Modern Forehand Relaxed Wrist

[FailBetter]

Hi,

I try to relax my wrist more during my forehand.
It works great right to the point where I want to give more power. Then my grip & wrist tighten up.
So how do you keep a relaxed wrist and generate power?

 

[Daniel_K]

Swing faster. Wrist lag is not to do with mentally holding it back, it happens from swing naturally.

 

[steve s]

Loose arm,shoulder, and grip, is the key.

 

[5263]

focus on the change of direction as you approach contact....and right before contact change to swinging to your shoulder area finish.

 

[pushing_wins]

Nah

 

[kramer woodie]

Loose arm,shoulder, and grip, is the key.

Steve s

Steve s comment is right on!!! Daniel K post is right on also. In order to swing faster the arm, shoulder and grip must be relaxed. It's not about muscles in the arm, but muscle energy
from the legs and hips that transfer that energy through the weaker muscles of the arm and grip. The energy produced by the lower body mass must not be restricted by tight muscles
of the shoulder, arm, and grip. It's called "The Kinetic Chain". This chain is what produces racket head speed, not arm strength or wrist snap. It is the Kinetic Chain that creates energy,
power, and higher velocity of a racquet head contacting the ball.

An analogy would be a whip, the movement of the handle accelerates the tip of the whip at tremendous speed. Or think of a rolled up towel, wetted, and used as a cruel joke after
a gym shower. The tip of that towel hurts on contact because of the rapid acceleration of the towel tip trying to keep up with the handle. I know not the best examples, however,
much like the wheels on a car when making a turn. The inside wheels turn slower and the outside wheels have to turn faster to keep up.

So, keep the upper body small muscles relaxed and let the energy produced travel through them for more racquet head speed. There is a plus side to using this approach, it is
definitely easier on the arm. The clinching of the grip and arm muscles is what contributes to tennis & golfers elbow along with pronating while clinched.

Aloha

 

[jga111]

Power? Comes from the legs and trunk.

WHEN YOU HAVE TIME TO PLAY THE SHOT.
- then you can play with a loose wrist and generate your power from your legs and trunk. Doing this properly with full kinetic chain in motion and you will be hitting the ball in mid-flight.

WHEN YOU DONT HAVE ENOUGH TIME.
You will only have so much loading time on your legs - this could be because the ball given to you is hit with pace, or is hit deep to you and do not have enough time to adjust your footwork. You can still use a loose wrist/arm in this situation but your timing will have to be spot on and it may still lack power. A firm shot gives you more control and used with the pace of the ball will give you a more powerful reply than the one with the looser wrist.

Notice forehands in slow motion of the pros - its not always the same. The situation dictates how they hit.

 

[FailBetter]

Thx@all I know about the kinetic chain and very very unfrequent I get the effortless spin and power. but that happened about 2-3 times in the last year.
It's just frustrating.. You know that theoretically you can do it (hit with lots of action and effortless power) but I just cant find a way to find that state (not talking about flow here) again..

I tried the drill from coach kyril..

and it worked really well with the elbow tucked into the body..
I've got amazing action to the ball.
but then if I take the elbow away nothing works.. I cant recreate that feeling

 

[Slash007]

Persevere
You have to teach your body trough actions and constant feedback.

Force yourself to hit loose until it gets second nature.

Knowing what to do != being able to execute it

Internet videos are bad for two reasons: no quality control and no feedback

So, get there and do it, you will be amazed how quickly you can improve provided you have feedback and you are being fair to yourself while measuring improvement.

Look, I just want to encourage you to get back to practicing on court. I respect those with passion to improve and I am rooting for you.

Cheers

 

[Fintft]

Loose arm,shoulder, and grip, is the key.

Yes and a couple more minor things that help me:

1. Extend the left arm - helps me judge the distance/get better contact
2. Elbow someone on the take back - better spacing and also important when pressed for time (so that you don't have a large WTA take back, but a rather compact ATP one)
3. Keep eyes at contact through contact- this also relaxes me, besides improving contact and consistency
4. No dirty over grips, sweaty hands- all of those make you tighten your grip on the racquet handle.

 

[JCo872]

Hi,

I try to relax my wrist more during my forehand.
It works great right to the point where I want to give more power. Then my grip & wrist tighten up.
So how do you keep a relaxed wrist and generate power?

You don't want a "relaxed wrist" through contact. That's just not an accurate concept. You will get no bite into the ball and you will lose the drive and lift from the arm. Check out Raonic here. Definitely not a "loose wrist" through impact there. Instead he is starting to turn his hand and forearm counterclockwide, but it's more of a muscular turn of the forearm - not a "loose wrist". And he is pushing through the ball a bit from his shoulder.

 

[Daniel_K]

You don't want to tense up on the shot, but having the wrist too loose can create a racquet flopping all over and inconsistent shots

 

[Bender]

Probably because you are trying to swing harder rather than swinging faster. The former involves arming the swing, the latter involves uncoiling faster.

 

[Surion]

Probably because you are trying to swing harder rather than swinging faster. The former involves arming the swing, the latter involves uncoiling faster.

That's actually really really important.

I see so many rec players trying to hit harder by swinging harder, but neglecting the kinetic chain.

Of course, it works on some shots, but most of them will just fly.

 

[andrew.tran781]

you can try developing a mechanism to loosen up. like wiggle your fingers around during the back swing and almost over exaggerate it to soften your grip

Sent from my SM-G928T using Tapatalk

 

[slanotran]

Hi guys.
I don't understad how exactly my forearm/wrist to be relaxed during my forward swing, esspecially at the moment of the contact . When I try to do this my racquet going unstable at the contact.
When I firm my forearm, then I am not relax. Maybe I have to firm the forearm and wrist at moment before contact or something else ? Any suggestions ?

 

[Aretium]

Power? Comes from the legs and trunk.

WHEN YOU HAVE TIME TO PLAY THE SHOT.
- then you can play with a loose wrist and generate your power from your legs and trunk. Doing this properly with full kinetic chain in motion and you will be hitting the ball in mid-flight.

WHEN YOU DONT HAVE ENOUGH TIME.
You will only have so much loading time on your legs - this could be because the ball given to you is hit with pace, or is hit deep to you and do not have enough time to adjust your footwork. You can still use a loose wrist/arm in this situation but your timing will have to be spot on and it may still lack power. A firm shot gives you more control and used with the pace of the ball will give you a more powerful reply than the one with the looser wrist.

Notice forehands in slow motion of the pros - its not always the same. The situation dictates how they hit.

Money post.

You would be surprised how much power you get from just loading/coiling and focusing on hitting through the ball with intent on placement.

 

[ARKustom93]

Hi,

I try to relax my wrist more during my forehand.
It works great right to the point where I want to give more power. Then my grip & wrist tighten up.
So how do you keep a relaxed wrist and generate power?

Please try to describe as exactly as you can what you do differently when going for more power, i.e. faster core rotation, arm motion, etc.

Have a couple of ideas/suggestions as to cause and solutions, depending on your description.

 

[JCo872]

I would think about it a little differently. Instead of thinking about the wrist, think more about your forearm muscles. You want your forearm muscles to rotate the ball - like turning open a tightly closed jar. With your hand rotated downward a bit on contact, use your wrist and forearm muscles to turn the ball in a counter clock wise motion. Finish as if you were "checking the time" on your watch.

So coming into contact you should have the stretch shortening cycle from pulling the racket butt cap first towards the ball. When the forearm muscles relax the wrist rotates inside out into the ball (this is relaxed). Then on contact, the rolling motion is muscular with the forearm muscles really working the ball.

You can see how this all works here: http://www.hi-techtennis.com/tw/forearm_rotation.php

Note the finish position where Gilles Muller is "checking the time on his watch." Also notice how on contact his wrist is angled downward a bit. This allows him to get more rotation with his forearm and wrist.

 

[TennisCJC]

I would think about it a little differently. Instead of thinking about the wrist, think more about your forearm muscles. You want your forearm muscles to rotate the ball - like turning open a tightly closed jar. With your hand rotated downward a bit on contact, use your wrist and forearm muscles to turn the ball in a counter clock wise motion. Finish as if you were "checking the time" on your watch.

So coming into contact you should have the stretch shortening cycle from pulling the racket butt cap first towards the ball. When the forearm muscles relax the wrist rotates inside out into the ball (this is relaxed). Then on contact, the rolling motion is muscular with the forearm muscles really working the ball.

You can see how this all works here: http://www.hi-techtennis.com/tw/forearm_rotation.php

Note the finish position where Gilles Muller is "checking the time on his watch." Also notice how on contact his wrist is angled downward a bit. This allows him to get more rotation with his forearm and wrist.

I agree - it more forearm and even arm rotation and not rolling or snapping the wrist.

I disagree that rolling the forearm is used to work the ball. I just visualize my swing path and the rolling of the forearm/arm is to achieve a smooth swing path. I have know a lot of players that try to wiper the ball at contact and they end up with inconsistent brushy strokes.

Also, if you look closely at Gilles just prior to, at contact and just after; you will see the wrist pretty much stays laid back and there is very little change in the angle. There is some subtle change but no real snapping or rolling of the wrist. I think of the WWiper motion as just a smooth way to maintain strings pointing forward and to achieve a stroke that rolls into the follow through naturally. I don't think of WWiper motion as pulling up to achieve topspin.

 

[zalive]

Hi,

I try to relax my wrist more during my forehand.
It works great right to the point where I want to give more power. Then my grip & wrist tighten up.
So how do you keep a relaxed wrist and generate power?

By my (limited) understanding and knowledge, keys to easy power:

1. Making contact as early (as much in front of you) as possible
Pure geometry will tell you that to make contact really in front of you wrist still has to be at least fairly laid/bent back in the moment of contact - perhaps you can get away to some extent with cross-court with wrist straightened up some at the moment of contact, but when going DTL you don't have any other choice. Also, racquet's head lagging is somehow a natural consequence of doing this (when keeping it loose).
Doing this will prolong the swing path, meaning that your racquet's head will have longer time to accelerate, hence RHS will be higher.

2. Using unit turn
Whether you coil up with your lower back or use hip rotation or do both its the unit turn that will give you some easy power on your shot. Using external shoulder rotation by turning a non hitting shoulder to face the direction from which the ball is coming is also important.

3. Using weight transfer
By keeping weight on your rear leg and then transfering it during the swing (just a moment prior to contact to your front leg), you ensure power. And actually it works in conjunction with 2 (weight transfer is coordinated with unit turn).

 

[JCo872]

I agree - it more forearm and even arm rotation and not rolling or snapping the wrist.

I disagree that rolling the forearm is used to work the ball. I just visualize my swing path and the rolling of the forearm/arm is to achieve a smooth swing path. I have know a lot of players that try to wiper the ball at contact and they end up with inconsistent brushy strokes.

Also, if you look closely at Gilles just prior to, at contact and just after; you will see the wrist pretty much stays laid back and there is very little change in the angle. There is some subtle change but no real snapping or rolling of the wrist. I think of the WWiper motion as just a smooth way to maintain strings pointing forward and to achieve a stroke that rolls into the follow through naturally. I don't think of WWiper motion as pulling up to achieve topspin.

Look at the rainbow like path his racket moves through:
http://www.hi-techtennis.com/tw/forearm_rotation.php

The only way the racket does that arc is if the forearm and hand are turning. However, this isn't the only motion. His entire arm is lifting upward and his shoulder is pushing and lifting as well providing support and power. When people just "wipe" the ball, they wither aren't using the arm and shoulder and/or they aren't hitting in front, so it is a weak movement. I like your description of a stroke that "rolls into the follow through naturally".

 

[FailBetter]

Please try to describe as exactly as you can what you do differently when going for more power, i.e. faster core rotation, arm motion, etc.

Have a couple of ideas/suggestions as to cause and solutions, depending on your description.

Sorry for the late response. I try to load up more. I just try to swing faster, to get more raquet head speed. But often this ends in framing beacause timing is off then..

 

[zalive]

Sorry for the late response. I try to load up more. I just try to swing faster, to get more raquet head speed. But often this ends in framing beacause timing is off then..

Do you try to turn your body faster as well? Or you mostly use the arm speed?