Tennis - How to transfer body weight
How to transfer body weight
Reference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eq9bVK54Xhg&t=308s
Today we’re going to talk a little about footwork, about your leg positioning, about open stance and closed stances, and how you should correctly position your legs to get a more effective shot
You have to use a support leg
- No matter whether you play are playing a forehand or a backhand, you have to use a support leg.
- For example, if I’m playing the ball that’s coming on my right, no matter if I’m a right-handed player or a left-handed player using my two hands, you have to use your right leg as a support leg.
- The same goes with the left side. If it’s the left side, you use your left leg as a support leg.
- If you hit on the right side, you use your right leg. If you play on your left side, use your left leg.
- And that goes for both close and open stances.
Understanding weight transfer - on the front hand
- Lets understand a little bit of the weight transfer.
- How does it work from the support leg?
- Why do we use the right leg on our right side and our left leg on our left side?
- Open stance
- With the open stance it’s kind of clear. If you step to the side and you hit from here.
- For example, if I’m playing in an open stance, where I put my right foot to the side, and I hit my forehand with my hips pretty open to the net, I would push this hip towards the ball over here, so I can move my body through the shot.
- Closed stance
- With the closed setting, it becomes more complicated.
- But I know that most of the people try to teach closed stance or like to turn sideways to the net.
- For that reason, I would like to explain how you should approach that.
- If I’m about to play in a more closed stance, or I try to place both of my feet sideways, here I must make sure that I still stay on my right leg, which means I would set up like this, and as I hit, I kind of like move my weight through my legs.
- In order to do that, try to step on your heel with the foot that’s stepping forward.
- For example, I find my right, then I step with my heel, and as my foot goes down, I go into the shot.
- This way, both of my legs still touch the ground as I finish my shot.
Understanding weight transfer - on the backhand
- I’ll show you a couple examples on the backhand as well.
- So on the backhand, it would look something like this.
- You make a box and you come up, you find your right leg, then you take the final step, you step it on your heel, and you move through your toe, and then you’re still staying grounded.
- That way, you’ll probably feel that you’re mainly pushing off, and you have more stability if you’re using your left leg when you’re playing on the left side; rather than, approaching it like this.
Don’t fall on your front foot before the hit
- Here is something you would want to avoid.
- If you run up to the ball, and you fall on your front foot, see what happens.
- If that happens, then I step on my toe first.
- So I go here my weights are ready on my front foot.
- So I have nothing; I can’t use my rotation; I can’t push myself more into the ball; it’s really hard to create tension; almost impossible; all you can do is fall on the ball even more.
- Obviously, if the ball is really high, then probably it sometimes works. Sometimes you can come up to an approach shot that is shorter and higher, and just fall on it. Yes, you may not miss that shot. Maybe, you will hit it decently hard. But it’s definitely not the best way to hit it. You should come up, and stand on your back foot, which on the right side is your right leg. It doesn’t matter if you’re righty or a lefty. It will go the same thing for two hands. And then, to make sure that your weight doesn’t go on your front foot faster than needed, you have to go on your heel and then kind of roll over.
- Every time your back leg, your support leg loses the ground, that means you went on your front foot too early.
- And again, it’s not like it’s impossible to put the ball in like that.
- It’s just a better way and it gives you higher quality shots.
- It gives you a bigger potential to actually use your strength and use the correct technique.
- Also, if you stay low throughout the shot, for example, if it’s an open stance, you stay low like this, or if you play in a closed stance, you stay low like this, you’re more more stable. And it’s less likely that your racket will go off the ball as you hit. That means, you would be way more precise when you hit.
Movement on the court is important
- Why people actually end up falling on their front feet before the hit?
- Unfortunately, not everybody can find the distance to the ball right away like this.
- So what happens is, that you move to the ball and then you see that the ball appears shorter than you expected, and you take that extra step forward to reach the ball, and that’s why you end up hitting it here.
- As you see, my weight is already transferred on my front leg.
- I can’t hit the ball with rotation; I can’t use the tension that I created or anything; I’m just falling on it.
- As I said earlier, yes, you can put the ball in; yes, probably you can hit it decently hard, if you’re a very strong person.
- But you cannot use the highest potential of your body and your technique.
- So that is why movement is so important.
- You have to try to come up to the ball when you don’t need to take that extra step anymore;
- That you’re taking that extra step just to benefit for the shot and not to reach for it
- So your goal with your feet when you move on the court, to set up for the ball, has to be to set up to hit a good shot and not to just reach it.
- It makes a huge difference in your game.
- If you move just to reach the ball and just hit it somehow, you will never produce high quality shots or play clean on a consistent basis.
- You will get them in, here and there, but they will always feel like like you’re off balance; you can’t really hit a good shot.
- So if you change that mindset, and you start moving to the ball according to it, if it’s a little bit shorter, you come a little bit closer; if it’s a little bit further, you move a little bit back; to the side;
- You always move in a way that you’re trying to set up that back foot, and you’re using your other foot, the front foot to actually get this momentum going into the ball, you will be able to hit way more precise, way harder, and you’ll just elevate to another point.
2 Ways To Use Body Weight For More Powerful Strokes
Reference: feeltennis.net
- One of the most efficient ways to generate power in all of your strokes is to use more of your body than your arms.
- By “body,” I refer mainly to the trunk/torso area which normally contains most of your body mass.
- If we can engage this body mass more as we hit a very light tennis ball, we’ll make that little ball fly off our racquets effortlessly.
- We’ll need to veer off to the field of physics for a minute, but no worries – we’ll be back very soon!
How Transfer of Momentum Works In Tennis
The physics of hitting a tennis ball is very complex if we want to get to the bottom of it as it includes friction, ball deformation, angles of the racquet path, angle of the racquet face, angular momentum and so on.
But, in the most basic way, we are dealing with the transfer and conservation of momentum.
Momentum is defined as mass times speed, and the laws of physics say that if there is a collision between two objects (in an isolated system – no other forces are in play), the total momentum of the two objects before the collision is equal to the total momentum of the two objects after the collision.
When the racquet and the ball collide, the racquet transfers some of its momentum to the ball.
And since momentum is a product of mass and speed, that tells us that if we increase either or both, we will increase the total momentum.
In tennis, we use both principles, especially when it comes to groundstrokes.
This article focuses mostly on the first principle, which is adding body weight to the stroke in both neutral and open stance, meaning we want to step into the ball or rotate through the stroke continuously.
Those are both the foundations of weight transfer upon which we build the more advanced technique which uses body acceleration and deceleration to transfer the momentum from the body into the arm, which then makes the arm accelerate.
We’re then using the second principle, which is speeding up the arm and the racquet in order to increase the momentum transferred into the ball.
The foundation that most recreational and junior tennis players are missing is to engage their body in the first place and put more body weight into the stroke.
So, let’s continue with this topic for the remainder of this article….
The first principle of adding more power (momentum) to our strokes is to increase the mass of the object going towards the tennis ball.
If we swing with the same speed but increase the mass of the racquet, the speed of the outgoing ball will increase since its mass is constant.
But, heavy racquets are difficult to maneuver, require a lot of strength and almost perfect technique as their greater momentum can cause injuries to a recreational tennis player.
So, instead of increasing the mass of the racquet, we must try to “add” our mass to the racquet so that we can increase the total momentum and therefore make that small ball fly faster off our racquet.
“Put your weight behind the ball!” and “Lean into the shot!” are some instructions you might have heard from coaches here and there.
What they want is to have the player transfer weight into the ball.
Adding “weight” to the forehand stroke
When we transfer weight into the shot, we basically connect the arm and the racquet to our body and therefore put more weight behind the racquet and increase its momentum.
If we do not transfer weight into the shot and do not engage the body much, the mass going against the ball is basically the mass of our arm plus the racquet, so the total momentum is not that big.
There is a distinct difference when I hit a stroke while my body is static and I engage solely my arm to hit the ball compared to the stroke when I engage more of my body, either with linear weight transfer or by adding more rotation of the trunk.
There’s a big difference in power whether I transfer weight into the ball or not
I feel exactly what the physics explain mathematically: I am transferring greater momentum into the ball; therefore, the little, light ball has to fly off faster off the racquet.
And not only that, I feel that my arm doesn’t have to contract and “work” so much, so I gain much more feel and the ability to adjust to each ball.
In fact, weight transfer makes especially groundstrokes so effortless and comfortable that I have been looking to hit the ball almost every time with the weight transfer if only I have enough time to set up early for the shot.
And that brings us to…
Timing Differences
If we don’t transfer the weight into the ball and we simply imagine that we need to reach the ball and then swing the racquet, we can do that fairly quickly.
Swinging the racquet forward takes very little time, so we don’t need to be at the right place very early.
But, if we want to transfer our body weight into the ball, it will take much more time to get the body going into the ball as it’s much heavier and takes time to get going.
Of course, the better athlete you are, the faster you can do it, but there’s still a big difference in how much time it takes to move your arm and the racquet two feet forward, for example, compared to how much time it takes to move your trunk two feet forward.
That’s why we need to be at the right place much earlier if we want to transfer weight into the ball as our whole stroke will take more time.
That means we must be able to judge the ball flight faster and be able to move faster to the proper hitting position if we want to buy ourselves some time so that we can use it for weight transfer.
That’s why tennis beginners who judge the ball very poorly and don’t know where it’s going to land can’t get into the position early enough to have enough time for weight transfer.
If they play for a long time with someone playing too fast for their judging and movement ability, they will develop a habit of NOT putting weight transfer into the ball and will stick to it even when their judgment and movement abilities improve and they could transfer weight into the ball!
Just something to keep in mind if you’re playing with beginners. The danger of developing bad habits in tennis when you attempt to play much better tennis than you’re currently capable of is very very big.
The first step to using weight transfer more often is becoming aware of how it feels different when we hit without and with weight transfer.
Once you’re aware of the difference and you feel how much more comfortable and powerful your strokes are when you transfer weight into the ball, you should attempt to do that when you can.
Everything, of course, depends on the situation you’re in and whether linear weight transfer, meaning hitting in neutral stance, is more adequate for that situation than open stance.
I know that many tennis players want to KNOW with certainty what is correct and what isn’t. That is impossible to answer in theory as there are infinite possible situations on the court.
To conclude, laws of physics and practical experience tell us that there will be much more momentum transferred into the ball if we add body weight into the stroke, in this case stepping into the ball in a neutral stance.
Your goal is to feel the difference at first of how it feels when you hit the ball only with your arm compared to hitting the ball when you’re able to step in.
Once you’re aware of how much more effortless and powerful your stroke is, look for that when you can.
The Triangle Movement Pattern
Most players that have trouble with the weight transfer and don’t really use it are those who play very close to the baseline.
When you’re close to the baseline, you don’t have the space or the time to move against the ball.
So, what you can do is have your starting position further behind the baseline and move towards the ball in a diagonal way, therefore automatically transferring some weight into it.
Start further behind the baseline so that you will automatically transfer weight into the ball as you’re moving forward.
Just remember to always recover slightly further back behind the baseline than you’re used to.
This is also very useful when you’re practicing volleys and, of course, when you’re playing them.
Again, always use common sense and not just rules.
You don’t have to step into the volley if there’s no time for that.
You can simply lean against the ball slightly if it’s fast or use your arms only to play it back if that is better in a certain situation.
Engaging The Body In Open Stance
I like to use the term “engaging the body” when talking about open stance forehands and backhands because it immediately tells to the player what to look for.
Open stance can be executed incorrectly, too, where the player typically doesn’t really rotate the shoulders much in the preparation phase nor does he rotate the body through the hitting zone, and that’s typically because they are preoccupied with what to do with their arms.
As mentioned above, we can increase the momentum of our racquet in two ways:
- by adding more weight behind it, which means that the trunk rotates all the time through the stroke,
- or by initiating the body rotation and then decelerating it in order to transfer the momentum into the arm first so that it accelerates.
I find that the second approach simply develops in time unconsciously if the first one is in place.
The players are actually rarely aware when each happens in the same way as they are not aware of which stance they use for each stroke. They simply want to hit the ball in a certain way, and the brain and body find the most efficient way to do it.
You can use this simple arm-dangling exercise shown in the video above where you can feel very distinctly what it means to engage and rotate your body instead of your arms.
Try the dangling arms exercise
Then try to apply the same feel when you’re hitting an easy ball and try to feel if there’s any difference in how much effort you need to hit the ball and how much your arm is straining as you’re hitting the ball.
Initiate rotation from the core and let you arms follow
The same principles of adding more weight to your shots apply also to the one-handed backhand where the linear weight transfer is the key to getting more power.
We often get lost in the technique of the strokes as we observe all the time only the arm movement and the racquet path.
Whenever we pay so much attention to the arm, we will unconsciously disengage the body.
That’s also one of the biggest problems with the serve technique.
There’s much to observe when it comes to the racquet drop, pronation, racquet path and so on that, as we try to move our arm correctly, we stop using the trunk and hips and therefore cut the energy transfer from the body.
The linear weight transfer and engaging your body more in open stance and other strokes in tennis will relieve your arms of a lot of work and help you regain that fine feel and control of the racquet face you need to play the ball very accurately.
Your long-term goal is to bring as much work as possible as close as possible to the center of your body and away from your arms.
Our eyes always spot the moving objects first. Whether you want it or not, the first thing you’ll observe in a tennis stroke is the racquet and its path.
You’ll also see that the racquet is held in the arm, and you’ll assume that we move the racquet with the arm, so you’ll try to copy that.
That’s where you’ll go wrong as ALL of the tennis strokes are initiated (unless in emergency situations) from the core and from the center of the body.
The core and the shoulder axis are the parts of the body that generate the most power, and they transfer that power to the arms.
Next time you observe the pros on YouTube, consciously focus on the trunk and try to note how they transfer weight into shots and how they engage the body in open stance. Stop paying attention to the racquet for once!
This time look only in the area between the knees and the shoulders and try to notice how Federer uses his core to initiate all other movements.
So, as you hit your strokes in easy conditions, at first rallying with your partner nicely, focus on transferring as much work as possible towards the center of the body and relieve your arms of work.
It’s a long term process with which in time you’ll get better and better and learn to hit with more power, more control and less overall effort.
Tips to help the body coil before the hit
- Keep the non-hitting arm on the racket until you start swinging the racket forward.
- And during the entire coil phase, the chin needs to be on the opposite shoulder.