As we said above, it is of the utmost importance that the body be held together tightly during the rotation (an subsequent stages of the stroke). The figure below illustrates just how tightly the body is held together from the rotation stage onward.

As seen in the figure above, all four player's arm muscles are bulging in all phases of the stroke from the rotation stage onward. What is not seen is the muscle strength needed to hold the top and bottom of the body together. The player must exert every effort to keep the body acting as a unit if the acceleration from the rotation stage is to be translated along the kinetic chain to the upper body, on to the shoulders, on to the arm and then on to the racquet.

All of this is counter intuitive because you might think by holding th body together tightly it would prevent the body from being elastic. Actually, just the opposite is true. If the body is too loose, the kinetic chain is more like a spagetti noodle than a whip, hence one cannot translate the hip or other rotations up the chain to the next link.

These facts requrie that the student develop a very strong core. To some extend this can be started with a medicine ball. But it is not possible to throw the medecine ball fast enough to simulate the speed needed for a power forehand. Hence, one must develop this strength on the court by trying to hit the ball as hard as possible. In particular the dropped ball exercise is where the student should begin. See the video illustration below.

Click on image to see video

In the video above, the instructor is holding the top and bottom of his body together by exerting the core muscles as tightly as possible. This permits the efficient transfer of the rotation speed to the upper body.

Developing the core is an advanced skill. Begining players should only be encouraged to concentrate on holding the body together when forming a stroke. It will take some time to develop a core strong enough to hit an eigty mile-per-hour ground stroke.

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