Very skinny guy wanting to increase power
Published: 02 Mar 2012 - 08:30 by newsquash1
Updated: 13 Mar 2012 - 14:47
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Hello,
So as a brief introduction:
- been playing tennis for 2 years (just as a fun hobby with a friend) but have been playing squash
exclusively for the past 7 weeks mostky once a week
- very fast around the court and I'm quite fit
- forehand is much stronger than backhand
- for the past week or so I've been doing 15 minutes (2x a day) of practise swinging at home
My arms are as you can guess, skinny but my right arms a smidgen bigger from this squash.
I have started doing wrist curls with some dumbbells and another of other weights with my friend which includes a kettle bell, however I am really interested in getting a stronger backhand shot. I often don't have time to swing it because the ball will come back quickly and I end up hitting it softly and doesn't go no where near the back wall. How do I gain this strength for the backhand flick/hit? I can usually make do with my forehand hit OK when the balls coming at me fast but I'm definitely lacking on the back hand side and I'm desperate to improve it in my own spare time.
I've watched the pros such as nick matthews and ramy ashour and it's amazing how hard they hit it and I'm really interested in putting my time and effort into improving this.
As for tactics - this forum is good for that and I like watching other people and picking bits out so it's something I can work out for myself, however this power thing is the negative in my game and I'm deadset on improving it.
Thanks a lot.
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From rippa rit - 12 Mar 2012 - 18:03 - Updated: 13 Mar 2012 - 14:47
From newsquash1 - 06 Mar 2012 - 00:42 - Updated: 06 Mar 2012 - 00:42
OK thanks guys.
I ended up watching this video which improves strength http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5gWEjpVh4Q
I think you were both right as it's not just about wrist strength but also being able to move your arm quickly. I also think a lot of it is about technique as I've been practising my strokes and i learnt the hard way by doing my strokes (and wrist action) the wrong way - this then caused a slight pain in my wrist and so I thought about it more trying different ways and i'm now very confident that i'm using my wrist action in the correct way.
To explain, i'll not try to turn the racket with my thumb, but instead focus on moving the wrist forward and back in its natural movement. I was initally doing the racket move with my wrist in practise as mostly thumb movement which proved to be painful.
The training video I linked also goes into all the other muscles and so i recommend it to anyone to who wants to get fitter and stronger for squash.
From sloejp - 05 Mar 2012 - 12:57
there are some exercises you could add to improve core strength, such as abbs, obliques, glutes, lower back, hamstings. otherwise, you just have to spend time on court hitting backhand shots.
From newsquash1 - 04 Mar 2012 - 05:31
OK thank you, I'll use those tips.
Do you know any exercises I can do at home to improve both my quickness of the shot and power?
From sloejp - 02 Mar 2012 - 14:50
this is all about good form, which can take more time to learn on the backhand. what helped for me was to focus on upper body rotation into the backhand shot. this is where the power is generated. another thing that helped was stamping the front foot to ensure transfer of weight from the back foot to the front foot to give the swing more momentum. i see skinny men and women at my club all the time with explosive backhand drives. it used to boggle my mind until i realised that they just have much better form than i do. can you get lessons from a coach? even a 15-minute one-on-one session would be worth it.
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