From a physical point of view, the posture of the human body is extreemly unstable.  For a normal upright posture when standing or moving, we constantly need muscle work, which must be coordinated via the central nervous system.

Especially for tennis players, rotation in the one-legged position is a useful test to check the stability, sense of balance, stabilizing muscles (buttocks, hips and trunk) and bilateral rotation ability.

  • Take an upright stand and let your arms hang loosely.
  • Close your feet.
  • Lift one leg and hold it at a 90° (hip and knee) angle.
  • Stretch both arms forward (palms together).
  • The hands represent the “markers” for the rotation angle.
  • In a stable one-legged position (hip/knee 90°) twist the upper body as far as possible.

Check both directions.

Change the standing leg and repeat the procedure.

Stand on one leg:

  • If you can hold this position stably without evasive movements, longer than 30 seconds per leg, you are in the green zone.
  • If you can hold this position stable on only one leg for more than 30 seconds without evasive movements, you are in the yellow zone.
  • If you find it difficult to maintain this position on both legs (left or right) without evasive movements, you are in the red area.

Rotation in one-legged stand:

  • If you can rotate more than 60°, you are in the green area.
  • If you can rotate 40°-60°, you are in the yellow area.
  • If your ability to rotate is 40° or less, you are in the red area of the classification.

This “Testing” gives you information about your status quo in a simplified form. A kind of functional diagnosis. It helps you to get a picture of your functionality and quality of movement in order to filter out your strengths and weaknesses and it should help you to develop a feeling for whether your body, joints, muscles and certain movements are “rusty” or not. With your results you can determine which areas are more in need of attention.

Silvester Neidhardt