What is the role of the wrist in the modern ATP forehand? How do I achieve the lag position? How relaxed should my wrist be?
The short answer is it depends. Depending on your grip, where you’re trying to hit to, and a bunch of other factors, your wrist will do something different.
To start off, the wrist is a gliding joint which allows the bones to glide past one another in any direction.
The 4 main motions of the wrist are:
Flexion
Extension
Radial Deviation
Ulnar Deviation
Then, there are 2 main motions of the forearm:
Pronation
Supination
I’ll be using these terminologies throughout the video to explain the motions of the wrist and forearm. But I want to note that when you’re on the court, your focus shouldn’t be on wrist movements. Your focus should be on how you’re going to get the racket to perform a motion that achieves your desired effect on the ball.
When it comes to the wrist, the backswing is usually ignored and all the focus is on the “lag and snap” or the windshield wiper motion. We’ll explain the wrist in the forward swing and follow through too, but first, I feel like it’s necessary to go over the right preparation.In the backswing phase of the forehand there are 2 vital things to keep in mind for the wrist:This means that you have just enough grip tension required for you to keep your racket in your hand, without actively manipulating the racket with your forearm muscles. If the wrist isn’t relaxed at the start of the backswing, it most likely won’t be relaxed in later stages of the forehand. This will hinder your ability to achieve proper positions later in the swing and hitting with a tense forearm over a long period of time can lead to overuse injury. Trust me, I’ve been there.
2. The wrist must be in the proper position
In the start of the forward swing, the wrist is supposed to act as a hinge and rotate backward as a result of the racket’s centrifugal force combining with the hip and trunk rotation and the hand pulling forward.To do this, the wrist must be in the proper position. Some coaches like to tell players to keep the racket tip above the hand as a checkpoint but I feel that this might be too broad of a statement since, on lower balls, the racket head and hand can reach the same level. So, I prefer to focus on the positioning of the wrist instead – the wrist positioning at the end of your backswing should be the same position that it was it when you completed your unit turn.One key here is to use your non-hitting arm to keep the hitting arm wrist stable until it releases off the racket.
[3]加速阶段
【加速阶段】下意识操作:保持放松
【Acceleration Phase】
Conscious Function: Stays Relaxed
During the start of the forward swing, the wrist will rotate and extend backward into the glorified wrist lag position.Again, the primary role of the wrist and forearm in the acceleration phase is to stay relaxed. Except here, the wrist will not remain static, and there will be more or less extension, ulnar deviation, and supination in this phase. This will pretty much depend on factors like your grip, backswing shape, the amount of rotational force you used.If the forearm is tense here, you will hinder your racket head acceleration and you might injure your forearm and wrist.And FYI, I’m guilty of this habit from time to time.
【Control Factors】Like I stated earlier though, the wrist lag is extremely varying among different players according to their backswing shape, whether they have a bent or straight arm, their grip, and how much force their putting behind the shot.【Grip】Generally speaking, the more Eastern your grip is, the more wrist extension or lag you’ll have in your forehandIf you are using some version of the semi-western grip, the angle of your maximum extension will get smaller and smaller. This is most logically because your palm will no longer be directly behind the racket.If you have a full western grip like Jack Sock or anything past that, your palm will be all the way under the handle, so you will have no extension in the wrist. But the lag position is still attained with this grip because of the forearm supination.