Kinetic Chain

[tennismaverick]

What should a person focus on when implementing the kinetic chain? It seems too difficult to focus on the feet then the knees then the hips then the shoulders then the arms while playing a match. Also, if you push off with your back leg then it seems like the knees and hips take care of themselves so you don't have to think about that part of the sequence. This leaves you to just focus on the shoulders which makes it much easier. Does that make sense or is there a better way to do it? Also, it looks like many pros just rotate their whole bodies into the shot and there is no delay between the feet, hips, shoulders, arm. That is they all rotate at the same time. I'm confused. Thanks.

[johnyandell]

Maverick,

I have found from your posts that you really overthink when it comes to actually hitting balls. Don't confuse understanding with execution.

The kinetic chain is a just concept that explains the sequence of body motions (but watch out for an article from Brian Gordon that will challenge this.)

It's a mistake to think that each "link" should be somehow consciously controlled. That's impossible.

The answers you are looking for are all in those forehand articles. Commonalities Across the Grip Styles, for example.

It's a matter of a few (2 or at most 3) key positions. You need to make the turn and coil on the back leg. You need to feel the position of the hand at the bottom of the backswing.

Now SWING for the finish. There is a sequence described by the so-called kinetic chain--but it will uncoil on its own.

This should all be done by physical mastery of the positions and creation of the corresponding mental images. I seem to be saying this a lot lately, but in Visual Tennis I go into this process of how to create and use these positions and the corresponding mental images--that process applies even if your model is different than those in the book.

As I also mentioned I do plan to go into more detail on this (eventually...) in a new series of Visual Tennis articles.