Getting on Center – the Dual Leg Drive
Jim McLennan
Power comes from the ground up. The game is played with the legs. Turn, step, and swing. Get your weight into the shot. These and other teaching prompts remind us how to play, and in some form or another we see the professionals using the ground, playing the game with their legs, stepping into their shots (sometimes) and getting their weight into their shots (again sometimes). But through it all, we may not truly understand or value the benefit of a centered, dual leg drive when swinging the racquet.
Some years ago I had the chance to speak with Tarik Benhabiles (then Roddick’s coach) during a match between Roddick and Blake at the Siebel Open. I asked Tarik to explain the tremendous velocity of Roddick’s serve. And with uncommon brevity he said it was simply that Roddick was centered perfectly on both legs when launching up and into the hit. (He also said that Roddick was more limber than Sampras. And remember, it was Pete who was shown in Tennis magazine touching his elbows behind his back.) Then using his hands, he pumped them up and down in unison to show that when Roddick crouched down both legs were equally weighted, otherwise known as a dual leg drive.
Andy, Roger, Pete, and the latest phenom, Na Li, all serve using a dual leg drive. Contrast this with Andy Murray, Maria Sharapova, or Venus Williams, all who move the back foot up during the service delivery. Players who move their feet during the serve or those who lean forward and slightly off balance do not maximize the force that can be generated from both legs. They may hit the ball hard, but there are issues with balance and accuracy and often those players are known for suspect second serves (certainly true of Murray and Williams).
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A simple experiment confirms this – standing on the baseline when preparing to serve, jump three times in quick succession, 10 – 12 inches in the air each time. You will find that when jumping you place your legs beneath you, and use both legs equally, no one jumps favoring one leg over the other, and truly no one jumps from an overly narrow or overly wide stance. And though one doesn’t need to jump when serving (though that might sound crazy), the forces generated by the legs when jumping can be diverted to the speed of the racquet when serving, or when hitting ground strokes for that matter.
The following drill captures the feel of the dual leg drive. Standing on the baseline or the service line, practice drop hit forehands (or backhands) with emphasis on the following:
- Turn to the side
- Racquet only half way back
- All the weight on the back foot
- As the racquet begins to move back into the swing, shift onto both feet
- Now sink equally onto both legs
- Trigger the dual leg drive as you swing up and into the ball
- Finish with all the weight on the front foot
The emphasis is on the centered, equally balanced dual leg drive. It appears as though you have stepped in, but really the step in or shift merely moves the weight from the back foot onto both feet. Too often recreational players step in such that only the front leg drives the swing, and in that case, balance is compromised and power is diminished.
If this drill works for you, then repeat the process for the serve. And just as the primary acceleration on the forehand occurs, when both the racquet and the legs “bottom,” the same occurs when serving. In a long, slow and loose serve, the critical moment occurs when the racquet “bottoms” (used to be called scratching the back – now a better term is the swinging drop to show the racquet is moving at this point rather than stopped or static) and if you watch carefully, Roger Federer times his dual leg drive in synch with this swinging drop (Click here to see Federer's serve in T1 Super Slow-Mo™ Video).
The dual leg drive is about generating racquet speed when centered, about using the legs in concert, about mimicking the servers who do not move their feet, about getting the feel for effortless swings.
(Click link to purchase Jim's McLennan's Secrets of World Class Footwork Video.)
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August 8, 2006
