The Waves on the Shore and the Role of the Wrist

How do the waves break on the shore? You’re probably wondering “what in the world does this have to do with the role of the wrist in a serve”? Well it has a lot to do with it so please bear with me.

Waves are generated by winds that whirl around the surface of the water. The stronger the wind the bigger the waves. Most of the waves we see that break on a beach are generated miles away from the shore. When a wave is generated and travels through deep water (keeping things simple) a swell will move towards land. A swell in the ocean is a wave that hasn’t broken yet.

As the wave or swell travels closer and closer to shore, friction from the ocean’s bottom causes the bottom half of the wave to slow down while the upper half without the same friction continues at the same speed. By the time it reaches shallow water, the difference in speed of the top half of the wave is so much greater than the bottom half that it “breaks” or folds over itself.

In California, the continental shelf (the bottom surface of the ocean) gets shallower slowly so…