TennisOne Lessons

Relaxed Hands

Daryl Fisher

The most overlooked and under-considered factor for players trying to achieve their potential in tennis is relaxing the hands. Not only can players increase their control by relaxing their hands, but they can also enhance their ability to hit with power. This article is the first of a series that will introduce and explore the importance of relaxing the hands for maximizing your tennis potential.

Excess Tension

Tension makes a difference when striking a tennis ball, and, in fact, it is common to hear someone describe how easy tennis is in practice when there is no pressure compared to how difficult things become under stressful competitive situations. So, though it is important to learn the various components of good strokes, the problem remains that good strokes do not necessarily lead to playing well, and the gap between having good strokes and playing well can often be traced to excess tension in the hands. Federer provides the perfect example of what it is to be relaxed while striking a tennis ball; to say that he is relaxed is not to say that he does not use any muscle tension at all, but instead that he uses only the tension that is required and no more.

More Control

Many players instinctively know that if they squeeze their racquets as tightly as possible while hitting shots there will be less control than if their hands are relaxed. To demonstrate this more clearly, the following experiment can be used as an easy way to show how tension affects control.

The experiment is to hit balls to a player’s forehand volley, but instead of the player hitting normal volleys, the player bounces the ball upward from the racquet in order to be able to catch the ball in the non racquet hand. The player should volley using a tense racquet hand, and then a relaxed hand, and see and feel the different results. Generally, a tense hand will cause the ball to bounce higher off of the strings, while a relaxed hand will allow enough control to bounce the ball high or keep it lower.

This drill can even be used as a test of skill given that highly skilled players can keep the bounce very low before they catch it, whereas beginners typically have more tension in their hands and therefore pop the ball much higher before catching it. This drill demonstrates more than just skill, however, in that it shows just how different a player’s results can be with exactly the same motion but different tension in the hands.

To help understand why extra tension can adversely affect control, imagine a runner stiffening all of the muscles in his legs and then trying to run. This would make movement difficult because flexibility and quickness decrease as tension increases. In fact, perfectly tense legs are completely immobile and inflexible. Watch Fabrice Santoro or Roger Federer while playing, the lack of extra tension in their graceful movement will be obvious.

More Power

Having more control with a relaxed hand may be obvious to many, but it may be surprising to some that there is also more power to be had as well. It may be ­similarly surprising that boxers often discuss the feeling of a loss of power when they tense up in order to try to hit harder. This reinforces the martial arts’ saying that “power is in direct proportion to one’s ability to relax.” The relationship between tension and a loss of power is primarily due to the fact that excess tension causes some muscles to work against others.

Furthermore, in tennis, power is only useful in relation to how well it can be controlled, and power is often associated with a loss of control. Remember, however, that with relaxed hands, control is enhanced, so an increase in control from having relaxed hands will also enhance the ability to control harder-hit shots. Power is achieved in tennis through accelerating the racquet, so the key, then, is to develop the ability to relax the hands while simultaneously swinging the racquet head very quickly. This can be accomplished by using the body’s kinetic chain to generate racquet head speed while still keeping the hands relaxed.

To suggest using the body for power while keeping the hands relaxed is to imply that the hands are not a significant source of power in themselves. Precise analysis of strokes goes beyond the scope of this discussion, but, in fact, a player who only uses the arms and hands for power would be quickly identified as someone with beginner-like strokes. Advanced strokes require the involvement of body parts other than the hands and arms to be able to play consistently with control and power. Watch Guillermo Canas’s forehand, for example, and in fact you will notice that he barely moves his dominant arm. From the ground up, his legs, hips, and torso work together to create a motion that is capable of generating enough power that his hands and arms are not needed to generate power through independent motion. So the hands, when they’re not tense, can be very powerful at the end of a series of linked motions.

Try It

As I will describe more clearly in forthcoming articles, good strokes are intertwined with relaxed hands. Beginners can learn to appropriately relax the hands at the same time they learn the basic fundamentals. For advanced players, there might be some unlearning to do in order to relax the hands properly. It may also be useful to know that different people learn to relax on different strokes at different rates. For example, it is common for players to learn to relax earlier for groundstrokes than for serves.

Regardless of the stroke, players should relax their hands as completely as possible with only enough tension to avoid dropping their racquets. Ideally a player should hold on to the racquet very lightly, as if holding on to a live bird, not so loose as to let it go, but no tighter than is necessary to keep it from flying away. Players should keep their hands feeling as relaxed as this throughout the entirety of their strokes. This is not to say that there will be no tension, but the tension will be very light and practically unnoticeable. Strokes with relaxed hands may seem softer at first, but with practice the results will be as hard as ever, and probably harder.

To raise awareness of the hand tension and how it affects your shots, pick any stroke that you would like to improve and simply pay attention. First, hit your stroke “normally” and notice the results and how it feels. Then deliberately squeeze your racquet hard and try to hit the same stroke. Finally, go to the opposite extreme and try to relax your hand so much that you do not feel any tension in your hand while you hit your stroke. Does different tension change the stroke? How is power and control effected? Which tension feels best? For some players, trying this drill has an immediate and positive effect on the stroke, but for everyone, the experiment and the resulting awareness can be interesting and helpful.

If a player has difficulty keeping the hands relaxed throughout a stroke, there may be a problem with the stroke itself. In fact, being able to relax the hands throughout a stroke is important evidence of the stroke’s stability. Examples of problems with a stroke that could impede the ability to relax the hands include late instead of early preparation, contacting the ball behind or next to the body relative to the net instead of meeting the ball out in front of the body, or using the arms for power instead of coiling the body for power.

Ultimately, one of the best measures of skill and one of the most important facets of improvement is the ability to relax the hands while hitting strokes. If a player perceives any significant effort or tension in the hands while hitting any stroke, no matter how hard the player is swinging, then something is wrong. Perhaps something is wrong with the stroke, or perhaps the stroke is fine but the player is too tense. Either way, it is only when the person can hit hard with very little tension and perceived effort that the player’s potential can be reached.