The Hitting Stance(s)

Ever wonder how tennis pros produce such awesome power off their groundstrokes? Even smaller players like Hewitt and Chang manage to generate a tremendous
amount of force. Over the past decade a more efficient use of tennis footwork has evolved to create this
power and also to keep up with the decreasing amount of time a player has to get to the ball and to recover
in today’s power game.

Stepping in – the back foot judges the contact point in order for the last step to trigger the swing.
Notice how Agassi’s right foot does not move until the completion of the swing.

The following article on the different hitting stances will demonstrate how the tennis tour’s best
movers generate effortless power in different hitting situations.

Three basic principles all the great players have in common are. balance, ground force, and the proper
implementation of the body’s kinetic chain.

The different stances described in this article are the Step In (Andre Agassi, Serena Williams), Open Stance (Leyton Hewitt, Serena Williams), Kick Back (Agassi, Hewitt) Resistance Stance (Serena) and the Running Stance (Pete Sampras). All of these stances have biomechanical similarities, including balance, ground force, and the proper linkage of…