There are many uses of this word in our language. In this context  it is the zone where loading the body in one direction  transforms into the explode of that force in another direction of movement. It can be in one but more usually is in all three planes of motion in the muscles and joints in the chain reaction. Put more simply, muscles lengthen to load as the feet meet the ground, and contract to explode in upright function Think of a jump, you go down to load transforming to explode upwards into the jump. In this vlog I want to show you this transformational zone in the service action which starts to drive the body upwards. You will need to understand this movement as a zone as we track it leading into full load and see the motion in the chain as it transforms into the drive up to the ball. It is not a point it is a zone of transformation.

The chain reaction motions in the zone .

  • The front hip slides forward driving the whole body sideways towards the ball.
  • This motion turns the torso and shoulder back and down
  • It also start to turn the front arm so that the palm faces forward
  • All three reactions are driven by the front hip slide forward in the chain.
  • The load now transforms into the explode in the the drive upwards.

An important application.

Shoulder impingements, injuries and limited ranges of motion are extremely common in recreational tennis and is also an issue for some in the professional game. Jack Draper is the most recent at this year’s French Open and his plaintive cry ‘I hate to be known as the guy who gets injured a lot’ is worrying for fans of British tennis.

I had a discussion with another coach about ball placement, recently, who believed that a server should alter the position of his toss for different serves. I referenced Sampras, the greatest server ever, in my opinion, who placed the ball in the same place every time and moved his body position under the ball to achieve the serve variety.

This highlights the importance of the front hip slide in the chain which is missing from almost all recreational players’ actions as they are upper body dominant. You can see it everywhere in a front facing stance, a ball placement in front of them and contact in the down slope of a throw.

My student group struggled with this front hip slide yesterday, even though they understood it’s importance, their bodies weren’t accustomed to it and hadn’t trained for that frontal plane motion. Try this same side lateral chain reaction matrix to train, which will give you a greater range of motion and by tweaking you can make it more specific to the front hip slide in the serve transformational zone:

Vaughan Ebrahim LTA accredited Level 4

Gray Institute, CAFS 2013, 3DMAPS 2017, FGS 2023.