Perfect Posture For Being Balanced In Tennis

Summary

Tennis 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

00:00

😁 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.

Keywords

💡leaning

Leaning refers to bending or tilting the upper body to the side instead of using the legs to adjust body position. The video explains that leaning is not good for tennis because it causes imbalance as some muscles tighten to keep the body balanced. It also unintentionally changes the racket angle without the player realizing.

💡posture

Posture means the positioning of the body, especially the back and shoulders. Good tennis posture is a slight forward tilt with shoulders in front of hips rather than upright. This athletic stance allows dynamic balance needed for smooth strokes.

💡balance

Balance means equilibrium and stability. Leaning causes some loss of balance as muscles tighten to prevent falling. Good posture keeps the player balanced and able to adjust position smoothly.

💡adjust

Adjust means to change position. Rather than leaning the upper body, players should use their legs to adjust position while keeping the posture stable.

💡legs

Legs refers to the lower limbs. The video advocates using the legs rather than the upper body to adjust body position. This maintains balance and ideal posture for stroke execution.

💡strokes

Strokes mean the swinging motions used to hit shots in tennis. Good balance and posture facilitates smooth stroke execution without unintentional changes in racket angle.

💡racket angle

Racket angle refers to the angle between the racket face and the court. Leaning back or forward unintentionally alters racket angle leading to hits into the net or long.

💡Cleopatra

The Egyptian queen Cleopatra is used as a visual metaphor - she relaxes comfortably while slaves (like the legs) do all the work adjusting her position.

💡carry

Carry means transport. The metaphor envisions Cleopatra being carried around Egypt while resting, like the upper body being stabilized as the legs adjust positon.

💡work

Work refers to physical effort or movement. The video advocates making the legs do the work of positioning the body while keeping the upper body still like Cleopatra.

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