June tip of the week #2: are you arming the ball?

For many people tennis is an arm game. There are various reasons for this, but from one perspective, hitting the ball with the arm gives us some sense of control, while using the bigger body parts to hit the ball will give us the opposite feeling. This week’s tip is addressed to those of us who suffer from this tendency.

The first thing is to recognize is if you are indeed using too much arm. See if you can do this through feel and not through someone telling you. Here are a few signs to look for:

  • Are your joints (elbow, wrist) hurting you?
  • How heavy does your arm feel when you hit the ball?
  • Do you finish your follow-through?
  • Go back to observing your follow-through and look closer. Have you allowed gravity to completely take over or are you still holding on a little bit at the end?
  • How tightly are you holding your racket?

In order to answer any of the above questions, you will need to really bring attention to your body.

If you do feel the arm is playing to great a role in your swing, here are some things you can play around with as you play with friends.

  • Try and really ‘attack’ the ball with your upper body with an aggressive rotation and keep the arms neutral and loose.
  • If the ball starts to fly and you lose control, make sure your wrist is firm. The arm needs to be loose, but the wrist cannot be floppy.
  • Make sure your hitting arm is just hanging and not moving independent of the upper body rotation.
  • loosen the grip on your racket

Play around with this and see what happens.

happy hitting!

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