Racquet acceleration on groundstrokes has quickly become an essential ingredient in any competitive players' toolbox. The mysterious, heavy ball is hit with a combination of speed and spin. Both created with a fast swinging racquet-head.
A few months back, I knew it was time for 12-year-old Colindy to start accelerating more on her topspin groundstrokes. Here is how she got the feel for it quickly and painlessly. I simply had her hit a bunch of balls with her little finger off the bottom of the grip.
Within a few shots and a little encouragement, she started swinging faster, getting more ball rotation and hitting harder than ever. At first, a little control was lost, but she understood, it was temporary. The next step was to alternate; listen in and she calls out, finger on, and then finger off. Her goal is to hit both ways with similar results.
If you find your junior still holding back from swinging freely, here is another tip; use a racquet with no strings.
The idea is for Colindy to swing freely without fear of missing, so the ball passes through the empty racquet face. The next step was to alternate racquets; her goal is to maintain the same swing with and without a strung racquet.
Another key ingredient to racquet acceleration is shoulder, an upper body coiling and uncoiling. To help her feel this rotation, we use a device called The Forehand Rotator, that connects both arms across the back to increase shoulder rotation.
Try using kinesthetic training aids like this one, 10-15 times, and then remove the device, so the player can feel the action on his or her own.
The third and final ingredient to increase racquet acceleration is to better use ground forces. This time, to speed up the feel for a lower playing high, we will use the Flex Trainer resistance bands.
This tool forces her into a lower playing height, which immediately increases ground forces to further add racquet acceleration. Again, after a dozen or so forehands, we remove the device for Colindy to focus on maintaining that same amount of flex on her own.
The final stage of this progression to increase racquet acceleration is to use both of these tools at the same time, take a look.
Now Colindy is getting a double dose of a good thing. These tools are designed to improve a player's kinesthetic awareness for feel for using their whole body as a unit. Then, without the devices, she focuses on maintaining that same amount of lower body flex, upper body rotation, and racquet acceleration all on her own. Not bad for a 12-year-old who is only playing tennis for about two-and-a-half years.
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