Relax-Arm Method of Learning the Swing

The relaxed arm method is a alternative method of learning how to swing the racquet. It has been useful for me when I have been stroking poorly from the back and straining too hard to get power. What it teaches is energy transfer from medial to distal parts of the body.

You can start off-court, without a racquet.

1. Get your arm loose, let it hang from your shoulder, swing it loosely from side to side

2. Raise your arm overhead... and let it drop. Notice the difference between letting it fall freely and controlling the descent. Your hand should slap your leg at the bottom.

3. Drop your arm from overhead again, but this time turn your body to avoid slapping yourself. Rotate back on the return swing to put your arm overhead again. Get a feeling for the rhythm of this movement, it should require very little effort to maintain.

4. When the arm is up, rotate your body such that the arm swings forward instead of back. Follow through across the body. Make sure to let the arm swing freely rather than trying to control the movement directly. You should only be controlling the arm swing indirectly by adjusting the initial movement of the torso.

5. Instead of a full follow-through, stop your body rotation abruptly when after 90 degrees of rotation. Note that the follow through changes into a whip like motion.

6. Repeat with racquet

7. Repeat with birds.