The Universal Swing – Using Physics To Hit More Effortlessly

There is one common source of power that applies to all groundstrokes: forehand, one-handed and two-handed backhand, even though at first glance they appear to be very different from each other.

In my work with all levels of players, including recreational tennis players, I rarely see that players use what I call the Universal Swing.

The good news is that this swing is quite easy to learn with the drill I am about to show you below. However, you do have to repeat the drill daily for about a week or so until your body integrates the new movements.

The Physics Behind The Universal Swing

Before I explain how the Universal Swing happens, I’d like to thank my good friend and fellow tennis coach Mili Veljković, who inspired me to come up with this idea and the drill that teaches you this swing.

I spent quite some time with Mili learning his unique teaching method.

One of the keys to his teachings are the swings or, in other words, applying the principle of the pendulum to your groundstrokes.

Mili uses various swing exercises to help players feel the swing and how to amplify it through the body movements.

In the video above, you can see one of the swing exercises his students have to perform regularly for a few days. This exercise helps them develop really effortless strokes.

As I became more familiar with his method, I realized that there is one universal principle that applies to all groundstrokes.

Here’s how the Universal Swing is created: If we stand sideways and do not move our body but we do swing our arm back and forth, it will move in a straight line like a pendulum.

If we now start turning our body for approximately 90 degrees, making a quarter turn and doing that back and forth while still swinging our arm like a pendulum, our arm will be swung AWAY from the body.

If we then time the quarter turns correctly with the arm swings, you’ll see that the arm starts to swing in a figure 8 shape.

When we turn back, the arm is swung away from the body into a “backswing”. When the body stops, the arm continues to swing a bit more.

Then the forward turn of the body accelerates the arm forward and swings it away from the body again.

So, this is simple physics behind this swing. It happens by itself if we combine a pendulum with rotating the body.

When we time the body turns right, the pendulum (your arm and the racket) will automatically accelerate because we are creating a centrifugal force.

We also create a correct inside-out swing path, which you may have heard about before.

Why You’re Not Swinging Correctly Right Now

The pendulum effect and the Universal Swing happen ONLY if two conditions are met:

• you relax your arms enough to allow swinging
• you rotate your hips at the right time, and you rotate them well enough

You may now realize why it’s unlikely that you will discover this swing by yourself.

It is very easy to “overpower” this swing by tensing up your arm just slightly. In that case, the swing simply won’t happen as you’ll do everything on your own with your arm.

The arm typically tenses up because you want to control the ball (too much!) and in the process you “kill” the swing.

The second problem is that, as you tense up the arm in order to use it for hitting the ball with the racket, you signal to your brain that you will use the arm for the stroke and your brain then “shuts off” most other body parts.

It simply obeys your command (“I’ll use my arm”) and in the process also stops your hips (and many other body parts) from rotating.

Therefore, a very common flaw that I fix almost on a daily basis is a lack of hip rotation on all groundstrokes. Incorrect timing is also a problem.

But, as you will see below, the corrective exercise is very simple. It takes only a few days or weeks of repetition, and it will help you find the power through the Universal Swing.

The Universal Swing Drill

As you saw above, the pendulum swing combined with the body rotation creates a swing in the shape of the number 8.

What really matters for stroke acceleration is the first loop.

A really easy way to get the feel for the shape of the swing is to place a tennis racket on the ground with the handle pointing towards the net.

The racket head on the ground gives you an idea of the shape of the swing, so all you have to do is to swing your arm (without the racket first) around the racket.

First, swing outwards following the shape of the racket head, and then allow your arm to swing around a bit more so that it comes almost behind you.

Before it comes behind, you must start rotating your hips forward by 90 degrees.

If you time your hip rotation correctly, you will feel how your arm is flung outwards as it has to accelerate in order to catch up with the body.

Now, just guide the arm forward in a straight line for a while as that will give the ball direction.

After a minute or two of just swinging your arms, take your racket and repeat the drill.

Since we are now focusing on the horizontal part of the swing, don’t lift the racket up high like in a usual preparation. Instead, keep it lower and focus on the shape of the Universal Swing.

Keep in mind that this is just an exercise that helps you feel the effect of swinging outwards first in your preparation and then feeling how you can effortlessly accelerate the racket through the hip rotation.

Once you feel this power, you’ll incorporate this new movement and a new feel into your usual preparation with the higher racket head position in the backswing.

Watching The Pros Through A Different Lens

If you watch the stroke of a tennis professional even in slow motion, you may still miss many elements of the stroke because there are so many things going on and you don’t know what to look for.

Now that you’re aware of the Universal Swing, you may see their technique through a different lens.

Keep in mind that the horizontal element of the swing is clearly visible only when you look at the stroke from the front or back.

If you look at the players only from the side, you’ll see very clearly the vertical element of the swing (and the drop) but not the horizontal one.

Another possible reason why you may have missed the Universal Swing is that one of the most analyzed strokes online is Roger Federer’s forehand, and he doesn’t use much of the side swing in most cases.

In your quest to develop the same forehand as Roger Federer, you tried to copy it but missed the fundamentals which need to be mastered first.

But if, for example, you look at Gael Monfils’ forehand (and also backhand), you will very clearly see quite a lot of horizontal swinging.

When I overlay the 3 images from above one over another you will see the size of his sideways swing.

You don’t have to copy Gael’s forehand (but do copy his backhand backswing technique) since his swing is really big.

What matters is that you become aware of the horizontal swing path and try to incorporate it into your groundstrokes.

Summary

The Universal Swing is nothing else than implementing a certain law of physics into your groundstrokes that will provide you with more power for less effort.

Remember that this swing happens only if you relax your arms enough to allow the swing and that you swing more sideways than backwards.

You then need to know how to engage your hips and time that turn well. Then your arm will be accelerated automatically just based on physics.

After that happens, you will of course engage your arm, too, but you’ll find it much more effortless to do.

Improving the forehand and backhand techniques through the Universal Swing is one of my favorite drills now as it relatively quickly gives the player a sensation of effortless tennis (when receiving an easy ball).

Practice in very easy conditions first where you just drop the ball and receive it from the hand feed because your timing of the stroke will also have to adjust.

If you try to implement this tomorrow when playing sets with your buddy, it will definitely not work.

You have to take it easy whenever you’re changing your stroke technique in some way and allow some time for your brain and body to adjust to new movements.

If you watched the video above where I show how I help a 10-year-old boy improve his forehand, keep in mind that we have repeated the Universal Swing drill where I am dropping or hand feeding him balls in at least 10-15 sessions before he could use it as well as now.

Also keep in mind that, as he plays points, he doesn’t yet fully implement the swing on most forehands.

We coaches typically understand how long it takes to change some part of the stroke technique until it becomes ingrained, so we don’t expect immediate results.

But, as the boy keeps repeating the Universal Swing drill on his forehand week after week, it will eventually become a part of his subconscious and he’ll be able to use it also in more challenging situations.

(I have added a short video with the progression of drills I used with Miha to the members area in the Effortless Forehand video course for those who want to know more on how I work on hip rotation and other drills to encourage the correct swing.)

Give this new idea a try as you can practice it very easily even in your living room every day for a few minutes and let me know what you discover.