It seems to me that most tennis teaching pros, online or club based, do not understand the lag and snap nor the purpose.
The lag and snap technique is predominately used for controlling the tennis ball. A great example of this would be when receiving a low, fast, skidding slice, more lag and snap would be needed versus linear acceleration in order to control the ball over the net. When receiving fast underspin, the ball tends to skid to you rather than bounce up from topspin. Every ball will have some topspin coming off the bounce, however underspin will negate this effect which requires additional racquet head speed to control the ball, otherwise the outgoing ball will find the net or pop up due to the face angle needed to drive this ball over the net.
The lag and snap is not a required skill to play higher levels of tennis. Your ability to hit targets from your opponents shot variations isn’t predicated on the ability to lag and snap, however it does add an element of offensive and defensive capabilities that could present a competitive advantage.
Examples of these scenarios would be the ability to find short angles off low received ball, the ability to hit higher over the net with more court margin, the ability to turn an on the run defensive situation into an offensive situation such as an on the run forehand.
Quite possibly the biggest advantage of the lag and snap is something profound that your club pro will not tell you and that is the benefit of doing less with your body to get more efficient response from your strokes. Let me explain this a different way…there is too much emphasis on loading, lunging, exploding, uncoiling, using the legs, shoulders, hips etc. to simply hit a 2 oz object about 60 feet. Clearly footwork, body position, bio-mechanics all contribute to a degree to affecting a balls behavior however teaching players to use the tool that they have to most efficiently hit their targets is very important. It is very clear watching many amateur players and juniors that over rotate their body and lag the racquet too long with extreme grips and develop too slowly is a by-product of poor instruction. Many juniors would be better off spending their time hitting on a wall and learning how the tool (racquet) works in a controlled environment without a lot of bogus instruction. Some of the top players in the world exercise these concepts like Federer, Nadal and Djokovic. Other examples that are a bit more obvious of efficient use of the lag and snap while minimizing the overuse of the body would be the French player, Adrian Mannarino, American Bjorn Fratangelo and Australian players Bernard Tomic and Nick Kyrgios.
This video explains a more efficient use of the body to create the acceleration needed to control the tennis ball.
Bjorn Fratangelo Junior Easter Bowl
Francis Tiafoe forehand
The lag and snap concept is the bio mechanical loading and unloading at the correct time to generate racquet head speed which at the correct swing path and face angle generate the topspin that adds behavior to a tennis ball. The snap should not be a forceful use of the wrist or forearm but a smooth and controlled release or unloading of the wrist from an extension position to a flexion with pronotion in the forearm. The key for this to happen is the loading, which requires the correct mechanics of the lower and upper bodies working in concert so that the arm can swing out on a 45 degree angle towards the contact point. This 45 degree angle is the proper path to generate and time the release of the racquet face and is also referred to as “buttcap to the ball” by many coaches or “shine the flashlight on the ball”. The elbow should be comfortably away from the body and the racquet head should start lagging on the start of the forward swing and not during the take back, otherwise this limits the loading and unloading.
The RT Speed was developed to help players create effortless power by allowing the racquet to lag in a simple way be reducing grip pressure and providing the feedback to the player on the timing of the release for optimum speed and spin.
See you on the court.
KW
Find Your Game 