elbow-position-and-shoulder-involvement-on-forehand-topspin
Slicepong asked 6 years ago
Hi Dan and Tom, on my forehand topspin my elbow finishes well above my shoulder and I seem to use a lot of trap muscle like I did with a tennis forehand. My finish position seems good, in front of my head and eyes. I notice you guys almost never finish that high. Is my method incorrect? Thanks.
Tom Academy Coach answered 6 years ago
Hi Slicepong,
The finish position with the bat you mentioned is great and correct in front of your head and eyes. With the elbow position it seems the way you described it there using a lot of your trap muscle and finishing where you say would be quite high and ideally it should be slightly lower and more forward. Of course it’s quite difficult to say without seeing you in action. If your elbow finishes that high with will be harder to generate power as you’ll be lifting the ball rather than accelerating through it, try to keep your finishing position the same but the elbow down at around the middle area of your body. If you want to feel free to send us in a video of this and we’ll be happy to take a look and analyse it 🙂
SlicepongThanks, Tom. That does sound right. It’s hard to change habits, but I’ll work on that. So basically, concentrate on elbow extension with minimal lat involvement? Thanks.
Yeah it is for sure! That’s right just focus on the elbow as hinge and not lifting too much with it. As well as the minimal lat involvement as you said. No worries at all!
maurice101I got a friend that has shoulder issues from an incorrect forehand technique. He uses limited hip motion and he thus uses more muscle power causing much more tension in the shoulder. It is a possibility you are arming the ball due to not using the hips to power the shot and do not have a relaxed arm in the forehand. This leads to the elbow finishing high and it results in too much force in the shoulder joint.
Thanks for the comment, maurice, I do use my hips pretty well, but I was using my lats too much as Tom suggested, and now I’m much happier with my stroke.
