Perfect Posture For Being Balanced In Tennis
Summary
TLDRTennis coach Thomas explains why leaning your upper body to adjust position on the court is detrimental for your game. Leaning throws off your balance and tightens muscles, hindering smooth strokes. It also unintentionally changes your racket angle without you realizing, causing mistakes. Instead, maintain good posture with your upper body slightly tilted forward, and use your legs to adjust position, like slaves carrying Queen Cleopatra on her royal litter. This keeps your upper body comfortable to hit excellent shots while your legs do all the work.
Takeaways
- 😀 Leaning while playing tennis throws you slightly off balance and creates muscular tension, negatively impacting strokes
- 👍 Maintain good posture - shoulders in front of hips, slight athletic tilt to aid dynamic balance
- 🦵 Use your legs to adjust while keeping your upper body still like Cleopatra being carried on her throne
- 🎾 Leaning forward closes racket face, leaning back opens it - often leading to mistakes
- 🧠 You can't feel racket face angle changes from small leans even though they happen
- 📏 Keep aware of your posture and make adjustments to maintain athletic ready position
- 😖 Completely upright posture leads to loss of dynamic balance
- 🤸♂️ Athletic slight tilt enables optimal dynamic balance for tennis
- 🦵 Your legs should do the work like slaves while your upper body relaxes like Cleopatra on her throne
- 👞 Mental image of you as Cleopatra and legs as slaves helps shift adjustment work to legs
Q & A
Why is leaning not good for tennis according to the coach?
-Leaning causes you to go slightly off balance, making some muscles tight to keep you balanced. This prevents smooth strokes. Leaning also unintentionally closes or opens the racket face, causing mistakes.
What two main reasons does the coach give for why leaning is bad?
-1. It takes you slightly off balance, causing muscles to tighten. 2. It unintentionally changes the angle of the racket face without you realizing.
What posture does the coach recommend maintaining while playing tennis?
-A slightly tilted, athletic position where your shoulders are in front of your hips and not above them.
Why is being completely upright not an optimal posture in tennis?
-Because you are very close to losing your balance in that posture.
What mental image does the coach provide as an example of proper leg and upper body adjustment?
-Queen Cleopatra being carried around Egypt comfortably on a litter by slaves, with her legs relaxed and slaves (your legs) doing all the work.
What footage does the coach use to demonstrate good posture?
-Amazing first-row footage of Federer, with his body angle outlined, showing him maintaining a slight tilt and athletic position throughout a rally.
Why is it crucial to be aware of your posture when playing tennis?
-Because you can only maintain dynamic balance in a slightly tilted, athletic posture with your shoulders in front of hips.
What should you be adjusting with while keeping the same posture?
-Your legs, while maintaining the same upper body posture.
What is the job of your legs compared to your upper body?
-Your legs should do all the work, like slaves, while your upper body can relax like Queen Cleopatra on her comfortable litter.
What two things should your legs be doing instead of your upper body?
-1. Adjusting side to side and forward/backward. 2. Doing all the work to move you around the court.
Outlines
😁 Introducing the speaker and video backdrop
The speaker, Thomas, introduces himself and states that the video was recorded at the Swiss Hotel in Singapore. He thanks the viewers and says he is about to play tennis.
👆 Why leaning is not good for tennis technique
Leaning off balance while hitting shots causes muscle tightness and prevents smooth strokes. Leaning also unintentionally closes or opens the racket face angle, often leading to errors.
👉 Maintaining proper posture and using your legs
Instead of leaning and adjusting with your arms, maintain an athletic posture and tilted back angle. Use your legs for movement and adjustment while keeping your upper body still like Queen Cleopatra being carried on a liter.
🎥 Analyzing Federer's excellent posture and footwork
Video analysis shows Federer maintaining a consistent athletic posture and body angle by using his legs effectively throughout an entire rally.
🧠 Visualizing yourself as Cleopatra, legs as slaves
Take home the mental image of yourself as Queen Cleopatra being comfortably carried by your hard-working leg "slaves" during play to reinforce proper adjustment techniques.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡leaning
💡posture
💡balance
💡adjust
💡legs
💡strokes
💡racket angle
💡Cleopatra
💡carry
💡work
Highlights
Leaning goes slightly off balance and makes some muscles very tight, preventing good strokes
Leaning forward closes racket face, leaning back opens it, often causing mistakes
Adjust with legs while maintaining same upper body posture for balance
Slight tilt and athletic position crucial for dynamic balance
Upper body like Queen Cleopatra on a litter carried by slaves (your legs)
Legs do all work, upper body comfortable like Cleopatra on bed
Federer maintains athletic tilt throughout rally
Become aware of posture, adjust if needed
Mental image - legs as slaves carrying comfortable upper body
Moving to ball with same upper body posture feels stable
Arms fairly comfortable while legs do work
Take home mental image of you as Cleopatra, legs as slaves
Leaning goes slightly off balance, tight muscles
Leaning changes racket angle without feeling it
Athletic tilt crucial for balance during shots
Transcripts
you
this video was recorded this avatar
Chinese Center at the Swiss Hotel in
Singapore
thanks guys hi Thomas from Phil Terry's
dotnet here I'm just getting ready to
play tennis and if you observe what I'm
doing you will see that all the
adjustments I'm doing are done with the
upper body and with our arms so if I'm
getting the water here you see that my
legs are not moving and I can do
everything very accurately you know by
leaning a little bit left right and
drink things with my arms and so this is
what we tend to do this is what we're
used to and this is what we bring to the
court and today I want to show you why
that's not good for tennis and what you
should be doing instead so why is
leaning not good for tennis I see two
main reasons the first one is that
whenever we lean we go a little bit off
balance so if I'm standing like this
when my legs are very comfortable as
soon as I lean to any side one of my
legs becomes tighter because the muscles
have to keep me in balance and this
tightness goes up to my body and
prevents me from smoothly hitting my
strokes maybe it also prevents me from
nicely pushing off my leg so whenever we
lean we're going slightly off balance
our body's trying to keep us in balance
and it does that by making some muscles
very tight very strong and so that does
not help us hit good strokes the other
reason is if I show from this angle so
let's say I'm hitting an open stance
forehand like this so you see if I lean
forward my racket face leans alright so
if I lean backward the racket face opens
now the tricky part with this is that I
don't feel that because my hand doesn't
change the position so if I just feel
the racket in my hand I feel no
difference in the racket angle so for me
it feels the same but the racket angle
has changed and so that that's
oftentimes the cross for a mistake
you're playing the shot and you're just
slightly leaning in your no
to where that by leaning you also close
your racket face and that's why you hit
in the net or you're leaning backwards
and the ball goes very far out so
leaning is not good for tennis and we
have to like also write our program and
use our legs more so instead of leaning
with your upper body and adjusting with
your arms you should be adjusting with
your legs while you maintain the same
posture so a quick tip about the posture
if I show from this angle you don't want
to be completely upright because you're
very close to losing your balance so you
want to be slightly tilted in a more
athletic position so what I show often
times is I put the racket like this so
that you can see the angle of my back so
that you maintain this position while
you're playing tennis when your
shoulders are in front of your hips and
not above your hips okay so your upper
body should be in this position while
your legs are doing all the adjusting
here's an amazing footage of feather
recorded from the first row where we can
observe the posture really well special
thanks to PJ Simmons the founder of US
Tennis Congress for letting me use this
video for analysis I've outlined the
angle of feathers body a few times
throughout the rally and you can see
that he maintains this slight tilt and
athletic position throughout the rally
we can maintain dynamic balance only in
this position that's why it's crucial
that you become aware of your posture
and adjust it if necessary and so the
mental image I want you to have is the
one of queen Cleopatra in Egypt sitting
on a soft bed while being carried around
like this with four slaves so she's in
LA on a liter and the four slaves are
carrying her around Egypt while she's
being very comfortable on her bed and so
the slaves correspond to your legs so
your legs need to do all the work and
your upper body is like queen cleopatra
being very comfortable so when you are
adjusting correctly then all the work is
done by your legs so if I demonstrate
then I'm moving to the ball and trying
to maintain the same posture of my upper
body and so I feel very stable and so
also in my upper parts in my arms I feel
fairly comfortable while my legs are
doing all the work and so the mental
image I want you to take home today is
the image of Cleopatra and you likes
being a slaves so let me know how that
image works for you
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