TennisOne Lessons

Tension is the Enemy

Loosen your Grip to Achieve Feel, and Power

Jim McLennan

Bear with me reader, I am out on the limb on this one (so what else is new?). In the articles I have written over the years within the "First Things First" suite, the intent was to focus on basic issues of balance, rhythm, an, at the end of the da, simplicity. Now I want to explore how one holds a racquet, and the consequences of a very loose grip, as well as the those of an overly tight grip.

Lately I have combined material on how balls rebound from free standing racquets, with the look and feel of an extremely loose grip, looser than I have ever tried, and the results are eye opening to say the least. I first read of this in "Fundamentals of Tennis" by Stanley Plagenhoef, and then again in "Technical Tennis" by Rod Cross and Crawford Lindsay.

A ball machine shoots a ball at a racquet either hung by a string or a racquet balanced on its butt cap on a table. The rebound velocity is compared to that of a ball machine shooting a ball at that same racquet with the handle firmly held in a vice. Free standing racquet vs. tightly held racquet. Surprisingly, the rebound velocities are identical. Identical! Hard to imagine much less understand. Friends of mine tell me the ball doesn't know that the racquet is in the vice (duh), but further, the ball has left the strings long before the wave travels from the sweet spot to the vice, so grip firmness does not effect rebound velocity. Similarly, the rebound angles are identical. Balls shot at a free standing and tightly clamped racquet rebound along the exact same path. Take a moment to imagine this, for I was at first incredulous.

So to extrapolate, power and control are not improved by tightly gripping the racquet, and conversely, power and control are not diminished by loosening the grip on the racquet. The difference is in the feel and the ease. What this little test demonstrates is that you can achieve the same results, if not better, by trying less hard. Great players always make the game look easy. So, shouldn't that be your goal and mine also?

I have studied Roger Federer again and again on the Tornado Cam from the BBC in London. Wimbledon, 2004, he appears to be returning serve with his usual flair. But the grip and swing appear so darn loose that the face of the racquet actually closes at contact with the ball. He doesn't close the face prior to the hit, but rather the collision deflects the face of the racquet. And the more I watch this image, the looser his grip appears to be.

McEnroe and a British announcer discuss the look of this particular forehand. Mac dryly notes the extreme racquet speed; the British announcer calls it a "sling shot" of a forehand. Don Kerr had gone down this road many years ago, amused by the difference between the look and or feel of a swing as opposed to a sling. The meaning of these two words is similar but they conjure totally different images. To Don's mind, a swing described a controlled motion, but a sling was looser, whippier, and perhaps less under control. Hurling, flinging, slinging, all describe a motion where the body vigorously pulls a loose arm (or arms).

At the recreational level it is easy to see the differences between a serve where the racquet is pushed into contact as opposed to one that is snapped at contact. But it may be much harder to see, or really feel, the difference between a racquet that is swung to a racquet that is slung. And I believe that the tension in your hand during the swing will ultimately determine whether you push, swing, or sling the racquet.

Agassi prestretches the forearm muscle, which turns it into a rubber band, and makes the racquet go yet faster.

Brad Gilbert, the new coach of the enormously talented Andy Murray, wants him working out so that he can play sleeveless, presumably for the same effect as the totally "ripped" Nadal. But on the other side of the coin, I remember announcers at the recent US Open marveling at Federer's power at the same time scratching their heads because he does not appear as muscular as many of the physical specimens he routinely defeats. And on that score, the contrast between Federer's effortless fluidity and Roddick's effortful muscularity were totally evident as Federer reeled off the final games of the fourth set to claim his most recent grand slam title.

The secret may simply be that Federer does not clamp down on the grip, nor does he need additional muscles to do so. So as he uncoils into the hit, the upper arm lags from the shoulder, the forearm arm lags from the upper arm, the hand lags from the forearm, and the racquet lags from the hand. This is incredibly loose, and it shows. And the whole thing begins at the interface between user and appliance, which is the hand and the handle. Tightness there moves up the arm and throughout the body.

Vic Braden offers a similar insight within his article, "Prestretching the forearm on the Forehand." Using examples of Andre Agassi (who coincidentally is not as loose as Federer even though his forehand was awfully good), Vic notes that as the arm swings forward the racquet head actually goes backward. This movement prestretches the forearm muscle, which turns it into a rubber band, and makes the racquet go yet faster. Vic goes on to say that this type of swing is being used more and more, for it enables players to shorten their backswings, take the ball earlier, but still achieve racquet head speed normally associated with much longer and more traditional backswings.

And in somewhat greater detail, Bruce Elliott (who may be the preeminent biomechanical mind in the tennis world) writes about this concept in Science and Medicine in Tennis on "The Development of Racquet Head Speed." I will quote from his article.

"Elastic Energy and muscle pre-tension increases racquet head speed ...following a preceding stretch of the muscle-tendon complex to 1) the recovery of stored elastic energy and 2) a higher active muscle state at the start of the drive to the ball.

During the stretch phase the muscles, tendons and associated tissues are actually stretched and store energy. Energy is therefore stored in tennis during the racquet and upper-trunk rotations (backswing). On movement reversal, during the shortening phase, the stretched muscles and tendons recoil back to their original shape and in so doing a portion of the stored energy is recovered and assists the movement. Research has shown that:
10-20% additional racquet-speed is achieved following a stretch-shorten cycle. Energy is lost if there is more than a brief pause between the stretch and shorten phases of a movement. Approximately 50% of the stored energy is lost if a pause of 1 s occurs between the backswing-forward swing phases of a stroke."

Try the following experiment. Use a ball machine or a practice partner to focus on one particular stroke (forehand, backhand, volley, or overhead). Begin hitting your normal way. Pay no attention to the outcome of the stroke. Just go "inside" yourself to monitor how the stroke feels. Look for tightness, and note both when it may occur as well as where it may occur. Could be the backswing. Could be impact. Could even be the follow through. Now visit your hand, monitor grip tightness. Is it constant, does it vary from loose to tight, or tight to loose? This is all about your awareness.

On a scale of 1 - 5, with 1 being the loosest grip imaginable, and 5 being the tightest grip possible, experiment with varying grip tensions. Stroke a few balls with a "5" from start to finish. Work your way gradually down to a "2" or better yet a "1." Now, revisit the outcome of the stroke. Is there more control or less? Is there more power or less? Is there more effort or less? Remember, flinging hurling, or slinging is when the body vigorously pulls a loose arm. The experiment does not work if only the hand is slinging the racquet, but has a chance if the body is doing the slinging.

For many years I imagined that experienced players could make a tight fist, without allowing that tension to migrate up the arm and into the shoulder and neck. And that they could grip the handle firmly without becoming overly tight in their stroke. For when shaking hands with many of the kids in our junior classes, when I ask them to "squeeze" the handshake, I see their forearm, their upper arm, their shoulder (even their jaw) all tighten as these little guys and girls attempt to firm their handshake. Now I believe this happens to all of us (to a lesser or greater extent) and that squeezing the handle migrates up the arm and throughout the body, and any chance for a sling shot is lost once the fingers tighten on the grip as they search for comfort and control.

Watch Federer again and again - there is an unusual looseness here. We might have seen it in the 1970's with the forehands of Tom Okker or John Newcombe. But in general this slingshot, buggy whip stroke is not what we normally imagine when stroking the ball. It may all be about the hand.

Check it out.

Note - For more information on tension please see Dave Smith's recent newsletter, "Use Less Strength with Better Technique."

Additionally Doug King has done many articles on the role of the body and how the racquet head moves as it approaches the ball. See his series on Acceleration Tennis.

Your comments are welcome. Let us know what you think about Jim McLennan's article by emailing us here at TennisOne.