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When I watch professional tennis, I see the same things you do. Rackets whipping around the body. Incredible racket head speed resulting in blistering pace and spin. This visual evidence, combined with tennis commentator’s awe at today’s “racket head speed” makes me instinctively want to jump on a court and start whipping and snapping to achieve that elusive power only the pros seem to generate. And I do, in fact, see people attempt to do this every time I step foot on a court.
The unfortunate reality, however, is that this visual feedback serves up one illusion after another. John Yandell, in his seminal “Myth of the Wrap” article (Click Here) explains how high speed video gives us a very different picture of what happens just before, on, and well after contact. The video footage in that article clearly shows the wrist staying back through contact and moving forward, not across the body, on the forehand side. And there is an entire “double bend” structure as well that puts the shoulder in a powerful position to enhance the spring dynamic between racket and ball.
After seeing the evidence, I had no trouble believing in the double bend or the stable…