WHY 'LOADING' WILL HURT YOUR GAME

The tennis term 'loading' refers to the action of a player interacting with the ground by bending their knees and thrusting out of that position to create greater racquet-head speed.  

While that is exactly what should happen on all good ground-strokes, serves, returns, and overheads, teaching a player to only load the legs will not always guarantee success, and can sometimes be detrimental to the stroke. For the stroke to succeed a player needs to understand the real purpose of Loading.

A player who only follows the instruction to Load their legs will usually go through a process of bending their knees.  This is what most coaches want to 'see', and will encourage the player to 'bend their knees' on every stroke. 

With a small percentage of 'talented' players, this process of loading will automatically translate into better timing and increased racquet-head speed. They can naturally incorporate a knee bend with their stroke and it will go much better.

Unfortunately for the majority of players, it's the reverse effect.  For them, the timing can actually get worse and when the timing is wrong on a stroke they can be labeled slow learners or it can be said they are lacking in talent. Unfortunately, sometimes the closer they follow the instructions from the Coach to 'load', the worse their timing gets.

The problem with the term loading is that it only describes the action of preparing the ground for the inertia that will transfer energy from the ground, through the body in a chain reaction and eventually into racquet-head speed. It's step #1, and if we rely on Step #2 to occur naturally, it sometimes doesn't happen. 

Loading is only one part of timing, power, and consistent ball striking. The all-important 2nd step for a player that I work on is the process of interacting with the Ground as they hit the ball.

I encourage players to not just load the ground but to think of the stroke in a much more holistic way. I get them to focus on the 'Ground', a term I use to describe a more holistic way of generating power, timing, and consistency, that incorporates the all-important interaction of the shoes and the court surface. 

I ask players to critique their strokes in terms of their timing and the ease of effort during the stroke. Any stroke that is timed well, and flows easily, has most certainly had excellent Ground (loading).

Therefore, loading has other applications other than just creating racquet-head speed. It is necessary for the loading process to also supply timing for all the other strokes we use. Think of the Serve (knee bend), and the Return of Serve. Even the Volley benefits from the step lunge we perform to get near the ball. That lunge step is also a form of loading the Ground.

The next time you are trying to add power to your game, and attempting to 'load' more, be sure to adopt a more holistic approach. It’s about bringing power and timing from a single source, the Ground, and it’s a multi-faceted process that goes beyond simply loading by bending your knees.