The Role of the Wrist in Groundstrokes

With the development of lighter racquets and increased research available on biomechanics, the role of the wrist has increasingly been called into question by experts from around the world.

For years, we were told to keep the wrist locked and firm throughout the shot. In the 1990’s, we were advised to lay the wrist back during a forehand, but to keep it firm throughout the shot.

Today, the latest research suggests that the wrist begin in a laid back position, then accelerate forward, snapping into the shot just before contact. This type of stroke has caused the forehand to resemble a sidearm serve, complete with pronation.

Which is it?

Unfortunately, there is not universal agreement. Looking at what the world’s two top tennis researchers have to say may help you develop your own conclusions.

In his book Tennis 2000, Vic Braden recommends that unless your player is using a “pre-stretch” style of forehand (a la Agassi and Becker), players should not lay their wrists back because the racquet head will go out of sync with the rest of the body.

In Advanced Techniques for Competitive Tennis, Richard Sch–nborn recommends the laid-back, accelerating wrist motion. Top players today now snap the wrist into the ball — the key here, though, is to realize that the wrist snaps into the ball, not necessarily through the ball. That is to say, a “floppy” wrist is not desirable, because the racquet’s face should be firm at contact.

This wrist motion is also recommended for the backhand.

The follow through is also altered with this motion, with the racquet “snapped” with a slightly open face for slice, a slightly closed face at contact for topspin, and a perpendicular face for flat strokes. This motion decreases the need for a long follow-through when used in conjunction with some types of mechanics, since the deceleration of the arm takes place earlier, with the wrist snap acceleration making up for the slower arm.

As many teaching professionals are not comfortable with new information which they do not necessarily understand, the argument against snapping the wrist into the ball comes in the form of the examples of the well-documented wrist injuries to Becker and Agassi. The number of players using this new stroke and the number of injuries reported, so far, do not bear out the Becker and Agassi injuries as reasonable examples.

If your players do not have proper conditioning and technique, yes, snapping wildly at groundstrokes over and over can lead to repetitive stress and even traumatic injuries. Players who do not have proper upper body or hip rotation, or who do not have their elbows in at contact, for example, may simply be hitting groundstrokes with their arms, and adding a wrist snap would create undue stress.

It is best to have all of your players experiment with this new style of stroke to see if their current mechanics allow them to integrate this wrist motion (which requires coordination and timing) into their stroke. If the player begins to feel any discomfort, discontinue this mechanic immediately.

(Editor’s note: USHSTCA executive director, Steve Milano, had an opportunity to try this motion on court with Richard Schoenborn, and it took only a few strokes to figure it out, with incredible results. There have been no resultant injuries.).