The
point of these illustrations is to show that it is necessary to exert
extreme force to keep your body
stable in
high speed rallies. Why? The centripetal force that
is being applied to your shoulder, elbow and wrist joints during fast
rotations is sufficient to cause small variations in the path of the
racquet which
in turn, are sufficient to cause
an unforced error. As can be seen below, the players off set these forces
by flexing every muscle to make their bodies operate as a solid unit. This
may seem counterintuitive since one supposes that one must be fluid to
strike the ball. However, it is only possible to do this when swinging
slowly. The faster the swing, the more rigidly the player must hold their
body,
preventing the wrist, elbow and shoulder from moving the wrong way. The
core and neck must also be maintained as ridged as possible. When the
human body is held together tightly, the result is that it acts more like
hard rubber and when it is held loosely it acts more like spaghetti. |
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