[tennisbiz] Re: Loop Swing vs. Straight Back Swing for Groundstrokes

<x-charset iso-8859-1>At my club we teach the straight backswing first to rote beginners. Using
the forehand as an example: we believe that the essential part of the stroke
is where the wrist is laid back and the racket is just below the waist.
Shoulders are turned and knees are bent. From that point the racket comes
through the ball and is fully extended in a low to high motion as the person
comes out of the knee-bend and rotates their shoulders and hips through the
shot. Minimizing the swing for a new player makes them, in my opinion, see
more clearly the importance of the rest of their body in executing the
stroke. I just think teaching a loop swing to a beginner tends to invite
too much reliance on the arm (I personally have yet to meet a
beginner/intermediate player that truly understands the importance of the
LEGS in the game of tennis).


Once the player internalizes that motion, then the loop is added onto that
for style. Then with the loop swing, we try to internalize the concept of
"racket back THEN down" on the backswing.

Hope this helps

Steve Andrews
USPTA-1


 
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Received on Thu Aug 02 2001 - 12:29:21 CDT