Tennis: Forehand Close Stance-weight transfer

DESCRIPTION

Player stands behind the baseline. Coach faces the player. Coach throws the ball. Player hits forehand/backhand and moves the right/left leg forward. Player’s goal is to get to the service line without any additional steps.

1-2 full repetitions (to the service line) per set

Coach can line up all the players next to each other and work only with one while others imitate the same movements without hitting the ball. After the full set all players move one spot to the right and start over. To make this drill more interesting 1 player can hit with the coach, some players can imitate the shots and others can work together and replace racquet with a medicine ball (throwing and transferring the weight).

COACHING POINTS

Weight transfer is one of the most important aspects of any stroke. Proper use of all body parts (kinetic chain) consists of creating and releasing this energy at an appropriate time. If the body stores the energy but it is not transferred into the ball, the whole process is wasted. Coaches should pay close attention to the rules of biomechanics to develop effective and injury-free strokes. Top pros show this ability every time when they attack the ball so we can see that they finish the stroke with the body landing forward in comparison to the pre-shot position.

In this drill player works on a weight transfer. Releasing the energy by moving the body forward is a primary step to possess powerful and consistent strokes. Generating the pace only from the racquet is an easy step to overworking one body part, missing more balls on the long run and having chronic injuries. This simple move can be also practised without hitting so coach has to encourage players to work on this aspect at home.