What is ISR?
The Forehand Volley

John Yandell

How do ESR and ISR work on the forehand volley?

One of the last times I saw Vic Braden was in the media lounge at Indian Wells. I forget what we were talking about but at some point he pointed at his upper arm and said something like "Johnny this joint is the key."

I think he was talking about the serve. But as I have continued to study tennis strokes over the years, I think his point applies to all the motions—even the volleys.

So in this article let's see how that works on the forehand volley.

The rotation of the upper arm in the shoulder joint goes in two directions. Clockwise rotation is ESR, or external shoulder rotation. Counterclockwise is ISR, or internal shoulder rotation.

It's been well documented in the serve, (Click Here), in the forehand (Click Here), in the two hander (Click Here) and also in the one-handed backhand. In all these cases it makes a critical contribution to racket head speed.

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John Yandell is widely acknowledged as one of the leading videographers and students of the modern game of professional tennis. His high speed filming for Advanced Tennis and Tennisplayer have provided new visual resources that have changed the way the game is studied and understood by both players and coaches. He has done personal video analysis for hundreds of high level competitive players, including Justine Henin-Hardenne, Taylor Dent and John McEnroe, among others.

In addition to his role as Editor of Tennisplayer he is the author of the critically acclaimed book Visual Tennis. The John Yandell Tennis School is located in San Francisco, California.

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