You’ve got it right when you say the hips are still turning at contact but the effort was earlier. But you should be doing exactly the same thing with your arms ending with the finger tips. There is a golfer Mike Austin who hit a ball 515 yards in the 1950s and was still hitting over 300 yards when he was in the eighties. Tried his technique which was to start the hands swing at the beginning of the forward swing in tennis yesterday and fell into a rhythm that was pure fun. Satchel Paige, “You gots to jangle when you walk”. Your joints should rattle when the swing goes through them like a subway train. You never gather your muscles. For example the muscles of your legs are fired sequentially in 20+ bundles so they feel like a barber pole unfurling. Really enjoy your website, keep up the good work.
Bro. This is one of the most technical/philosophical tennis tutorial videos on TH-cam. This video outlines the fundamentals of transferring energy which is paramount in any sport. You nailed it. My two sports growing up were table tennis and boxing. Having only picked up tennis serious two years ago, the key points in this video really drives it home. There’s a time and need for both muscling and free flow wrist snap shots- at my level (USTA 4.0 as of last week) applying your philosophy and overall intent will make a huge difference. I look froward to watching all your videos.
Great video! Guess I've been fortunate to naturally have good coordination, but your analysis is still helpful to understand what's going on under the hood.
Thanks for the insight: I was playing on a very slow/sticky court in Napa and I could not even rally during the warm up against someone who hits very flat ball that either skids or just stopped short. I finally figured out that my take back needed to be smaller so I can “find the ball” first, then accelerate the racquet through. Eventually I got the timing right, instead of shanking. Like you said, I didn’t realize that I wasn’t suppose to accelerate racquet to the ball (or that’s the ‘feel’). The same feel made my serve return much better.
10:32 Pinpoints the reason why most golfers lose the coveted lag before impact. Whilst this might be easy to understand intellectually, it's very hard to change if you've ingrained the bad habit of early release, i.e. firing before impact, esp. since you've conditioned your brain to trigger based on a wrong set of (firing) indicators. In both tennis and in golf, most instructors try correcting this habit by asking their students to hit in front (or in golf, moving the ball forward in the stance). This however doesn't necessarily lead to a delayed firing sequence, as the goal is, as coach Steven points out, to feel the acceleration through contact. One possible analogy, using the "hitting" concept as framework, would be chopping (down) a tree (trunk). The feeling you should be looking for, is that of chopping the trunk completely through in one fell swoop, but not so wild that you risk hurting yourself :-) Or perhaps like some martial artists that hit through wood or stone; the physics don't lie: there's no way to generate enough energy (watts/joules) to hit through wood, drive a ball over 300 yds or a serve over 120 mph without using a lot of muscles to generate the power needed. At the same time, you need the muscles to be relaxed before the acceleration phase (into contact), because if they contract early or at the wrong time, you prevent them from accelerating properly, i.e. you probably will not reach your maximum velocity at any point in the swing. For reference, the problem with early lag release, is that you might well reach somewhat close to maximum velocity (not all the way since you're not using fully activating the muscles), but it will be too early / before impact, and you'll actually be decelerating into impact, which is the worse you do, as this brake-movement also entails less stability in addition to less force (think of a car braking hard).
Well explained. The 'start' of the kinetic chain is very important...Just like using the whip. The pull before contact is the when the whip breaks the sound barrier. It's the change of direction and contacting that gives you racquet head speed. Grip hard at contact and relax for for the finish.
Don't squeeze till you are just about to hit the ball...great way to think about it on the forehand. I need to consciously remember this, because I don't always do it.
Let me correct myself. The swing ends in the tip of the racquet, not the fingers. I think that is really vital, because it tells you where the contact point has to be on each stroke. Lower tip of racquet on topspins, upper tip on slices and inner tip on serves.
Goffin and Deminaur are two good examples of guys who don’t have a ton of leverage or muscle mass but they are able to crush the ball. Goffin, who is maybe 5’11” and 160 lbs, can consistently hit serves in the mid 120s and at 76.6mph, his average forehand speed at the 2016 Australian Open was higher than Federer, Kyrgios and Monfils. Technique and timing are more important than strength.
Hi Steven, really really love your videos. I believe, you have really got the points, thinking about tennis techniques as a whole system 👍🏻 Btw. you look really like my friend from Singapore 😉 Best wishes.
I like to think of the concept of accelerating the racket head into the contact point via centrifugal force and then 'releasing' the racket thru the contact point so that the racket head naturally snaps thru the contact point with minimal effort, but lots of acceleration/ velocity and therefore power thru the contact zone. In short you get the racket head snapping thru the contact point because of inertia and then releasing at contact and naturally decelerating via the follow-thru.
Yes, you need strength, but the stabilizers are as important as the prime movers, and flexibility is key to size of the swing pattern, and how fast the swing will be moving through the contact
Really interesting points I've not see discussed elsewhere. I wish you didn't demo with a double handed forehand though. Not a credible shot for a coach in my opion.
I think the only places you ever want to feel strong are in the hands and feet. The power comes from elsewhere but you only feel it where you apply it.
many tennis coaches encourage a long-hitting zone. Coach Steven seems to have a relatively short hitting zone; maybe this is because of double handed forehand being used.
Agreed.. 2 handed strokes have less range. I do encourage a long hitting zone as well - I think I did a video titled “Fix Your Aim” but the long hitting zone is to create more margin for error. Ideally though, you wouldn’t necessarily use the long hitting zone if you’re focusing your energy at a single point - your contact point. Otherwise you’d see everyone hitting super well and tennis would be too easy. But yes, the extra margin for error helps quite a bit
I've never heard the kinetic chain / racket lag described this way, but it makes absolute sense! I'm going to practice keeping my hips quiet at contact.
Coach Stevens, nice video. But after seeing many of your forehand videos, I've come to the conclusion that you and I are not physically the same. Your technique is based on a more circular swing path and so many of your tips and thoughts are geared to this. My forehand "swing" is linear and so I see things much different than yours. In fact, I am not really swinging, I am pulling the racket forward. And so when I really want to hit my forehand hard, I whip my arm between my backward swing and forward swing and pull as hard as I can. The pulling is a result of the kinetic chain at the shoulder but my arm does not pull. My entire arm remains relaxed all through the swing and through contact. It's taken me about 1 year to refine my technique but I have used this form for that last 6 months and I can really crush my forehand at will to the point where my hitting partners don't even hit to my forehand during rallies. I believe that most ATP players do what I do. When you use a circular swing, it gets very messy as you need more muscle to hit the ball. I agree with your flow analysis, I do feel every part of the racket when I hit my forehand and racket weight is an important key to the technique.
Except you show everything with 2 handed backhand the rest is amazing. I didn't like you hit all the shots with 2 handed backhand but thank you for your amazing videos.
There's a reason tennis players aren't jacked....and rafa doesn't have a 6 pack...certain muscles are worth putting on weight and others are not. Rafa choose basically enough to get away with and you can see that he's also not as quick as he used to be....when you put on muscle you are going to sacrifice quickness(short-term acceration) and endurance. Grunting is caused by a release of air during the swing, it doesn't indicate that you are not relaxed.
It's like golf- loose with 7 out of 10 acceleration, eye on the strke point, lots of dig from the legs, and weight transfer from the hip and shoulder- all with space enough for the swing speed to come to fruition
Such a shame. Poor guidance. Djokovic has very little muscle so too Federer it is about technique. Technique that enables a player to create Time by early prep, efficiency and contact angle.... Such a shame
The idea that a powerful looking and sounding stroke has to be hit with a lot of effort is bewildering! With every new video I grow apart from this "coach" with his double handed forehand. What does he know?
You’ve got it right when you say the hips are still turning at contact but the effort was earlier. But you should be doing exactly the same thing with your arms ending with the finger tips. There is a golfer Mike Austin who hit a ball 515 yards in the 1950s and was still hitting over 300 yards when he was in the eighties. Tried his technique which was to start the hands swing at the beginning of the forward swing in tennis yesterday and fell into a rhythm that was pure fun. Satchel Paige, “You gots to jangle when you walk”. Your joints should rattle when the swing goes through them like a subway train. You never gather your muscles. For example the muscles of your legs are fired sequentially in 20+ bundles so they feel like a barber pole unfurling. Really enjoy your website, keep up the good work.
Bro. This is one of the most technical/philosophical tennis tutorial videos on TH-cam. This video outlines the fundamentals of transferring energy which is paramount in any sport. You nailed it. My two sports growing up were table tennis and boxing. Having only picked up tennis serious two years ago, the key points in this video really drives it home. There’s a time and need for both muscling and free flow wrist snap shots- at my level (USTA 4.0 as of last week) applying your philosophy and overall intent will make a huge difference. I look froward to watching all your videos.
I think Bruce Lee would agree with your flow concept. “Be just like water, my friend.”
Appreciate your deep insights of the game.
Great video! Guess I've been fortunate to naturally have good coordination, but your analysis is still helpful to understand what's going on under the hood.
Thanks for the insight: I was playing on a very slow/sticky court in Napa and I could not even rally during the warm up against someone who hits very flat ball that either skids or just stopped short. I finally figured out that my take back needed to be smaller so I can “find the ball” first, then accelerate the racquet through. Eventually I got the timing right, instead of shanking. Like you said, I didn’t realize that I wasn’t suppose to accelerate racquet to the ball (or that’s the ‘feel’). The same feel made my serve return much better.
Really enjoyed this one. Has got be thinking about my technique and squaring my hips after contact, I'm excited about your next upload.
10:32
Pinpoints the reason why most golfers lose the coveted lag before impact.
Whilst this might be easy to understand intellectually, it's very hard to change if you've ingrained the bad habit of early release, i.e. firing before impact, esp. since you've conditioned your brain to trigger based on a wrong set of (firing) indicators.
In both tennis and in golf, most instructors try correcting this habit by asking their students to hit in front (or in golf, moving the ball forward in the stance). This however doesn't necessarily lead to a delayed firing sequence, as the goal is, as coach Steven points out, to feel the acceleration through contact. One possible analogy, using the "hitting" concept as framework, would be chopping (down) a tree (trunk). The feeling you should be looking for, is that of chopping the trunk completely through in one fell swoop, but not so wild that you risk hurting yourself :-) Or perhaps like some martial artists that hit through wood or stone; the physics don't lie: there's no way to generate enough energy (watts/joules) to hit through wood, drive a ball over 300 yds or a serve over 120 mph without using a lot of muscles to generate the power needed. At the same time, you need the muscles to be relaxed before the acceleration phase (into contact), because if they contract early or at the wrong time, you prevent them from accelerating properly, i.e. you probably will not reach your maximum velocity at any point in the swing. For reference, the problem with early lag release, is that you might well reach somewhat close to maximum velocity (not all the way since you're not using fully activating the muscles), but it will be too early / before impact, and you'll actually be decelerating into impact, which is the worse you do, as this brake-movement also entails less stability in addition to less force (think of a car braking hard).
A video on building the right muscles for right strength is due now...
So deep on the analysis! Great stuff!
Precious wisdoms. Please upload more videos
Well explained. The 'start' of the kinetic chain is very important...Just like using the whip. The pull before contact is the when the whip breaks the sound barrier. It's the change of direction and contacting that gives you racquet head speed. Grip hard at contact and relax for for the finish.
Sensational analysis
😮
You are genius!
Very detailed at theory level, thank you
Relax but strong!❤️
Don't squeeze till you are just about to hit the ball...great way to think about it on the forehand. I need to consciously remember this, because I don't always do it.
Perfect lesson!!!!
Let me correct myself. The swing ends in the tip of the racquet, not the fingers. I think that is really vital, because it tells you where the contact point has to be on each stroke. Lower tip of racquet on topspins, upper tip on slices and inner tip on serves.
I hope I can be your student someday. Where do you live and teach?
Greetings from a brazilian fan!
Goffin and Deminaur are two good examples of guys who don’t have a ton of leverage or muscle mass but they are able to crush the ball. Goffin, who is maybe 5’11” and 160 lbs, can consistently hit serves in the mid 120s and at 76.6mph, his average forehand speed at the 2016 Australian Open was higher than Federer, Kyrgios and Monfils. Technique and timing are more important than strength.
Love your vids.
Hi Steven, really really love your videos. I believe, you have really got the points, thinking about tennis techniques as a whole system 👍🏻 Btw. you look really like my friend from Singapore 😉 Best wishes.
great insight!!
I like to think of the concept of accelerating the racket head into the contact point via centrifugal force and then 'releasing' the racket thru the contact point so that the racket head naturally snaps thru the contact point with minimal effort, but lots of acceleration/ velocity and therefore power thru the contact zone. In short you get the racket head snapping thru the contact point because of inertia and then releasing at contact and naturally decelerating via the follow-thru.
Yes, you need strength, but the stabilizers are as important as the prime movers, and flexibility is key to size of the swing pattern, and how fast the swing will be moving through the contact
If there is a PhD degree in tennis, Steve is definitely the recipient. a deeply mechanistic elucidation of tennis strokes.
This is the best video I've ever seen.☜☜☜
I look forward to your videos man! Please leave a like for being First ✌🏾
Really interesting points I've not see discussed elsewhere. I wish you didn't demo with a double handed forehand though. Not a credible shot for a coach in my opion.
Yo that’s crazy you have a two hand forehand
isnt the pec muscle responsible for internal rotation of the arm at contact？
I think the only places you ever want to feel strong are in the hands and feet. The power comes from elsewhere but you only feel it where you apply it.
I have a challenge... I change serve and I have biiggg Bad HABIT... I have super backand and forehand and now I go work on serve🔥
Can u make a video about the inside out swing Path for forehand stroke? I think it Is an argument that only you can really explain. Thank you
By inside out do you mean compact take back and long follow through? Not a term I use very often that’s why I’m asking
@@15PointsOfTennis yes.i use a grip more toward the western and sometimes i tend to have a circlar swing with small hitting zone.
Hy.
Natural born teacher. Weight transfer principles well explained from basic principles. Thank you.
how come tiny little kids can vaporize ground strokes....i have seen many times ...and power-lifters can hardly hit a ball?
Djoker does not have much muscles, but focus and techniques, and flexibility made the difference.
Great,
I recognize some martial art background in your explanations. Is it the case?
Regardless very good video. Thanks.
Thank you. Yup, a bit of little Tae Kwon Dow at a young age..
many tennis coaches encourage a long-hitting zone. Coach Steven seems to have a relatively short hitting zone; maybe this is because of double handed forehand being used.
Agreed.. 2 handed strokes have less range. I do encourage a long hitting zone as well - I think I did a video titled “Fix Your Aim” but the long hitting zone is to create more margin for error. Ideally though, you wouldn’t necessarily use the long hitting zone if you’re focusing your energy at a single point - your contact point. Otherwise you’d see everyone hitting super well and tennis would be too easy. But yes, the extra margin for error helps quite a bit
Hello coach stev when are you going To do vidéo on your website
Soon!
@@15PointsOfTennis thank you coach steven do you give private lesson
I've never heard the kinetic chain / racket lag described this way, but it makes absolute sense! I'm going to practice keeping my hips quiet at contact.
next video: Lies about good footwork. Bonus: Myth of hitting the ball above the net.
Comparing Fedal FH is like comparing Ali & Tyson. 2 very different animals with 2 very different goals.
My forehand feels all wrong and my muscles tense up especially in competition
Coach Stevens, nice video. But after seeing many of your forehand videos, I've come to the conclusion that you and I are not physically the same. Your technique is based on a more circular swing path and so many of your tips and thoughts are geared to this. My forehand "swing" is linear and so I see things much different than yours. In fact, I am not really swinging, I am pulling the racket forward. And so when I really want to hit my forehand hard, I whip my arm between my backward swing and forward swing and pull as hard as I can. The pulling is a result of the kinetic chain at the shoulder but my arm does not pull. My entire arm remains relaxed all through the swing and through contact. It's taken me about 1 year to refine my technique but I have used this form for that last 6 months and I can really crush my forehand at will to the point where my hitting partners don't even hit to my forehand during rallies. I believe that most ATP players do what I do. When you use a circular swing, it gets very messy as you need more muscle to hit the ball. I agree with your flow analysis, I do feel every part of the racket when I hit my forehand and racket weight is an important key to the technique.
Wally Friend
You think the racquet moves in a straight line?
Except you show everything with 2 handed backhand the rest is amazing. I didn't like you hit all the shots with 2 handed backhand but thank you for your amazing videos.
Yes I do agree. I wish he would at least demonstrate forehand side.
That is literally his forehand
There's a reason tennis players aren't jacked....and rafa doesn't have a 6 pack...certain muscles are worth putting on weight and others are not. Rafa choose basically enough to get away with and you can see that he's also not as quick as he used to be....when you put on muscle you are going to sacrifice quickness(short-term acceration) and endurance. Grunting is caused by a release of air during the swing, it doesn't indicate that you are not relaxed.
It's like golf- loose with 7 out of 10 acceleration, eye on the strke point, lots of dig from the legs, and weight transfer from the hip and shoulder- all with space enough for the swing speed to come to fruition
Terence Rosenthal the backhand and golf stroke are almost completely the same in terms of biomechanics.
not to be rude, but why teach a forehand technique but demonstrate a 2 handed backhand?
Good question.. I have a two handed forehand but the concept ideally should apply to all strokes regardless of grip, style, one or two hands etc
like
Yonex gang
+ 1
I have a hard time understanding the sentence thought, its like spaghetti.
So is the moral of the story, be strong and loose?
TLDR;
Talk a lot with no proper presentation ..
Such a shame. Poor guidance. Djokovic has very little muscle so too Federer it is about technique. Technique that enables a player to create Time by early prep, efficiency and contact angle.... Such a shame
Ooh this video is really hard to focus and go through. It’s like a poor written essay. The angle to explain things are way too childish.
The idea that a powerful looking and sounding stroke has to be hit with a lot of effort is bewildering! With every new video I grow apart from this "coach" with his double handed forehand. What does he know?
Jemand more than you. His teaching technique works for me.