Overmodulation Syndrome

Overmodulation is the creation of a power wave that is too 'big' to propagate through your body without blowing your stroke to smithereens. Overhitting disrupts the important stroking tasks of maintaining balance, addressing the ball, creating control, adding spin and developing racket head speed). Overmodulation is the sin of trying too hard. Modulation, or the appropriate matching of the amplitude of a wave to the medium through which you want to broadcast it, is a challenge for all athletes, and no one does it perfectly. Determining the peak amplitude of the power wave is about choice; hit softer or harder, very, very hard or very, very soft. You always have control over how much power you pour into the stroke. What you don't control is the outcome. Too little power and the ball will flutter aimlessly like a wounded bird; too much and the ball will fly off with no control and no spin. The right amount of power is the right amount. That tautology reflects a dark truth that lies at the heart of the difference between those who are talented and those who are not. The talented know exactly how much power their bodies can handle. Like pilots who know the flight 'envelope' that determines the range of speed, angle of attack, and thrust that will keep an aircraft flying, A-level tennis players may drift beyond their 'playing envelope' boundaries. Still, they can always feel their way back to the center. For the rest of us, increasing awareness is the goal. We need to recognize when we are throwing too much or too little power at the ball and make adjustments. To effectively utilize your strength, you must carefully assess your weakness.

Upper Body vs the Feet

Our unrestrained egos often convince us to go after a ball. We are strong, we tell ourselves, and fully capable of ripping the felt off a tennis ball. So we execute what feels like a perfect strike - plenty of leverage, snap, attitude - we throw our entire weight into the ball. Sometimes the ball flies like a laser and vaporizes our target (or our opponent), but more often, it careens into the ceiling or drills a ball-sized hole in the net. Now, we all believe in Science, so the result of such a stroke should be reproducible or at least somewhat predictable, but no! Some capricious, invisible entities seem to impose their evil will upon our most ambitious efforts. There are indeed hidden entities involved in this scenario - our feet. Hitting with power requires that your balance is beyond perfect. You must have your feet perfectly positioned to counter the mighty rotation of your muscular core. Your knees must be well bent, and there needs to have been recent weight transfer to the pushing-off foot so that it can apply up to four times your body weight into the court. In other words, you must be in perfect dynamic balance.

The cure for overmodulation is to always hold some power in reserve.

So, if you properly set your feet to push off into the stroke and stay on balance, then you are home free, right? Wrong! The stroke ain't over till it's over. The first phase of the power wave motivates the hips and shoulders to rotate into the stroke, creating racket head speed for pace and depth, and stored force for control and spin. The last phase of the wave pushes back against the first, decelerating the hips and shoulders and thereby releasing the stored forces into the ball as impulse. If you fail to slow the forward motion of the hips and shoulders, the stored force is never released, and you get no control and minimal spin. You may feel you are 'driving through the ball,' and that feels good, but it is bad, bad, bad. Failure to slow the shoulders and hips prevents the essential 'SNAP' associated with maximal pace, spin, and control. Forward rotation without counter-rotation is like 'SNAP' without the 'P': all "SNA" - without the "Pow". Failure to properly end a stroke generally has one of two possible causes. First, failure to step into the ball so you cannot push back against the stroke. Second, investing so much energy and momentum into getting the shoulders moving that no power you own can slow them down. This later cause qualifies as overmodulation, a frequent mechanism by which overhitting causes errors. Of course, avoiding overhitting errors by under-hitting results in more errors because without sufficient energy invested, no control forces are stored, and nothing is released. The solution is knowing how much energy to push into the stroke and then remembering to push back at the end

Overmodulation Syndrome
• Chief Complaint
  • "I feel discombobulated when I try to hit the ball with power!"
• Symptoms(Sx):
  • loss of balance
  • loss of control
  • no spin
  • mishits
  • feeling uncoordinated
  • loss of power
    • the harder you hit, the less pace you get on the ball
• Signs(S):
  • inconsistency exclusively on hard shots
    Pathophysiology(Px):
    • insufficiently dynamic balance
      • feet can't handle the power generated
        • throwing yourself 'off your feet'
        • inadequate court purchase
          • forcing upper body contortion to maintain balance
      • inability to steal sufficient momentum from the earth
        • too much power from the upper body
  Diagnostic Tests (Tx):
  • try hitting with slightly less power
    • look for immediate improvement
    • don't overcompensate
      • too little power is as bad as too much
Treatment(Rx):
• decrease power in increments
  • look for snap
  • look for spin
  • look for balance
  • DO NOT OVERCOMPENSATE
    • do not underhit!
• ALWAYS hold something in Reserve
  • short stroke
  • relax
  • but don't 'hold back'
    • complete the stroke
    • maximize balance and weight transfer
• Differential Diagnosis:
  • ImpossibleDream Syndrome
  • Forehandophobia Syndrome
  • Paralysis Syndrome
  • Tightness Syndrome
  • Inconsistency Syndrome
• Prevention
  • awareness

Reserve

The cure for overmodulation is to always hold some power in reserve. That reserve is not for future or emergency use. You must NEVER tap into your reserve because its use will always drastically reduce your chance of success, and I know of no situation in tennis where a few more miles per hour of pace on a stroke is worth the risk of pooping the bed.

Reserve should also not be confused with 'holding back.' When you refrain from shouting, you are holding something in reserve. When you censor your speech, you are holding back. The former is powerful; the latter is weak and cowardly. You can take a more compact swing on a groundstroke, but don't omit any of the essential components; unit turn, lock, load, or suffer a collapse of control.