Broken Timing Chain Syndrome

A car's timing chain connects the crankshaft to the distributor shaft, so the spark plugs fire at exactly the right moment to trigger the explosion that motivates the car. When that chain breaks, the ignitions are early or late and therefore impotent. In any tennis stroke, premature transitioning of the racket face between the lock and load phases will result in cataclysmic loss of control. What you are supposed to do during the lock phase is relax your hitting arm and use gravity to maneuver your racket and forearm through a 'cocked' state. The cocked state is a unique spatial relationship between the racket head and the wrist that allows you to convert momentum into ball control. When your shoulders start dragging the racket forward, the inertia of the racket head rotates your forearm, which winds up the forearm muscle like winding the propellor on a rubber-band airplane. In the topspin forehand, the cocked position is forearm pronated (racket face parallel to the ground), wrist cocked (racket head in front of the wrist), and entire racket moving down and back. When the hips and shoulders start rotating into the stroke, the racket will flip behind the wrist, and the face will open up until it is near perpendicular to the ground. The racket face perpendicular to the ground is the normal hitting position. Still, in the process of transitioning from cocked to hitting position, your forearm muscles become wound up or stretch-shortened, and can later deliver stored forces into the ball at the instant of contact. Those forces inject directional control and wicked spin into the tennis ball, making the tennis ball your bitch. If, on the other hand, you intentionally maneuver the racket into the hitting position during the lock, the muscles of your forearm do not stretch-shorten, and you get no control, no spin, and no joy.

The Broken Timing Chain syndrome is insidious and disastrous, especially for those who are less tuned-in to their bodies, strokes, and game. The syndrome cannot be identified via its effects on the ball since those results - hitting long, hitting the net, and spraying the ball, are completely nonspecific. The only way to identify and diagnose this syndrome is to pay careful attention to the 'snap' portion of every strike of the ball and insist that you hit every ball with 'snap.' Snap occurs during the transition from the lock phase to the load phase and represents the sudden transition or 'flip' of the racket that stretch-shortens your forearm muscles. A successful snap results in a 'ping' or 'pop' on ball contact, but the snap itself occurs earlier in the stroke, so those of us who are less in tune with strokes often miss the connection between the snap and pop.

The snap feels like a disruption of flow in the stroke - a momentary loss of control over the racket head - which is by design because, during the snap, we must intentionally relinquish control of the racket head to the physics of acceleration and inertia. We must momentarily let go of the illusion of control and substitute faith that the racket will end up in a good hitting position as it flips and flops from the lock through the load to the point of contact.

There are tell-tail signs of good snap specific to individual strokes. For example, in the forehand, the racket may feel like it hyper-pronates, i.e., face pointing towards the back fence, as it drops through the lock. The illusion of hyper-pronation is normal, and if missing, may indicate failure to wait for the load to open the racket face automatically.