Can you be relaxed and still play tennis with intensity? That's what we're going
to get into in today's video and just to clarify I'm not talking about the state
of mind of relaxation. This can actually come in very handy during the course of
a tennis match, but I'm more talking about physically relaxing the arm or the
body and whether we can do this while at the same time playing with intensity.
So I'm going to try to be completely relaxed as I'm swinging. Let's see what
happens. Oops I was too relaxed.
So obviously it was too loose but you can see that if I'm relaxed the intensity goes away from
my body. So let me try to be a little more intense and let's see what happens.
So right away I get more power. I get a cleaner, firmer contact and this does not feel stiff at all.
So relaxing very much looks like tanking. If you ever see a
player who doesn't try, has basically given up on the match, that player is
relaxed and is lacking any type of intensity in the body. And this is how
Roger Federer will warm up for his matches when he's in a tournament and
don't confuse this with Federer's practice. I guarantee you that when
Federer is actually practicing he has incredible intensity just like he has
when he plays a match. And we shouldn't therefore use Federer's warm-up sessions
and study his technique because this is not how he plays. He's not this loose and
relaxed when he plays a real match.
If Federer didn't exist and there was only Djokovic and Nadal nobody would be
talking about relaxation or looseness because those two guys do not look very
relaxed or loose when they're striking the ball. If you look at their face when
they're striking the ball, if you listen to the grunting, if you look at all the
muscle flexion when they're making contact with the ball, it's clear to see
that they're not that relaxed when they're striking the ball. If you look at
the vast majority of players faces when they make contact with the ball you can
see that they're grimacing, they're also grunting, their muscles are under flexion
when they make contact with the ball. So it's clear to see that the players are
under a lot of intensity when they're performing their strokes. And without
this intensity high level tennis is not possible and this goes even for Federer.
He has a lot of intensity where he plays even though his face looks calm, he
doesn't grunt but yet if you take a look at his muscle flexion at the moment of
contact you can clearly see that Federer has a lot of intensity just like all the other players.
So let's talk about the actual mechanics of a stroke and how relaxation can play
a role. So there's nothing wrong if you're relaxed in the preparation stages
of the stroke. Whether it be a forehand or a serve. Being loose in the
preparation stage might help you with the rhythm but as soon as you start
accelerating the stroke do not continue to stay loose or your stroke will become
extremely sloppy. On the other hand do not hold the racket too tight either
because this will result in a loss of power. What you have to do instead is
simply not think of relaxation and not think of tightening the hold of the
racket. Naturally as you play you will figure it out. If you're holding the racket
too loose what's gonna happen the contact is gonna be sloppy and the racket is
gonna move around in your hand. If you're holding the racket too tight
you will feel tense. You feel like you're not getting any power. Don't think
about it. Naturally you will figure out how tight to hold the racket and also
when you're playing naturally the body will figure out how much
pressure to apply to the strokes. But the most important thing and what a lot of
recreational players are lacking is intensity. And the way I can describe it
it should feel like your entire body is under electricity. There has to be a
constant intensity in your body as you're performing every stroke.
There are also some theories that the arm is swinging around by itself. You
have to remember that the arm is the number one power source on all your
strokes. If you don't have your arm obviously you would not be able to play
tennis. Just think if you have a wrist injury, an elbow injury, or shoulder
injury you are completely unable to play tennis. So check this out. I'm
hitting a forehand without using my body at all. This is just simply an arm action.
And I can hit the ball pretty hard. I would say I can probably get 70% of my
normal power on the stroke by using the arm only. Now if I did this for
a long period of time there is a risk of injury because the arm is not supported
by the rest of the body. So the arm is obviously an indispensable part of
tennis and it provides us with a much needed stability of the racket at the
moment of contact irrelevant of which stroke we're producing. Now do you need a
strong arm to be able to play tennis at the high level? Absolutely not. You don't
even need to have that many muscles, because what's going to happen on the
tennis stroke, the arm is going to be supported by the whole body. So we're not
just swinging the arm around by itself. This is not what you want to do, even
though you could get a vast majority of your power that way it will come at the
cost of the arm and you can possibly injure it that way. So what you're gonna
do is support the arm by utilizing torso rotation. So you're gonna have a solid
foundation and then the torso rotation is gonna accommodate the swing path and
this is gonna help the arm out tremendously. And this is why it feels
like we're not using the arm that much when we're playing tennis. And do not
consciously loosen or relax the arm to achieve certain technical elements. This
is unnecessary. These technical elements will take place completely by themselves
without you ever being conscious of them if you perform the fundamentals
correctly.