Shoulder Rotation

In the last article we took a close look at how the grip affects the
angle of the racket face on the forward swing in the modern forehand. In this article
we’ll move on to the second critical factor, shoulder rotation and how it varies
depending on grip style.

The second factor to we need to understand across the grip styles is
shoulder rotation. In the first article in this series, we saw that that one commonality
across all the grips was how far the top players turned their shoulders in the
preparation phase. (Click here for Part 1) Virtually every top pro turns until his
shoulders are slightly more than square to the baseline and the net, or a little more
than 90 degrees.

The shoulder turn is a key commonality we identified across the grip styles.

The shoulders may be same angle at the completion of the turn for all
the grips, but this changes in the forward swing. The total amount of rotation and
the position of the shoulders at the contact and at the finish differ significantly as
the grips become more extreme.

Basically, the more extreme the grip, the more total shoulder rotation. If we…