In this lesson we go into the ballistic movement for the forehand in more detail. In particular, reflexes are the most primitive and simple movements in the motor system. Ballistic reflexes ore those reflexes that control sudden violent movements needed to act quickly. While these movements have their origin in the evolution of humans as responses to danger, if one can utilize such a movement in a tennis stroke it will be very accurate and produce stable, controllable speed. IN the video and rollovers below we illustrate how this is done in the forehand western grip. Other grips follow the same principles.

The key is to lay back the wrist as as far as possible, holding the racquet firmly and then learning to rapidly squeeze the racquet. This squeeze causes the racquet to advance as a reflex, not as a deliberate action. See the two figures below.

Lay back wrist as far as possible	Rollover Example

In these figures we are holding the racquet so that the movement is visible rather than as we would when striking the ball. In the video are two views from natural striking positions.

Click on Image to See Video

From the figure above we can clearly see that the simple act of squeezing the racquet causes it to move a good distance quickly. This movement is not a wrist slap, since the wrist is not being engaged actively. It is a pure reflex activated by squeezing the racquet. This action should occur at the last possible instant before striking the ball to produce extra acceleration that is both controllable and stable. further the act of squeezing the racquet focuses the visual processing on the ball more effectively, thus resulting in a cleaner hit.

In short the ballistic movement serves two purposes: It provides additional acceleration and focuses visual processing.