Myth of the Wrist - Rusedski

[vmiller]

Hi John,

In 'Myth of the Wrist', you stated how Rusedski sometimes has noticably more wrist movement than other players and finishes his swing with his racket and forearm forming a 90 degree angle.

Do you know what it is about his swing that causes this?

And do you think it has any negative or positive effects?

Thanks,
Vin

[johnyandell]

The movement is after the contact, right? It's a consequence. The racket head may get going a little faster than the forearm and so comes over. Forget about it. It's basically irrelevant. If it happens it happens. Focus on the caustive elements.

[vmiller]

Thanks John.

I was mostly thinking it was additional movement that is unnecessary and could make good timing more difficult. Consider it forgotten.

[gzhpcu]

If in the article you compare the first two video clips (Rusedski and Agassi), you can see that at the finish of the serve, Rusedski's elbow is much higher than Agassi's. This is similar, I find to Edberg's arm movement on his kick serve. Isn't the fact that Rusedski and Edbergs rackets point downward, just a reaction to their hitting a whippy kick service? (Becker did this too) The hitting arm goes up and out much more, the elbow remains higher and pointing out to the side after impact so that the forearm and wrist bend forward as a consequence of the link system.

[johnyandell]

Yeah that's probably it. Although Rusedski's contact is further to the side (His left) than Pete or Becker, I think. But the more the swing moves upward and forward, you would think that possible or likely. Agassi doesn't really pronate much and probably has more sidespin--his swing goes slightly more to his right and his arm therefore stays straighter longer...seems logical although it's just really hypothesis without some measurements...


The one point I would make is that this stuff is consequence not so much cause.

[gzhpcu]

Agree, especially since the break happens after impact. I think that on kick serves the elbow stopping higher up after impact (and the follow-through being towards the right for a right-hander) and the wrist being loose causes the the racket to point downwards. Deceleration effect.

[vmiller]

Agassi doesn't really pronate much and probably has more sidespin--his swing goes slightly more to his right and his arm therefore stays straighter longer...

I noticed this too and found it surprising considering he has a pretty good serve, including a good kicker.

[gzhpcu]

If you look at Becker's kick serve in the stroke archives, you will see also that after impact his followthrough goes off to the right and his elbow remains high and his racket really points downward, similarly to Rusedski. So could this be a consequence of deliberately hitting up (the elbow remains high after impact) as opposed to hitting forward (the elbow takes a lower position after impact)?