Why rhythm is important in tennis
Dr. Mark Kovacs, a highperformance expert, sport technology consultant and coach with an extensive background in sciencebased training and researching elite athletes, shares his eclectic sports expertise on the seldomcovered but highly important subject of rhythm in tennis.
seven books, most notably Tennis Anatomy, Complete Conditioning for Tennis. These sports and exercise science books, translated into more than a dozen languages, focus on stretching, recovery, mental skills training, anatomy and training.
In the comprehensive interview that follows, Dr. Kovacs shares his eclectic sports expertise on the seldomcovered, but highly important subject of rhythm in tennis.
“Rhythm is the dynamic grouping, structuring and accentuation of sequential elements of a process, of which arrangement is determined by a required and/or personally selected temporal scheme,” wrote noted tennis coach Richard Schonborn in 2003. Do you agree with this denition as it applies to tennis?
Rhythm is really a way to eectively and consistently synthesise energy ow through the body. Richard Schonborn’s description of rhythm in the tennis world is a very complex way of explaining rhythm. Most people know rhythm when they see it. It’s the ecient transfer of energy. I like to simplify life. So I don’t disagree with that description. It’s just more complex than it needs to be. It’s a lot simpler than that. It’s an ecient energy transfer from the ground through the body and out into the ball.
From a physics perspective, it’s how ecient your kinetic chain sequencing is in that movement — whether it’s a serve, a volley, a forehand or a backhand. There is an optimum, fundamental way to transfer energy from storing to releasing energy out into the ball. So, rhythm and ideal rhythm, is just the optimum kinetic chain energy transfer. We know it when we see it. We talk about Roger Federer and Rod Laver and the Pete Sampras serve, and you can see they have unbelievably good rhythm. They could also be said to have unbelievably good kinetic chain sequencing.
Why is rhythm so important in tennis? Rhythm is so important for two major reasons. First, it allows you to transfer forces from the lower body up into the upper body and out through the racquet and into the ball so that you can optimise pace and spin. That is how rhythm enhances performance.
Second, it’s really, really important because if you’re in rhythm and you utilise your kinetic chain eectively, you’re going to reduce your risk of injury and unnecessary overuse on the wrong body parts because you’ve utilised your energy in the most ecient way possible.
So there is a performance enhancement aspect to rhythm as well as an injury prevention and injury reduction perspective.
Who are the most rhythmical players in tennis history? And how are they rhythmical?
You can think about any pro player and any stroke that you really like, and most likely that player is super rhythmical. Roger Federer is probably the most rhythmical, ecient tennis athlete ever and also rarely hampered by injuries. Unbelievably, Federer has never retired in 1,513 career matches.
You can go back previous generations to Ken Rosewall, who won his rst Grand Slam title in 1953 and his last in 1972, to Stefan Edberg, who missed only two majors in his 14year career. On the women’s side, Evonne Goolagong, Chris Evert, Hana Mandlikova, and this century, Justine Henin, were paragons of superb rhythm.
A lot of other pro players, like these alltime greats, also looked like they weren’t trying that hard, but they were able to be in all the right positions and generate great pace and great spin on the ball. They are also more rhythmical and ecient, which are related assets.
It goes back to the kinetic chain sequencing. These elite athletes used their body eciently. They don’t waste any energy. And they have a great transfer of energy capability with what they’re utilising. And most of those players also had lower injury rates over their careers. The important thing to know is that rhythm is very trainable.
Is teaching and learning rhythm dierent for male and female players because of their dierent physiques and mentalities?
This is a great question. Are there gender dierences as to how you should train for rhythm? As a tennis player, there is a fundamentally more ecient way to hit a tennis ball and a less ecient way. [But] that is not genderspecic.
What are potentially dierent in genders are learning styles, which is not even necessarily gender; it could be within genders for Player A and Player B. That difference could be malefemale or a 14year
old versus a 20yearold, or an individual who grew up in Australia versus one who grew up in Italy. They’re going to learn a little bit dierently due to their backgrounds and to some genetic factors.
The other potential aspect is game style. But again, it’s not a genderspecic dierence. It’s game style, learning style, background, family environment, genetics, irrespective of gender.
So you’re going to train them dierently, but based on those dierences. However, we do know that there are sound fundamentals on serves, groundstrokes and volleys that all good players should have, irrespective of gender.
Is there a connection or causeandeect relationship between relaxation and rhythm?
Relaxation and rhythm are two very dierent things. You can be highly relaxed and (still) can’t produce force. You need enough contraction, which is the opposite of relaxation, to produce force. Most people, when they say “relaxed players,” mean ecient players, and mean someone who has good rhythm, meaning they have a good kinetic chain sequence. It doesn’t mean they’re actually relaxed in the traditional sense. If you’re overly relaxed, you can’t produce force at the highest level you need as a tennis player.
So you need to be rhythmical, but be careful about using the term “relaxed.” In a sense, you want to have a feeling of relaxation on court, but you don’t want to be excessively relaxed because you won’t be able to generate the force and the pace you need. So that is a really interesting perspective.
How does a player hit with more rhythm?
It’s very simple. You have to train your strokes to be more ecient and to load and release energy in the right sequence. For example, you load through the back leg before transferring energy to the front leg during a groundstroke.
We know that for the serve, for the forehand, for the backhand, there is an appropriate sequencing pattern. We understand that. We studied that in our labs. If you optimise your sequencing pattern, you will be more ecient, and you’re going to have much better rhythm. So hitting with more rhythm is very trainable.
How does rhythm apply to running and footwork?
Exactly the same as in strokes. There is an ecient movement pattern in running and footwork, and there is an inecient movement pattern.
Take a look at the International Tennis Performance Association (www.itpatennis.org). It has the best available resources on tennisspecic footwork and movement, and it provides more than 30 major movement patterns for the tennis athlete. That includes all the major movements tennis players make.
Doing those movements eciently with good rhythm is the right way to move on the tennis court. [But] people move in a lot of other ways that are inecient.
Do Roger Federer and Serena Williams have the most rhythmical serves?
Not necessarily. There are a lot of great servers on the pro tours. But they all have the exact same fundamentals. Federer, Sampras, Serena Williams, Goran Ivanisevic, John Isner, Sam Stosur, Madison Keys. We’ve studied them all in depth in the
lab, on footage, on the court in dierent ways.
The fundamentals of great serving are consistent. It goes back to the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s, even with some dierent mechanics with the back foot and the front foot coming o the ground. But they all get into some fundamental positions. These positions vary for all strokes. Specically, you should load energy onto the lower body transferring and loading energy to the upper body.
Roger Federer and Serena Williams both have very ecient, very good rhythmical serves. However, Serena Williams’s serve goes o every few matches, or every few games within a given match. She’ll miss a lot of serves. Why? The kinetic chain wasn’t sequenced eectively for that period of time. It’s important to understand that.
Do Simona Halep and Novak Djokovic have the most rhythmical backhands?
A lot of players have great backhands. Again, the reason the backhands are so good and so rhythmical is chiey because of their lowerbody sequencing. Their hip turn is phenomenal. Their footwork... they’re getting their leg behind the ball and being able to store energy in the right way so they can release energy out at the target and into the ball. So they denitely have great backhands.
I’d put Andre Agassi up there as one of the best. There’s Jimmy Connors. Justine Henin, for a singlehanded female, was phenomenal. Stan Wawrinka. Roger Federer. There are so many. Halep and Djokovic are at the top of the list, but there are a lot of great ones.
Great forehands — such as those of Bjorn Borg, Ivan Lendl, Agassi, Federer and Rafael Nadal — vary markedly in terms of technique because of dierent grips and strokes. Therefore, does the rhythm dier for Eastern, SemiWestern and Western forehands? And if so, how?
When it comes to strokes and specically the forehand for this question, there is a simple way to analyse it. Grips dictate swing path. And swing paths dictate contact point. If you keep those three variables in mind, it’s very easy to understand the fundamentals of all good forehands. Eastern forehands have a more linear takeback (backswing) to a certain degree. Western forehands have a more angular takeback and more rotation.
The contact points are going to be dierent. Extension before and after ball contact are going to be a little less on Western grips because their swing paths are dierent from an Eastern grip, which is going to be a little longer before contact. The Eastern hitting zone is a little longer because it is more linear, straight through. Whereas Western swings are going to come across the ball a little more. You’re still going to have good extension, but you are going to break o (the straight plane) a bit sooner than if you have an Eastern grip.
So it’s important to recognise that grips dictate swing paths and swing paths dictate contact points. However, lowerbody function and using and improving energy transfer are paramount in all strokes when it comes to eectively using the ground and hitting great forehands.
Should volleying be rhythmical? Or does it require more staccato movement?
Volleys are one of the simplest movements on the tennis court. Volleys require very
little upperbody movement and mainly lowerbody energy transfer. Movement into the ball, and your body moves, and you meet the ball at certain locations. The best volleyers of all time and previous generations were even better than the current generation because they practised it a lot more.
Pat Cash, Stefan Edberg, Pat Rafter, going back to John Mcenroe, they all had very similar fundamentals. A lot of people said Mcenroe had dierent volleying technique. No, he had great volleying technique. The ball was always out in front (at the contact point). He was always able to use his legs to do the majority of the movement. It just looked a little bit dierent. Pat Cash, who was much more athletic, was able to rely on his legs even more. Stefan Edberg was similar. So good energy transfer from the legs to the ball makes volleying so much easier. And great rhythm is important on the volley as well.
Should coaches and teaching pros emphasise rhythm? And, if so, why?
I never talk about rhythm. That’s partly because it’s a term that’s hard to dene if you dene it, as some coaches do, as a feeling. Whereas, energy transfer and kinetic chain transfer are much more accurate and applicable. So, yes, every coach should teach every great athlete to have great rhythm.
But the question is: how do you teach rhythm? I teach it based on physics principles of loading energy and releasing energy. So you have potential energy, which is the loading of the energy, and then you have kinetic energy, which is the releasing of the energy. If you do that in the most ecient way possible, you’re going to get the greatest outcome. And that means you’re going to have the greatest rhythm.
In what ways can plyometrics improve a player’s rhythm?
In most cases, plyometrics is a form of highvelocity movement — jumps, throws, things like that. But the true denition of plyometrics is an ecentric movement, followed by a short amortisation phase, which is a short pause, from changing from ecentric, and following that with a concentric movement.
Think about a jump. In a jump, you go down, there’s a slight transition from going down and going up. The down is the ecentric, and the up is a concentric, and the short part in between is the amortisation phase. And that is exactly what we’re talking about. So becoming better at plyometrics means becoming more powerful and explosive is going to make you a better tennis player.
However, it may not actually improve your rhythm. You could be more explosive using bad rhythm, or bad kinetic chain sequencing. So you denitely want to do those (plyometric) activities, but you still have to work on your technique. Just getting better at plyometrics won’t make you automatically a more rhythmical tennis player.
What ocourt exercises and oncourt drills improve a player’s rhythm?
There are hundreds of exercises. First, you have to get strong and stable in the lower body. So strength training in the right ways is vital. And stability training in the right ways and in the right positions that you need on the tennis court is vital. Then you need to learn how to transfer that from a power perspective, so you transfer energy in the correct sequencing. So there are some ocourt drills like medicine ball throws from forehand to backhand and serve, util
ising your lower body and syncing your kinetic chain.
Oncourt drills are all about good technique. Rhythm training is technique training. You don’t separate them out. You focus on improving ecient technique by following sound physics principles about storing and releasing energy and optimising energy output. So it’s really important that you go about it the right way and understand how to make your strokes better and improve your rhythm [at the same time].
Is there any connection between breathing and rhythm?
There is a huge connection between breathing and energy production. So rhythm is a form of that. So storing energy — let’s say I’m a lefty here on my backhand — you take a breath in, breathe in at this point, and then from here, you’re going to release energy out into the ball, and that’s when you’re going to breathe out.
We’ve done studies on breathing’s impact on power production and force production. There’s a huge relationship. So you want to store, breathe in, when you’re storing energy, usually your take back (backswing) on your strokes. And then you want to release as you accelerate. So you breathe in when you’re storing energy, and releasing your breath, when you’re exploding out into the ball.
So you should denitely work on breathing to improve your rhythm and getting that sequencing correct.
What is your opinion of the tests that analyse and measure rhythm, such as ITN, Rhythmic Competence Analysis Test and Untimed Consecutive Rally Test?
I’m familiar with them. They’re ne drills, but they are not really rhythm tests. It’s more like seeing if someone gets an outcome in a certain way. But getting an outcome in a certain way doesn’t tell you which way they’re performing that movement. They may get the (desired) outcome, but they may — or may not — be doing it right.
The right outcome — a ball that goes to the right spot — doesn’t always mean the process is correct. So you really have to analyse the process to make sure the energy transfer is done in the most ecient manner possible.
Jelena Ostapenko, the 2017 French
Open champion, credits some of her tennis success to ballroom dancing. Is dancing a good way to learn about and create rhythm in tennis?
When we talk about the transferability of dierent skills, we have dancing, and a lot people played soccer when they were young, and they say that gave them skills that helped them develop in tennis.
Did that improve their rhythm? In my denition, yeah, 100 percent. It made their energy transfer and made their ability to load and explode more ecient and eective because they were exposed to it from multiple, dierent ways.
So transferability may have happened in those scenarios, such as for Ostapenko. Did it improve their rhythm? If we’re dening rhythm the way we’ve been talking about it, then yes.
Does playing other sports improve one’s rhythm in tennis? If so, which sports, and why?
Playing other sports denitely improves an athlete’s eciency and movement capability. Does it always transfer to tennis? No. Certain sports don’t transfer very well to tennis. But you learn fundamental movement skills, especially when you’re young that can be transferable across many sports. Jumping, throwing, landing, catching, kicking. All those things are really important and can transfer well to tennis.
So the best sports are usually those
sports that are similar in their movement parameters to tennis. Sports such as soccer, basketball, volleyball, things that require some of the similar movements. Other sports may play a role in handeye coordination, such as golf and table tennis and squash. So playing other sports can provide real value.
Do you recommend hitting against a wall to enhance your rhythm?
Hitting against a wall is one of the best training tools ever invented. The reason is that the wall never misses. So you can get perfect practice every day. Also, based on how you hit into the wall, you’ll get a dierent response (rebound). So it teaches you how to use spin, topspin, location. So it works on all these factors.
The benet of a wall is that you can retrain over and over again the same movements and the same strokes. So you can become highly condent at certain strokes. The best volleyers of all time grew up practising against a wall. If players want to improve any aspect of their tennis, using a wall will be benecial.
What are the best ways to break the rhythm of your opponent?
This is dierent from all the things we’ve talked about, which is about our rhythm and our ability to hit the ball correctly. To break the rhythm of your opponent requires you to take your opponent out of his comfort zone. If your opponent is hitting the ball great crosscourt and dictating play with their forehand, you would try to take them out of this pattern by hitting higher balls and hitting lower balls, hitting to their backhand more, and trying to move them away with what they’re most comfortable with. No one likes doing things that are uncomfortable for them, so it’s the same thing on a tennis court.
Your goal is to disrupt the most comfortable pattern and strokes that your opponent has and try to have them hit shots they’re uncomfortable with.
What should a player do to counteract an opponent who tries to disrupt or break your rhythm?
What you should do is focus on a simplied game plan. If your best game plan is to hit crosscourt, you should do everything you can to hit crosscourt — even if your opponent hits down the line, or even if your opponent slices the ball low to you. You should stick with your game plan until it doesn’t work because that’s going to give you your best chance of success. Especially at the higher levels of tennis, game plan B usually doesn’t work because everyone is so close.
So play game plan A as best as you can with the best scouting information you have to have a good chance of winning.
Should you have a mantra to help you increase your rhythm, such as “split and back” to remind you to split step and take your racquet back?
Choosing a mantra is very important, especially at the lower levels of tennis because you have to remind yourself how to hit certain shots and how to position yourself in certain ways. So having a timing cue like that when you see the ball coming from your opponent — you say “split, take your racquet back” — will give you two simple cues to focus on.
So having a (mantra) cue to have better rhythm is very benecial. Those cues may vary. It may be “hip turn” or “load the back leg” or “take a step back to go forward.” All those are very simple cues to help you improve your game.
Do memorising and using numbers, such as 12 or 123, help you become rhythmic?
Using numbers or a cadence or a metronome, which is all the same concept, is try
ing to use timing to improve your rhythm. It denitely can improve your rhythm and make you feel better. And it denitely can put you in a better position. However, it still hasn’t xed your technique. You could have timing parameters, like 123, down perfectly, but if you don’t transfer (energy) at the right time, and you don’t sync your kinetic chain, your rhythm will still be o. So you may getter better timing, or even better rhythm for your footwork, or parts of your footwork, using a cue like that, but it (still) may not give you a better outcome with your stroke.
So using numbers is helpful, especially when you’re rst learning a skill, but you want to get to a point where you have unconscious condence, meaning you don’t have to think about each step. If you have to think through, 123, you’re not going to be very natural with it, like a ballroom dancer. When they start, they have to rst learn the steps — 1234, 1234 — where they’re going, but once they get better at that movement, it becomes more natural. It becomes more rhythmical because they’re transferring their energy in a much smoother and more ecient way.
Is it accurate to say when running, traditional crossover steps are rhythmic, while shuing your feet is arrhythmic?
I wouldn’t say that’s accurate because rhythmical movement is the most ecient movement possible. Crossover steps are faster to get from place A to place B. However, they take a little more energy to produce because you have to push more into the ground to get that extra force to make the larger steps. Shue steps are totally acceptable if you have plenty of time. But if you’re trying to move quickly, crossover steps are better.
One way of moving is not more rhythmical than the other. Shuing is actually easier on the body. It takes less energy per step. That’s why more people do it and it’s appropriate. However, you don’t cover as much distance. So it depends on which method you choose to use. But both crossover steps and shuing can be very rhythmical.
You used the criterion of time as the determinant to choose either crossover steps or shuing. However, traditionally the determinant stressed by many coaches has also been space or distance — meaning laterally short distances along the baseline and very short distances when moving back for overheads. And crossover steps are better for longer distances, while shuing are better for shorter distances.
This space criterion is incorrect. Just because some coaches talk about it, does not make it correct. Larger steps are faster, and being in the air longer is better than taking smaller steps. Smaller steps are used as an adjusting step, when the larger steps are not implemented correctly. This does not mean smaller steps are not used. You just need to be clear about how and why they are used.
Time dictates space and distance that can be covered. So time — not distance — is the major determining factor.
Do you think coaches and teaching pros have not taught rhythm enough, or even at all, in the past? And, if so, what, specically, do you recommend about the teaching of rhythm?
Rhythm is often taught incorrectly due to the lack of understanding of fundamental movement skills and the need to have ecient energy/force transfer from the ground up into all functioning muscles. I know that many coaches try to improve rhythm, but many times they are not focusing on the right areas to achieve this.
So my recommendation is to focus on sound fundamental movements that apply basic physics principles and focus on ecient and eective loading mechanics in all strokes and movements. This involves the eective transfer of this stored energy (loading) into releasing the energy in the most ecient way possible.