Tiger Paw said:
Acer,
Your problem is classic and simply solved. You don't lead with your elbow, but I imagin that your arm is still slightly bent at contact. Being bent, the energy from the collision with the ball travels down your arm and is stopped at your slightly bent elbow. You want instead your elbow solidly conecting your wrist with your shoulder/body so that the force of the collision is absorbed by the greater force of your trunk propelled by your feet and directed by the shoulder. Think of the physics of vectors, if you have ever been expolsed to engeneering studies. Or have someone push against your extended arm and then your slightly bent arm and feel which one you can better resist with. Obviously it is the straight arm, hands down!
You mentioned top spin, so I would also suggest the posibility that as your body turns open you may be rotating your forearm aound your elbow to create "more spin". This will accentuate the problem outlined above.
So to solve the problem, assuming I am reading between the lines correctly, I would recommend two things.
1) After taking your racket back, but before lifting with your shoulder into the point of contact, drop your racket DOWN. Pretend you are going to touch the ground with the racket before accellerating into the shot. On the take-back the arm naturally becomes bent. You have to re-straighten it out before contact. Taking the racket down straightens the arm and also assures the racket is below the ball for a nice low to high swing. This alone will solve your problem.
2) I think I can attribute this to someone elses post here at TW. Have a friend softly toss balls to you. Face the net. Make your arm straight. As ball comes toward you practice meeting the ball by only raising your straight arm from your shoulder (no body movement etc) . Next do the same thing, but turning 90 degrees so your body faces the side line. Raise from your shoulder to make contact. Throw the ball underhanded very slowly or if using a backboard hit very very softly. What you are doing is re-learning the correct contact point. For a one handder, unlike a two hander, this point is significantly further out in front than the contact point for the the more accustomed forehand. ... Which bring us to foot work... but that is another story!
Yeah, there are two schools of thought on this straightening the arm thing. One happens sooner and the other later. One is more noticable and happens on the downswing of the backswing. The other happens on the upswing and straightens just before contact but is used more as a natural function of the body. Sort of like the arm of a pitcher when they release the ball.
For some the elbow is not completely straight but as long as the hand gets slightly ahead of the elbow and the shoulder muscles are used to swing the racquet as well, players can play unhurt and enjoy the game of tennis for the rest of their life. Clinging on to the notion that the arm has to be straight at a certain time to reduce or eliminate tennis elbow - or worse that the racquet has to be on a downard angle is a little farfetched isnt it?? Changing the racquet head dynamics (angling it down) can produce other issues if other areas are not in check and frustrate the learner.
Tennis elbow is simply coming from too much strain on the elbow. One has to look at practically the only place this could be happening - at contact. So what contributes to tennis elbow? Is it not having a straight arm? Is it a grip choice? Racquet choice????
The key area is the racquet is not coming around in time. It is on an angle like this \ at contact which centralizes the shock from the blow directly on the elbow. So does this mean that if I straighten arm the problem is solved? No.
As coaches we all know that leading with the elbow can increase ones chance to get tennis elbow. Women using a onehanded backhand are the most notorious onehanders that lead with the elbow. But just leading with the elbow is not the problem. The main problem with leading with the elbow is it is difficult to get the racquet in front of the hand and even or slightly in front of the elbow which relieves the elbow from absorbing the blow and transfers the shock to the shoulder muscle.
Also, the more Eastern (extreme) one goes the more the player has to incorporate the rotation of the forearm to square the racquet at contact (get it ahead of the hand) to reduce the jolt going to the elbow and prevent shearing.
So one can hit with a relaxed arm, a straight arm, a slightly bent arm and never have tennis elbow. The trick is getting the hand to rotate the racquet around in time so it is not slanted which shears the ball and produces an offcenter shock that hits the elbow area.
It is the racquet not coming around in time which means hitting late that causes tennis elbow. This can be happening for several reasons:
1. The use of an extreme grip
2. A sudden change in racquet weight, swing weight.
3. Not getting the head of the racquet in front of the hand at impact.
4. Making contact with the ball behind the shoulder.
5. Not getting his feet set to transfer weight forward and using only arm.
I agree that one way to hit a onehander is with a straightened elbow on the downswing but it is not the only way and it certainly is not the cure to tennis elbow.
