion.
Curious
G.O.A.T.
All you need is a belt and two resistance bands!
Why do you think they make shoes with this?
Curious
G.O.A.T.
Don’t be that certain!
Maybe it’s the wide base and lower centre of gravity. It’s so crucial to have solid balance while hitting the ball.
ballmachineguy
Hall of Fame
Correct. If you hit with straight legs, the force of the swing will throw off your balance and have you doing things with muscles that normally would be doing something else, or be relaxed, but now have to counter swing forces. If you get a nice knee bend and low COG, your swing smoothes out no matter how hard you swing.
Curious
G.O.A.T.
Keeping knees really bent gives me some sort of confidence as if I’m more in control of the situation. I mean during the point in general, not only while I’m hitting the ball. It’s interesting, can’t quite explain it.
ballmachineguy
Hall of Fame
There is definitely a weight shift on almost any stroke. You can’t really push off of a straight leg like you can when bent.
Curious
G.O.A.T.
Well, most rec players don’t bend their knees enough. You agree with that or not?
Probably. Depends on the level I guess. I'm just afraid people will start bending their knees for the sake of it, like they are doing squats at the gym. You have to coil and uncoil with the bend. If done properly, there is very little strain on the leg muscles, unlike performing squats.
Curious
G.O.A.T.
Again I believe the benefit comes from the solid wide base when you bend your knees. It takes extra effort and strength which rec players are not quite willing to do as you know.
you're right, it's not about bending for the sake of bending... it's about the load/unload.
i'd say 95% of the rec players under 5.0 do NOT do the coil/uncoil consistently (the 5% being the upper 4.5 folks).... mainly because it requires both the technique&timing (and even spacing) to do it, as well as the conditioning to continually do it.
(so definitely not as obvious as you make it out to be for most folks... actually many folks that do bend will do a "bend & wait" (or minimal bend weight xfer) vs. a quick but deliberate load/unload taking advantage of SSC, etc...)
a while ago i took a lesson with this guy,
so when i said i still have to remind myself to do it... 6mos ago i would have only lasted 10-15m in a continuous cooperative hit, because i was 40lbs heavier... so i developed a habit of "conserving" energy (by not coiling & uncoiling consistently as much as i could... vs just doing a weight xfer with a mild "knee" bend)...
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Good lesson. Thanks.
socallefty
G.O.A.T.
I also think that you can’t coil/uncoil, load your hips etc. to use the body’s kinetic chain without bending your knees. So, the players who don’t bend their knees much likely arm the ball and don’t use the power of their body. Also, if you want to hit with a lot of topspin, you have to start your swing low and it is easier to do it by bending your knees. If you try to get low without bending your knees, you have to bend your chest forward and that likely makes it difficult to be in balance especially if you try to coil/uncoil your body.
johnmccabe
Hall of Fame
No punishment is allowed anymore in any education and training these days in US, it seems...
Thats why she won 20+ slams and the generation below won hardly any. Same for the mens. Its a difference in attitude and mentality.
johnmccabe
Hall of Fame
Everyone wants excellence and gain with no pain these days
innoVAShaun
Legend
I dont know about great forehand. You cant drive your legs if you dont bend your knees.
innoVAShaun
Legend
After three knee surgeries, I don't blame him.
ballmachineguy
Hall of Fame
And hardly swinging.
McGradey
Hall of Fame
Sure, but in play, how often does he get fed a ball directly into his forehand slot at a comfortable pace like that? He's just standing there, redirecting. Can you run up to the service line from the baseline and hit a good forehand without bending your knees?
Possibly I could. I'm arguing that bending the knees is not necessary to hit a technically sound shot. My proposal is that bending the knees is done to inject more power into the stroke?
