Tennis Forehand Wrist Lag - Use THIS Simple Trick To Create Lag

What exactly is racket lag and how will it help you generate more power on your forehand? Now prior to contact you'll see most pros reaching a position where the rack ahead is lagging behind the grip and the hand, so it ends up being like this. So the oncoming ball is traveling towards me, the bottom of the racket is leading the way, it almost looks as if I'm going to make contact with the butt cap, and at the final split second that's when the racket comes through and I make contact out in front. So how does lag help you generate more power on your forehand? It acts as a lever, it acts as leverage over that oncoming ball or force over that oncoming ball. If you think about the ball that's traveling towards us it has some force already on it. Now that force on the incoming ball can be generated from the spin or it can be generated by the pace of the shot or a combination of both. So to overcome the force that's already on the ball we need to generate our own force and that happens from having racket head speed, it happens from transferring our body weight into that shot, and the final element is creating that racket lag. But a lot of players who try to generate this racket lag they do it in a very stiff and tight way. They're using the forearm muscles to extend the wrist back, to cock the wrist back, and they end up in this position but they're forcing it. And if you do this time and time again you'll end up injured. That's 100% if you're forcing that wrist lag you'll end up injured. So we want to generate it in a relaxed way, we want to generate it naturally. So the two easiest and simplest ways that I've found to generate more racket lag for most players that I've taught is number one to start with the racket head higher than the grip. Right from the beginning of the swing the racket head is above the grip level. Now this does two things. Number one it allows us to have space to build racket head speed which in turn will allow us to then produce racket lag. We need that distance to build up that momentum. But number two, by lifting the racket head higher than the grip, notice what happens with my wrist. It goes from this neutral position to a laid back position. So neutral, racket heads level with the grip in this position versus racket heads above the grip and now my wrist is cocked back. Now this is happening not from my forearm muscles pulling the wrist back like this, it's happening from my non-hitting hand. My non-hitting hand is playing the dominant role at the start of the forehand. So in this position if I took my hitting hand away I'm still holding the racket with my non-hitting hand, my left hand, and this allows me to keep this position but in a relaxed way. So I'm in that position here and from this position this allows me to then later on in the swing produce extra racket lag because the wrist is already in that cocked back position slightly. Now this makes this position much easier to achieve later on in the swing. So by starting your forehand with your racket head above the grip you're now creating the perfect base for that racket lag to occur later on in the swing. Now the second way that we can generate this racket lag in an easy and effortless way is to ensure that we're using the major muscles of the upper body to generate that coil and uncoil, meaning that massive trunk rotation. So at the start of the swing my racket head's above the grip, I'm in this position here, my hitting hand is relaxed, my left hand is holding the racket and this allows me to stay relaxed with my right hand and from this position the first step I'm doing when I start that forehand preparation is I coil the upper body. So I'm separating my left shoulder from my left hip so it looks like this from the front. Left shoulder is now turning so that coil what's happening is I'm storing energy in my trunk muscles, the muscles responsible for rotation. In particular this is our oblique muscles, these muscles are responsible for that rotation with the upper body and the more engaged we get those muscles in the coiling phase the more we can then have them uncoiling when we go to make contact. So it's this coil with the upper body which stores that explosive energy in the trunk muscles and then finally uncoiling allows me to then produce this racket lag in a natural way. So from the side it's going to look like this, coiling the upper body, getting into my power position. From this position now the upper body starts to uncoil, I start to open up my shoulders, I open up my chest and look what happens to my racket. If my wrist is relaxed from this position to this position it happens naturally. I don't have to force it, I don't have to worry about pulling the wrist back like this, it's happening just because I'm using the body in the most ideal way to produce that racket lag. So focus on those two elements, focus on having the racket head higher than the grip at the start of the swing, focus on having the non-hitting hand being the dominant force at the start of your forehand. This will ensure that your hitting wrist and your hitting forearm muscles can stay relaxed even when you cock the wrist back slightly. From this position focus on coiling the upper body, storing that energy to then uncoil and produce a lot of racket lag. Now if you want more help on your forehand we have a free guide you can download, I'll leave the link beneath this video. Now if you've enjoyed this video make sure you smash the like button, it helps us out, it helps the channel to be seen by more players and that's what we want to do, reach as many players as we can all around the world. If there are any lessons you'd like to see from us in the near future leave a comment down below. Signing off, Coach Simon from TTT, all the best and see you soon guys, take care.