Windscreen wiping

[lucabottazzi]

Like many on these boards I agree about the importance of moving the shoulder forwards, and sometimes upwards depending on the trajectory of the shot that I am trying to hit, in my forehand. A couple of years ago the buzz was about kicking off the forehand with a forward hip movement. I have always thought that what these two things -- the hip movement as a way of initiating the swing, and the shoulder motion to give it full effect -- did was to enable our body weight to be transferred into hitting the ball, controlled by the big muscles that most of us have in our backs. So that in effect what we are doing is applying far more mass to the lever that is the arm and racket, that in turn hits the ball, than we do by merely swinging fast.

Am I wrong?

The movement of stroke in topspin can be somewhat compared to a whipping, in which the rope may not actually exert any push. The arm can be visualized as a towel hanging from the shoulder (his arm obviously exerts some force component, but not the push of the racket).
That is: the hip start the movement, and then the shoulder follow the body in the rotation (you can try to slap something with the empty sleeve of your sweater: in that way you can do a good impact whith your void sleeve).
See: http://www.lucabottazzi.com/lb/tenni...hand/#whipping