Hip rotation, the road to power?

[Exci]

I'll start off with some basic information. I'm an about 3.0-3.5 player with an eastern one-handed backhand and a semi-/full western forehand. I hit my forehand from an open stance, but my backhand remains prefereably closed of course.

Yesterday my coach pointed out that I wasn't rotating my hips that good on my forehand side. While I do uncoil pretty normally with my shoulders, my hips are pretty much set in a straight position. Needless to say, I tried to rotate a bit more and I instantly noticed how much more power and control this provides. Forehands have more spin, but even more power. I was surprised how much my forehand instantly improved by just rotating my hips a little bit. Is hip rotation that important? I tried searching on the forums, but couldn't find anything on hip rotation for an open stance forehand. Hip rotation for service is pretty well documentated, but that's not of my concern (yet).

Are there any tips to improve rotation of my hips? Perhaps some drills or 'tricks' (just like catching your racquet tends to improve your followthrough)? And do some pro's use exaggerate hip rotation on their forehands? I've read before that's the key is all about uncoiling, so I'm trying to get that right somehow.

Any help would be appreciated.

 

[Camilio Pascual]

I'm real interested in what the answers to this great question will be. I effortlessly shifted to hitting many more open stance forehands, but I will swear I don't rotate my hips as much as before, I'm rotating my shoulders much more.
If you want to induce more hip rotation on your forehand from a neutral stance, try this:
Kick the heel out on your back foot. This will force rotation with the ball of your foot as the axis, causing your rear hip to come around. I don't normally do this while playing a match, but sometimes as a reminder to myself to rotate. I usually do it for a while during the beginning of drills or a workout session. Another benefit to kicking your heel out is it will keep you from hitting off the back foot, you'll lose your balance right away. Serena should try it sometime.

 

[Marius_Hancu]

You might want to read these:

Biomechanics of the Forehand Stroke
by Rafael Bahamonde - Indiana University, USA
http://www.coachesinfo.com/category/tennis/209/

Ferrero Forehand Analyzed
http://tt.tennis-warehouse.com/showthread.php?t=22111

Onehanded backhand, how do I hit with more power?
http://tt.tennis-warehouse.com/showthread.php?t=18679

 

[Marius_Hancu]

Also, suggest buying both these outstanding books:

World class tennis technique
Serious tennis

 

[Marius_Hancu]

and these, from revolutionarytennis.com, might generate some controversy:

THE FOREHAND: OPEN STANCE AND HIP ROTATION
http://www.revolutionarytennis.com/rebuttalforehand1.html

and

All About Body Rotation
http://www.revolutionarytennis.com/onrotation.html

The Forehand Groundstroke
http://www.revolutionarytennis.com/step8.html


you might want to show these to your coach

 

[Bungalo Bill]

I'll start off with some basic information. I'm an about 3.0-3.5 player with an eastern one-handed backhand and a semi-/full western forehand. I hit my forehand from an open stance, but my backhand remains prefereably closed of course.

Yesterday my coach pointed out that I wasn't rotating my hips that good on my forehand side. While I do uncoil pretty normally with my shoulders, my hips are pretty much set in a straight position. Needless to say, I tried to rotate a bit more and I instantly noticed how much more power and control this provides. Forehands have more spin, but even more power. I was surprised how much my forehand instantly improved by just rotating my hips a little bit. Is hip rotation that important? I tried searching on the forums, but couldn't find anything on hip rotation for an open stance forehand. Hip rotation for service is pretty well documentated, but that's not of my concern (yet).



Are there any tips to improve rotation of my hips? Perhaps some drills or 'tricks' (just like catching your racquet tends to improve your followthrough)? And do some pro's use exaggerate hip rotation on their forehands? I've read before that's the key is all about uncoiling, so I'm trying to get that right somehow.

Any help would be appreciated.

If you can locate purchasing the 8-board that is the best way to learn how to swivel your hips.

Hip rotation is important in grooundstokes. You need to have bent knees to allow your hips to "get into" the shot.

The premise of hip rotation lies in allowing your hips to lead the forward part of the stroke while the arm follows. You can do this exercise at home with while pretending your hitting alternating forehands and backhands. Just stay in an open stance and when your arms go back in the backswing, move the hip on the side that the arms are on and sort of go forward with your hip while allowing the arms to drop in place and then follow.

The purpose of the hip rotation is not to just move your hips, but to hit the ball with your torso and not your arm. The elbow still leads the forward swing while following the hips and your upper body plane (shoulder to shoulder) should meet the ball facing 45 degree angle. In other words, use hip rotation to send kinetic energy up through the body and don't over do it.

 

[vin]

To really understand the benefit of hip rotation, I think it is important to understand what happens after. One of the big forces in the forehand is internal rotation of the shoulder. To effectively drive internal rotation from hip rotation, you need to generate a stretch across both sides of your chest, just like if you were throwing a baseball. Actually, throwing a baseball sidearm is almost a perfect analogy. Without this stretch, there will be some slack in this transfer of enegery and if there is enough slack, most if not all of the hip rotation will be wasted.

Take a look at Agassi and watch how he uses his non dominant hand to generate the stretch across his chest and the timing of when he does it.

Maintaining an athletic stance and good footwork will help you to get your inside leg loaded to drive the rotation. But as BB said, be careful not to overdo it, which is easy to do once you develop the feel for what hip rotation can do.

This is mostly just my opinion and the links Marius provided contradict a lot of it. As always, I'm just sharing what works well for me.

 

[Marius_Hancu]

This is mostly just my opinion and the links Marius provided contradict a lot of it. As always, I'm just sharing what works well for me.

Only some of them do contradict. I prefer people to think about issues based on several references and to make their own decisions in an informed way. These are all references by people who have put a lot of thought into tennis, even if they don't always agree with each other.

 

[vin]

Only some of them do contradict. I prefer people to think about issues based on several references and to make their own decisions in an informed way. These are all references by people who have put a lot of thought into tennis, even if they don't always agree with each other.

Marius, just to make sure you didn't misinterpret what I meant, I wasn't discrediting your references or revolutionarytennis.com. I agree that it is best to have a variety of knowledge. I was simply pointing out that what I said doesn't fully agree with what revolutionarytennis.com recommends. However, I think he does a good job of discussing excessive rotation if you insist on using rotation.

 

[Marius_Hancu]

Marius, just to make sure you didn't misinterpret what I meant, I wasn't discrediting your references or revolutionarytennis.com.

relax, Vin, that wouldn't upset me. thank you for your concern though