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VOLUME 1: THE FOREHAND
Part 10: Additional Power Sources
Primary Power Source:
For the sake of brevity, let us say a bare-bones groundstroke is made up of a swing of the arm, and the swing of the racket that results from it.
Nothing else.
And this swinging racket, with nothing else added, is the primary source of ground stroke power.
Additional Power Sources
But this is not the full story, because, as we have seen fleetingly in privious chapters, there are additional sources of power which are inseparable from the swung (driven, or thrown) racket head.
'You mean like the loop?'
No. The loop is part of the swinging racket head...the loop just makes the racket swing faster!
Either with or without a loop, we can add other elements to the swung racket head.
Weight Shift
The short ball should always be an invitation for a player to attack and in the first animation Serena takes up this invitation with gusto. Run 1 thru 11 and you can see Serena Williams putting some distance between the racket head and the impending contact, as she loops up a sizeable forehand.
Now run 6 thru 8 and you'll see what I mean about Serena adding some meat to the bone of her swing, by hoisting her weight through the perfect (further out-front) contact and into the shot.
Serena's forehand benefits from this additional source of power, which is the forward shifting body weight and the poor ball must feel like it's been hit by a truck!
If you go back a chapter, run the buttons 8 thru 14 of the Roddick animation and watch how the upper half of his body (and his shoulders) start behind his lower body.
But as the underarm throw is unleashed, the top half of Andy’s body is unloaded through and into that well-forward contact, adding considerably to the weight of the shot.
This is a slightly different version of Serena’s weight shift.
Shoulder Spin
In frame 12 we again find Gabby Sabby. In the first few frames, she backs away from the travel line of her opponent's shot, to put some air between her body and the ball. This gives the shot room to flourish and in 14 she sets her racket head off into a high, looped swing.
Now run 16 thru 19 and concentrate on Sabatini's hitting shoulder.
In 16 the shoulder is behind the body, but as she swings she spins, and the hitting shoulder spins through with the driven racket head.
Not only does this shoulder spin facilitate the racket head's forward drive (and without which it would be a mere arm-slap), it also adds power to the shot and to better explain this 'spin' I'll tell you a story from my misspent youth.
Winding Door Treatment
Years ago, after a bawdy stag night in Blackpool del Mar, I staggered back to my hotel room in an inebriated state and walked into the revolving doors of my hotel...the wrong way! The doors were winding towards me, not with me, and as a result I got a good smack in the face from the doors.
The force the doors used to pop my nose (and almost brake the glass) was generated by their spin. And it is the force of Sabatini's spun shoulders that adds to the speed of Gabby's racket head in this animation.
For the pedantic, there are more scientifically correct terms than the winding door treatment and shoulder spin. But these terms tell you what you need to know, without bogging the sentences down in dull terminology.
It should go without saying that each additional source of power is evident in both animations and, to differing degrees, in most of the ground strokes on these pages.
