The Zone of Experience

The zone of experience (ZofE) represents the region in front of your upper body in which you do your best work. Events and activities in this zone are easiest to see, feel, and manipulate. Your upper extremities enjoy their maximum range of unobstructed motion and comfort within this area, and hand-eye coordination is optimized. So why would you reach behind your back when preparing to strike a ball? Of course, you wouldn't, you shouldn't, but you do. Often we don't get our feet right, don't rotate our hips, don't get our shoulders back, and throw the racket hand behind our backs in the backswing. The results are seldom pretty. Indeed, the principal reason for setting a proper stance with the feet is to free the hips, spine, and shoulders in position to perform the lion's share of the backswing so you don't have to reach back beyond the ZofE. Keeping the entire stroke comfortably within the ZofE is just as important for short strokes like the volley or two-handed backhand as it is for your forehand drive.

Moving the Zone of Experience(ZofE): Your ZofE rotates with your shoulders, so you can almost always move it to cover the entire backswing and the point of contact. If you don't turn your shoulders...disaster! (roll the mouse wheel to change playback speed)
Hello
The Zone of Experience(ZofE): The space in front of your chest is the domain of your hands and is where the shoulders are strongest, and hand-eye coordination is optimal. If you allow either arm or hand to fall behind the body during the stroke, there will be pain and anguish. Avoiding this pain is why we turn sideways to the ball: to put the strike zone as near the center of the ZofE as possible.

Players often skimp on the shoulder turn when rushed, trying to hit softly, or just feeling lazy. An adequate backswing is not only about generating pace. It is not just for the pros. It is all about keeping both racket preparation and ball contact comfortably within the Zone of Experience. If you fail to turn your shoulders when hitting, say, a drop volley, your only recourse is to drag your arm back, opening up your hitting shoulder and reducing your hitting arm to an impotent, flaccid appendage, incapable of manipulating even a 10-ounce racket and a 2-ounce ball. This is why so many of your drop shots don't clear the net; in that position, your arm just isn't strong enough to heft it over the net strap.

Hello
Zone of Experience(ZofE): Note that the hitting wrist is fully 'behind' the hips relative to the ball but ahead of the hips relative to the body. The former is essential for developing racket head speed in the stroke, the latter is essential for maintaining leverage, consistent orbital distance (from hip to racket hand), and hand-eye-ball coordination - all essential for solid, consistent contact.

    Lazy Hips Syndrome
  • Chief Complaint
    • “My timing is way, way, WAY off!!”
  • Symptoms(Sx):
    • late hitting on groundies and vollies
      • especially return of serve
    • mishits
    • slow hands
    • weak hands
  • Signs(S):
    • shots don't feel solid
      • weakness in shoulders
      • catching ball behind you
      • off-center hits
        Pathophysiology(Px):
      • under-rotation of the hips in the unit turn
        • excessive shoulder extension
          • pectoral and deltoid muscle over-stretched
          • shoulder joint at mechanical disadvantage
        • compensetory elbow flexion
        • Treatment(Rx):
      • fix hip rotation in the unit turn
          forehand volley and groundies
        • close the stance (move your feet!)
        • use the non-hitting hand
        • as if to catch the ball
        • auto-magically counter-rotates the shoulders
          backhand volley and groundies
        • close the stance (move your feet!)
          • turn way more sideways than on the forehand
        • use the non-hitting hand
          • both hands on the racket
          • less of a problem than the forehand
          serve and smash
        • use the non-hitting hand
          • reach across and up
            • counter-rotates and drops hitting shoulder
  • Differential Diagnosis:
  • Prevention
    1. always use non-hitting arm
Lazy Hips Syndrome: No reach across with the left arm and failure to counter-rotate the hips in the unit turn truncates the stroke and forces over-extension of the hitting shoulder putting it at a mechanical disadvantage. Late hits, misshits, and loss of control result. ---hover and use mousewheel to vary playback speed and double-click to toggle full-screen

Lazy Hips Syndrome

When you fail to keep your racket out in front of your chest ,i.e. in the Zone of Experience, you fall prey to this disease. The 'lazy hips' part comes in the unit turn, not the stroke or follow through. It is a failure to properly prepare for the ball and keep your racket within the Zone of Experience. As soon as you reach back from your shoulder, you are doomed. The arm is now at a tremendous mechanical disadvantage so it is weak and impotent. Paradoxically, although the backswing is shorter than normal, you are still taking the ball behind or even with your hip so there is a strong feeling of being 'late' on every hit.