Try it anyway. FZD is not holding his breath. Our OP might be. I see it a lot. (Also, in a picture that freezes a moment in time, players faces may be moving but it doesn't mean facial muscles are contracting, below see how relaxed Vladi is, and if you actually watch him live, the really noticeable thing is that he has tremendous power from that relaxed stroke). Part of what contributes to these kinds of forehand spin consistency problems is failure to sufficiently relax the upper body. For people with this problem (not everyone) relaxing the face can be a useful starting point. Like I said, try it. It is a zen trick. (If your face is saying grrrrrrrrrr!!!!! while you loop, probably your whole upper body is tight).
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Baal is talking about a few things. And they are deep, hard to get control over, and important.
I am going to give a few stories. I will see it I can keep them short. I think, sometimes stories help.
Back when I was inline skating and before I was good at it, I saw some photos that looked like I was sticking my tongue into my cheek.
I thought, "I'm not doing that! Why do the photos come out like that?"
As I started improving, I started feeling it and the tension associated with it. Then it stopped. But I could do it on purpose when I wanted to and that was different. Because it wasn't tense. When I stopped doing it, my level as a ramp skater definitely jumped.
For athletic endeavor you actually need to be relaxed and able to apply force when necessary. In TT that is on impact.
Guys like FZD probably do contract everything for a moment on impact. But it is not the kind of tension we are talking about. And right after the major force on impact, most likely, everything relaxes again.
Now, when my wife was pregnant, we did pregnancy classes. They taught us breathing to help the birthing process; the breathing=>more relaxed=>better.
When we were in the hospital for the real thing, one of the nurses asked us where we did the birthing classes because she was impressed at how good I was with helping her with the breathing and the whole thing. I laughed and told her I was a yoga teacher.
I don't know about other yoga people, but the way I teach the breath is a huge part of the whole thing. The breath can really help you relax and open in a yoga practice. But the way you would breath for a yoga practice is very different from how you would breath for TT or any other sport.
Now, what does this have to do with TT?
I can remember a time when my breath while playing TT was horrible. And if your breath is synchronized with your stroke properly, that relaxedness Baal is talking about is much more likely to happen. In fact I would say they are not entirely separate. And in spite of having years of training in using my breath to help me relax into extremely stressful yoga posses:
I still had no idea that my breathing was so erratic and tense while playing TT. And if you are not conscious of something like that, you cannot change it.
For me, shadow strokes are what helped me get the breath happening as well. When the ball wasn't there, I was able to focus on every detail of the stroke and it really helped certain things fall into place that, for me personally, I couldn't get to happen while focusing on contacting the ball. When I was freed from the need to focus on the ball, I could focus on many different aspects of the stroke and get them into muscle memory. A powerful exhale timed to impact is one of them.
It did take more work to get the shadow stroke fully into training. And even more to get that into match play. But I can remember the first time I heard a vocalized exhale timed to my stroke while actually hitting. And around the time that started happening is when my loops became a lot better than they had been.
So don't sell Baal's info short. He is talking about a couple of things that sound simple but really are complex to manage. And they are very important.
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