Pronation plays a vital role on the serve, topspin forehand, and topspin two-handed backhand. It serves two functions - Increasing the speed of the hand through the ball through a sudden change in direction, and creating a violent brushing motion which adds topspin to the ball when the player swings from low to high. The next three blogs will be dedicated to discussing pronation on these three strokes.
Pronation, defined simply, is an inward rotation of the hitting arm. In other words, your dominant arm on the serve and forehand, and your non dominant arm on the two-handed backhand rotates inwardly - counter clockwise for the right arm, and clockwise for the left arm.
Today, lets see how pronation is created on the forehand
Forehands
Pronation can be produced using ANY grip on the forehand.
While it is easier to produce more speed on the pronation with a grip between eastern and semi western, a continental grip is quite capable of allowing a player to pronate, although to a lesser degree.
Above you can clearly see the contact point for both Nadal and Djokovic. Now take a look at the face of the racquet (the side of the strings that struck the ball) after each pronates.
In the above photo, both Nadal and Djokovic's racquet faces are now facing forward, with the side of the strings that struck the ball facing the opponent. This is the result of the pronation (windshield wiper motion). The ACTIVE swing on the topspin forehand stops here. The remainder of the stroke from this point forward is simply a relaxation, and the follow through will be determined by the type of shot that was attempted from their court position, as well as the contact point that was able to be achieved.
In order to practice pronation properly. Place a ball on the net strap and net tape. Pin the ball with your racquet face, and pronate to the following position:
Right Handed
Left Handed
Now you know what pronation is, and how it applies to the forehand. Now, go get yourself a forehand!
2 comments:
When I overpronated on an open stance forehand follow though with a continental grip with the wrist laid back it tore my shoulder badly. It taught me the hard way that you should only do this with an extreme grip where the knuckles rather than the palm are pointing forward towards the ball. The continental grip should only be used for a more closed stance and a staright through follow through with no or minimal pronation.
Start with a racquet head facing sky on semi western grip at backswing is best to pronate effectively
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