muscling the ball

[patrick922]

i feel like i am muscling my strokes a bit to try to get more racquet head speed. any tips on how to keep it smooth. i read in a tennis.com article that you should use your shoulder to push through the ball and towards the target? any thoughts on this?

here is the article::
http://www.tennis.com/yourgame/instructionarticles/forehand/forehand.aspx?id=35176

 

[travlerajm]

This might help:

http://tt.tennis-warehouse.com/showthread.php?t=111823

 

[fuzz nation]

Here's something you can try to get you more in touch with better timing and a smoother motion when you're having a practice hit. On your forehand stroke, hold the racquet out in the hooks of your fingers more than down in your palm and get comfortable with a few practice strokes. Since you can't gorilla grip the frame and muscle it around with this grip, you have to use good timing and preparation to make a good stroke.

Be careful to only go 3/4 speed at first when you try this; the grip can be less secure when you first use it and is intended to get your preparation happening earlier. Of course, if anything hurts in your wrist, etc., don't do it. A buddy and I noodled around with this and it made us appreciate how much we could unconsciously restrict our racquet motion with too much of a death grip on the handle.

 

[patrick922]

Here's something you can try to get you more in touch with better timing and a smoother motion when you're having a practice hit. On your forehand stroke, hold the racquet out in the hooks of your fingers more than down in your palm and get comfortable with a few practice strokes. Since you can't gorilla grip the frame and muscle it around with this grip, you have to use good timing and preparation to make a good stroke.

Be careful to only go 3/4 speed at first when you try this; the grip can be less secure when you first use it and is intended to get your preparation happening earlier. Of course, if anything hurts in your wrist, etc., don't do it. A buddy and I noodled around with this and it made us appreciate how much we could unconsciously restrict our racquet motion with too much of a death grip on the handle.

are you suggesting to hold my racquet with the butt of the racquet at the heel of my palm? i use to hold it this way but then i wanted to get more pace on the ball and kind of choked up on the racquet, this resulted in a muscling motion to create racqeut head speed. and now i went back to my old 'butt of the racquet to the heel of the palm' and it felt good. it was a lot smoother and got good pace on the ball with out muscling it

 

[fearless1]

i feel like i am muscling my strokes a bit to try to get more racquet head speed. any tips on how to keep it smooth. i read in a tennis.com article that you should use your shoulder to push through the ball and towards the target? any thoughts on this?

here is the article::
http://www.tennis.com/yourgame/instructionarticles/forehand/forehand.aspx?id=35176

Muscling your shots implies you don't have enough backswing ("wind up") in your stroke that is commensurate with pace of incomng ball. Fast incoming balls can be returned with power with short backswings. But trying to hit a slower incoming ball with a short backswing will require you to muscle the shot if you are attempting to put some pace into it. So, take that racquet (and shoulders) WAY back ("wind it up"), step into the shot, then let it rip.