The Propellerater

Why are we ordered by tennis gurus to step into the ball? None of the explanations they give us make any sense to me. Taking a step forward could not possibly add any considerable pace to the shot. The ball is already coming in at 50+ mph, and our racket is moving at 80+ mph, and walking speed (for me) is a miserable four mph. I have found that when I "get my weight into the ball" by moving in I get a lot more power, especially on the two-handed backhand. I also seem to get more solid hits and fewer miss-hits and shanks when I move into the ball. That is the telling observation. The truth is that strokes, particularly the groundstrokes, are not directed through the ball (i.e., in the direction of the hit) but are directed across the ball. Any attempt to hit directly through the ball is disastrous. Real control comes from a glancing blow, not a "spank" on the ball's bum. The racket moves like the blades of a propeller that is both rotating rapidly in a circle around your forearm but also moving forward into the ball slowly as its blades are slashing at high speed across the path of the ball. If you catch the ball with the blade of the propeller, the ball will take off, which is what we want.

Service Propellerator: A reason to "fall" into the serve is to time the moment of contact with the ball. In this classic serve note how the racket is traveling across the path of the ball towards the right net post.
The Ultimate Propellerator: The Borg-style forehand with its "windshield wiper" swing brushes up and across the ball. The racket head is moving very quickly in an elliptical orbit around the elbow creating an orbit that will rotate slowly through the flight path of the ball. Solid contact with the ball depends on the timing of movement of that orbit as the body moves through the stroke.

Fine-Tuning Contact Timing

Traditionally, addressing the ball was thought to relate to the direction of travel and the direction of facing of the racket head leading up to the moment of contact. We were told to guide the racket to the ball along a path which coincides with the incoming flight path of the ball. We are even told to maintain that racket trajectory into the follow-through to compensate for possible mistiming of the ball. Mistiming the moment of contact was felt to be the principal threat to solid ball contact. We all constructively ignored evidence from watching the pros, who's strokes shared nothing with this admonition. Geniuses like Rod Laver slashed at the ball with an arcing, twisting motion and with apparent disregard for the incoming path of the ball, seeming to be somehow able to snatch the ball out of thin air and send it with unerring accuracy, vicious spin and blistering pace to whatever target they chose.

If we dared to ask "...if Laver is successful hitting the way he hits, why shouldn't I do it that way?", We were told that such a performance was "nothing we should try to emulate", the implication being that with our sorry lack of basic coordination we would make fools of ourselves. Now, I am as much in awe and wonder as anyone over the differences between the truly talented and those of us who aren't, but what works, works. The ability to time the moment of contact is not talent; it is being human. It is no more of a miracle than the ability to walk, talk and chew gum at the same time without slurring one's words, swallowing the gum or falling on one's face. Your brain is more than capable of making the necessary adjustments required to address a moving ball reliably. All it needs is an actuator; a proper lever to pull or spigot to turn that will allow you to fine-tune the instant when the propeller blade coincides with the incoming ball's flight path. That lever is leaning, stepping, or rotating the orbital path of the racket head into the shot. It is a slow speed, large muscle movement that is completely independent of the rest of the stroke. This part of the stroke is not used to create pace, spin or control. It lets you make whatever adjustment you need to make to maximize solid contact without defeating those other objectives. It lets you play the ball, not the other way around.

Hello
The "Buggy-Whip":This stroke is an extreme example of spindirection. The racket path is at right angles to the incoming path of the ball. Solid contact depends on timing the rotation of the hips that brings the orbit of the racket into the flight path of the ball.

The propellerator is not a technique; it is a concept. You don't try to propellerate the ball - just recognize that when you are striking the ball properly, you will be hitting the ball with a glancing blow. This recognition has massive ramifications in all contexts of stroking. In the serve, for example, one of the worst faults you can commit is to square up your shoulders to the net at the moment of contact in a vain attempt to maximize power and solid contact. You need to direct your body and stroke to the right (hitting) side net post and lean or fall into the ball. In the two-handed topspin backhand the orbit of the racket head around the body is tighter than that of the forehand or one-handed backhand, and the stroke is quicker, so the movement of the body, and with it the orbit, through the point of contact is essential for timing the moment of contact and achieving a solid strike. In all strokes, understanding the propellerator idea helps you avoid the trap of trying to slap the ball and reminds you of the importance of moving your body into the strike to better address the ball.