Coaching Pronation in Tennis and Badminton

As well as being a big sports fan, I am also a qualified coach in tennis and badminton. From time to time I will probably post about some of the techniques associated with these sports - here's the first one!

Forearm pronation is one of the most important techniques to master in racket sports (particularly badminton), but is also one of the most difficult to teach successfully.

Pronation is a term and an action which can often go unnoticed even by players who participate at a relatively high level. My experience as a coach is that the majority of people struggle to understand the concept, and even those who perform the technique well are often unaware that they are doing so.

Pronation

If you hold out your hands in front of your body with your elbows held close to your side, pronation of the forearm is the action required to turn your palms from facing upwards to facing downwards. In badminton, this action is vital for overhead shots requiring any sort of power (clears and smashes), as it uses the larger forearm muscles rather than relying on simple wrist flexion.

Incorporating pronation into the overall overhead action involves quite a complex set of movements, which is probably why it is such a tricky skill to coach to someone who has never done it before. In short, it requires a throwing action with the racket, which involves the elbow moving towards the shuttle/ball first, ahead of the racket, before using pronation to swing the racket through the shot.

The easiest way that I have found to coach this movement is by getting the pupil's arm to start in the position shown here, with the elbow forward. This way they have to pronate in order to get a good contact with the shuttle. Most people eventually get the hang of this, but still find it difficult to make the transition to a full swing of the racket including pronation.

Beginners often start with a panhandle grip and use only wrist flexion to get power. This seems to make logical sense as it keeps the strings facing in the direction we want the shuttle to travel throughout the entirety of the stroke. When using pronation, the strings actually only face in the intended direction of the shot for the split second that they are in contact with the shuttle. Before contact they face 'inwards' and after contact they face 'outwards'. It is only when we slow down the technique of a powerful player that we can see just how much pronation they are using to generate such speed:

The position the Pete Sampras is in here just after contacting a serve looks completely unnatural, yet it is a crucial component of how he was able to generate so much power. I think that this unfamiliarity and the perceived strangeness of the movements required to pronate are a large part of what makes it so hard to coach, at least to players who are used to hitting the ball/shuttle an entirely different and less effective way. The same goes for the supination required for backhand overheads.


Anyway, those are just a few thoughts and tips about pronation. If anyone has developed any interesting or new ways to teach these techniques feel free to get in touch, I'd love to hear them!