Want to improve your ability to serve-receive and decrease back pain at the same time?

It’s all about creating a strong and stable base to receive and pass from. If you activate your pillar prior to passing, you will have an improvement in your ability to control the result of your pass.

The pillar I speak of is the base on which your body moves on and through. It spans from your shoulders to your pelvis. We commonly underutilize our core for stability and we lose optimal force production because of it. A good trick to try next time you are receiving a serve is exhaling all of your air before the ball gets there. This will help you to create a better abdominal contraction and stronger pillar to pass from.

Think of a chair you sit in. If one of the legs were not secured, the chair would be wobbly and it would put more stress on the seat and the other legs. The body wants to work together, because it runs more efficiently that way.

Just like the chair, when we have faul...