Hi track coach! I have a stupid question… is there a key element in the average human’s “sprint technique” that always makes you go ‘that’s wrong’. For example, I was a tennis coach once and for me its always the grip. First thing everyone does is pick up the racket and they hold it wrong from start to finish. Sorry for my terrible English I hope that was clear enough.
Everyone runs differently. Not everyone is fast, but everyone can get faster.
There's no one key element, but there are lots of common problems. Hips are inflexible (that was me); One leg is longer than the other; The athlete is a woman who just happens to have large breasts.
My personal favorite was a 400m hurdler who had no sense of rhythm. You have to count 14 or 15 steps between hurdles or you will crash. Dude's in his 30s now and still can't dance. But he can hurdle!
In short, getting your athletes to run "knee-up, toe-up" and keep arms from crossing the body as much as possible is the basic goal.
There’s many ways to hold your racket. You can probably look up the four different grips. But everyone defaults to the continental grip also called “hammer” which is actually what we use for serves and volley. Personally I hold my racket using the eastern grip. Eastern grip is the most common and just feels natural. Compared to the western grip which is just weird IMO but brings a different playstyle. Western is not very popular. For example Nadal plays using a western grip. Notice how he holds his racket kinda backwards lol.
tldr; 4 different grips exist. Start with an eastern grip. Google it up lol. It’s hard to explain
Besides from that tennis is a very technical sport. But here are the basic to master:
-racket starts low, hit the ball when it’s at ~waist level, finish you motion with your racket over the shoulder
-use you whole body. Very important.
shift your weight forward on every hit.
I’ll stop here or else I could keep typing a whole bible but yea.. there’s a lot of technique involved in tennis.
Wow there's so much going on there, I looked it up and yeah I do think I might have started with the continental grip initially, but I have played enough tennis to naturally find the eastern grip and have been using it for years without knowing! The rest of that stuff I also sometimes do, when I'm playing well lol, the part that gets me is the raw athleticism to move across the court fast enough, so that the ball is in a good place to hit.
There’s many ways to hold your racket. You can probably look up the four different grips. But everyone defaults to the continental grip also called “hammer” which is actually what we use for serves and volley. Personally I hold my racket using the eastern grip. Eastern grip is the most common and just feels natural. Compared to the western grip which is just weird IMO but brings a different playstyle. Western is not very popular. For example Nadal plays using a western grip. Notice how he holds his racket kinda backwards lol.
tldr; 4 different grips exist. Start with an eastern grip. Google it up lol. It’s hard to explain
Besides from that tennis is a very technical sport. But here are the basic to master:
-racket starts low, hit the ball when it’s at ~waist level, finish you motion with your racket over the shoulder
-use you whole body. Very important.
shift your weight forward on every hit.
I’ll stop here or else I could keep typing a whole bible but yea.. there’s a lot of technique involved in tennis.
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u/Carpe-Bananum 1d ago
Three time NCAA All American sprinter (200m, 400m) and track coach here. Little dude has some wheels.