Never use “Full power”

When you see a ball you can put away, your eyes open wide mentally (and possibly physically), you smile (perhaps inwardly), and you prepare to crush the ball with all the muscle you can muster.

Never hit a ball with “full force”. That’s in quotes because I’m talking about the idea of ​​using every muscle at full, spastic strength. It’s called “muscling the ball,” which is a bad habit. If you do that, you’ll end up with a choppy swing that you can’t really control, and you’ll often lose the increased power of a smooth, power-generating swing. This is especially true when running.

Instead, you want to use the right muscles smoothly in a natural sequence. When you do that, you not only keep control of the swing, but you actually get as much as possible morestrength than when you spastically try to use each muscle for 100%. You generate force not by moving a muscle at full speed, but by accelerating smoothly into the ball so that your racket reaches maximum speed as it accelerates through the ball. For example, with a forehand run or smash it starts with the weight shift from the legs, then the hips and waist, shoulders, arm and wrist. And then you don’t just get a satisfying feeling prisoner of war or WHOOSH . . . the ball actually hits the table consistently.