ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the former expectation and consider tennis ground strokes, the forehand, the single-handed backhand, and the double-handed backhand. Consider a tennis stroke: What really counts is the current kinematics of the racket at the precise time the strings encounter the ball. Since, for the stroke to be efficient, ball-impact time must approximately coincide with the peak velocity of the racket, it is the initial acceleration of the movement, not its terminal deceleration that represents the critical phase. In the case of the single-handed backhand, there is little doubt that an open stance would severely restrict the angular amplitude of stroke preparation as well as the racket’s radius of gyration for the whole gesture. Given the marked predominance of the open stance for the forehand drive, a reasonable inference is that the preparatory backswing contributes dynamically to the stroke, at least in highly skilled performers.
