Kinetic chain in 1-handed backhand
- Thread starter New Daddy
- Start date
J011yroger
Talk Tennis Guru
Dragy
Legend
The answer is dependent on what you call kinetic chain (as it’s rather a concept than a strict description of events) and how you apply this knowledge to playing better tennis. A 1HBH stroke includes building up the momentum from swinging from high takeback and then from leg drive and torso rotation. That whole stuff is passed to the arm taking off into the ball. Even though the FH-style racquet lag is not that pronounced (and some advocate/use rather rigid forearm-racquet structure), a kinetic chain is here.
Pete Player
Hall of Fame
How much do you think the lag is depending on your wrist moves or orientation compared to forearm and upper arm rotational movement?
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No more on pain meds - all contributed matter and anti-matter are still subject to disclaimer
Kobble
Hall of Fame
Everything is more free to move in the backhand, but I think it is due mostly to more freedom to internally rotate. You can also use the off hand to pull the racquet into a more acute lag angle to start.
IowaGuy
Hall of Fame
Pete Player
Hall of Fame
If you let the same free moving happen in a forehand, I think, you might be surpriced!
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No more on pain meds - all contributed matter and anti-matter are still subject to disclaimer
Kobble
Hall of Fame
I agree with the staying loose part; I put that in one of my recent posts. The OHBH, however, allows for greater conscious internal rotation and flexion of upper arm. People with poor flexibility and kinetic chain can't load those joint enough to get the same ROM in the forehand.
oserver
Professional
The gripping is the major factor on the arm lagging technique. it's decided mostly by human anatomy, not as much by training. There is no way to use the current one handed backhand grip to create the arm lagging/cross body swing that we see in forehand situation. Following are some text from an article I posted in TW forum thread -threads/thumb-up-do-we-need-a-law-for-tennis.641128/ -
- Thumb-up (forehand) VS. Thumb-down (backhand) – in single handed forehand situation, at contact point, if the player straightens the thumb of the racket holding hand, with the semi-western grip (#4 grip, plus and minus), the thumb will point up. So we can call it the Forehand Thumb-Up Model. On the other hand, in single handed backhand situation, with the eastern backhand grip (#1 grip), the thumb will points down at contact point....
- The degree of thumb-up and thumb-down is the most significant difference between current forehand and backhand both in terms of forms and techniques. It is also the most significant factor in determine the playing styles and their effectiveness. It explains the reason why the current backhand strokes have no hope to compete with modern forehand in both pace and spin terms. In general, the thumb-up grip forms suit cross-body swing and other representative forehand characteristics well, as those 5 points mentioned above.
- In another way, we can say that the gap in effectiveness between modern forehand and current backhands (both single or double handed) is pre-determined by our anatomy, not subjective to any tennis training or anyone's will. There is no way for the current backhand styles to challenge the modern forehand style in generating pace and spin. If a player finds his/her optimal thumb-up version, then he/her can generate optimal angular momentum. The more thumb-down, the player will generate more linear momentum, less angular momentum. These are lessons learned of evolution of modern forehand. Now we already know which way is better – the more angular swing model is far superior than the more linear swing model.
- Does this mean that so far, we have only partially listened to our body? That is, only in situation of forehand, we are not trying to fight our body. In either style of backhands (single or double handed), we are still fighting our own body, and in keeping this way, there is no hope that the backhand strokes can rival or getting close to the forehand power. This reasoning can also spread to the serve model too, since the prevailing continental serve grip form is another thumb-down version too.
- Thumb-down cause tension in hitting arm(s) (the (s) means in two handed backhand case). Using single handed backhand as an example, once we change the grip from a semi-western forehand grip to the eastern backhand grip, we can immediately feel muscle/joint tension at wrist(s), elbow(s) and shoulder. The tensed-up arm create a more rigid link between our body and the racket, equivalent of adding beginner stroke elements in hitting the ball, since beginners tend to grip the racket harder and have a tense arm. These beginner stroke elements are unavoidable, regardless the playing level. The rigid link won't help to let the tennis ball stay on the string bed so that the big muscle groups from legs up can have more time to drive the ball.
- Second, the tensed-up arm also makes the learning and training of single handed backhand stroke difficult. One need special talent to do single handed backhand well.
- The thumb-down style points to more linear hitting pattern than angular hitting pattern. It also force a player to use more wrist flexing. We know that modern forehand is very angular oriented and uses very little wrist flexing except hitting a down-the-line shots.
- Forth, the often tensed-up small muscles and joints can get player tied easier, and may increase the chances of injury.
The "lag" in the forehand is an entirely different feeling from the "lag" in the one handed backhand. You simply can't achieve the same feeling because you are pulling from the opposite side and your joints don't work the same way in the other direction.
The kinetic chain is not contributing less or more in one or the other, it's just that the specific sequence and usage of the body to implement the chaining is different for the two strokes.
The kinetic chain is not contributing less or more in one or the other, it's just that the specific sequence and usage of the body to implement the chaining is different for the two strokes.
