The Top To Bottom Kinetic Chain

The kinetic chain. These three words are usually correlated with Roger Federer and his smooth and elegant forehand. It has become a popular tip to improve your forehand and; hence, some coaches have listened. They teach that the kinetic chain starts from the ground up. It starts from the legs, it goes into the hips, then goes into the torso, into the shoulders, and then finally transfers into the arm and the wrist.

However, what I believe is the complete opposite. Basically, the kinetic chain starts with your eyes. You're going to be tracking the ball, and then the hands start the movement on the forehand.

Many of you guys who adapt to this version of the kinetic chain, see amazing results. But not only that, but also the simplicity in which a forehand is performed. Therefore, in today’s article, we will be focusing on how to start the kinetic chain with your eyes to visualize how tennis is actually played.

Honorable Exceptions

Let me show you a couple of instances where professional players actually do generate the stroke from the ground up. In other words, the first thing that happens is the legs pushing against the ground. And you do see this from time to time on players like Kyrgios, Monfils, and even back in the day, Marat Safin and Marcelo Rios, and it is the jumping forehand.

On the jumping forehand, players are going to jump first, and that is going to be the first link in the chain, and then everything else will follow later. This is a tricky thing to do. So you're going to jump first, and then everything else is going to come later. There is a jumping forehand, and that is indeed a shot that was initiated with the legs.

Never Jumping

And, guys, the reason why a lot of coaches are proponents of the leg drive on the forehand is that it does make sense. Why? Because you see elite-level tennis players, high-level tennis players, or even high-level juniors get airborne. It makes sense that when players are getting airborne, there is some kind of a push being generated off the ground. That indeed is a jumping forehand.

Nevertheless, anybody that has played tennis at a high level will tell you that you never jump on the forehand. This is something that's a conscious decision to perform a jumping forehand, like the terrible one that I just demonstrated. That is a conscious thought. When you don't think about your legs and you play tennis at a high level, you are indeed not driving with your legs.

The only way a high-level forehand works is if the eyes and the hands are the first links in the chain. Now the context that is missing when coaches analyze high-level forehands or elite-level forehands is the incoming ball, and the incoming ball matters a lot in how the forehand is going to be performed.

Spin & Speed

Obviously, if we're talking about the ATP Tour, there's a tremendous amount of spin, and the ball is bouncing very high. What you will see, however, is that players still make contact somewhere between their waist and their chest area. This is the optimal contact on the ATP Tour, and players manage to make contact in this zone on the vast majority of their forehands.

How do they do that when the ball is higher? Well, they straighten their body. You will see that players will become airborne as a result of adjusting to their desired contact point. If they didn't do that, they will indeed strike the ball too high, and this will have a negative effect on their forehand.

On The Run

Another super important thing that you have to understand is the following: you will rarely have a situation when you're playing a match where you're going to be truly set. The vast majority of your forehands are going to be hit on the run; you're going to be moved in all kinds of directions.

Whether you're going laterally this way or this way, maybe running around your backhand, whether you're going forward or backward, you will rarely be set like you are when you're warming up. And therein lies the danger.

When you're studying forehands when players are warming up, they're in a stationary position. This rarely happens in a match. So what will often happen is the following: when players are truly hitting the ball on the run, they will execute their kinetic chain while the feet are still moving.

In other words, they will not get a chance to set their feet; they will truly hit the ball on the run. So in those scenarios, it's obvious that the kinetic chain is not starting from the ground up. It is truly starting from the top down.

Spacing & Balance

This brings me to the next point, which is that the feet are the most important thing on every groundstroke. If you don't put yourself in the perfect position, you're not going to be able to hit the shot properly. Your technique is going to become irrelevant. Also, you're going to have to have good balance when you strike any shot, but especially the forehand. So those things are absolutely true; the feet are the most important thing on the forehand or on any other shot in tennis.

When we're on the run, the stroke is not starting from the feet; the feet are adjusting to the ball. But the stroke starts from the top, and most importantly, the feet set at the very end of the stroke. So the feet movements come at the end of the stroke, well after contact has already happened. This is done to accommodate the swing path.

Fiery Explosiveness

A lot of people talk about firing the hip as some kind of initiator to the stroke, but this is complete nonsense. The right hip on right-handed players will always be behind the left hip. This happens because players will set their feet deep inside the stroke, somewhere in the racket drop area. The kinetic chain has already started before the feet set.

When players execute their kinetic chain, this leg goes up into the air, and the hands start to separate. The racket starts to go back, the shoulders start to rotate, the left hand starts pulling out of the way so that when they hit the forward phase of the stroke, the chest is pointed towards the incoming ball.

At this point, players start initiating the back hip and drive it forward toward the ball. The dominant shoulder ends up in front, but the position of the feet doesn't change. The back foot remains behind the front foot.

Final Thoughts

It is important to remember that every stroke in tennis is a conscious movement of the arm. The arm doesn't move by itself; it has to be controlled by the player. The kinetic chain starts with the eyes and hands, not the legs. This top-to-bottom kinetic chain is what professional players use. They set their feet well after initiating the stroke, and the feet movements naturally accommodate the swing path.

When you are hitting a closed stance forehand, the back foot will come around due to the swing. Same for the semi-open stance. Naturally, the front foot lifts off the ground, especially if the incoming ball is deep. Still, the back foot will somewhat come through and forward due to the aggressiveness. Either way, the feet are accommodating to the shot and players realize that the kinetic chain starts with the eyes.