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TennisOne Lessons Racquet Face Awareness and the Floating Grip Walter Oden, USPTA
The feel of a shot in tennis is independent and unique to the beholder of the shot. There are many technical aspects of the game that have a feel component. One such "feel" is Racquet Face Awareness. But what exactly is Racquet Face Awareness and how do we achieve it. In addition, there is an impediment many club players face that inhibits their Racquet Face Awareness and that is "The Floating Grip." Some Assumptions and Symbiosis Although I am focusing on a single technical aspect, be aware that no one skill stands alone to create a perfect stroke. In fact, we might argue that certain skills have a symbiotic awareness. Balance Awareness, Contact Point Awareness, and Racquet Face Awareness are potentially all linked by their impact on each other. I consider these to be technical constants. Our analytical goal is making an assumption that we must learn these skills independent of one another in order to master them for their eventual symbiotic life. Racquet Face Awareness Defined Racquet Face Awareness is the ability for a player to feel and use subtle changes to the angle of the racquet to change the characteristics of a specific shot. John McEnroe may have had the greatest racquet face awareness in history. People often talked about how he tended to hit volleys with little knee bend and still hit amazing shots off low balls. This was because he could feel the exact angle the racquet needed to be to hit the exact shot. This was also true for Jimmy Connors on his backhand passing shots. No matter how low or high you approached his backhand; he could make subtle changes to the face of his racquet to drive the ball by you. Sampras was the master of this with his serve. He could hit every target, every spin off a single toss. Sampras was able to use his feel of the racquet face to make last second changes to achieve a targeting and spin goal. Floating Grip versus Constant Grip
Let's hypothesize that there are two ways to manage racquet face awareness. Depending on the skill, a player may choose to:
Here I am inventing and defining the term "Grip Float." Grip Float is an intentional or unintentional subtle grip change that alters the characteristics of the angle of racquet within a single category of shots. To truly understand racquet face awareness, we will need to isolate grip float as part of our analysis. "Grip Float" is not the "Grip Change" that occurs between different skills like a going from a forehand to a backhand. An example of Grip Float might be the range of continental grips players use to execute different kinds serves. There are also two kinds of grip floats:
I would argue that grip floats before contact are skill sets of advanced players. In some cases, advanced players may have some grip float during contact while performing certain loose grip skills. On the other hand, grips floats during the learning phase of a tennis player will confuse the brain and give the wrong feedback on racquet face awareness. The point of bringing it up here is that during the learning phase of tennis, constant grips may assist a player in learning racquet face awareness. In other words, developing players tend to be unaware of subtle grip changes at contact and it may create the wrong awareness of how racquet face can affect a shot.
A great example of this bad grip float is moving the grip during a low volley in the wrong direction. Many novices think that missing a volley in the net was caused by lack of knee bend when, in actuality, the angle of the racquet face was the culprit. Newer players have a common error, they tend to let the grip "float" to a more eastern position at contact while hitting the forehand volley. On a low volley, this results in a closing of the face and more errors into the net. At an advanced level of the game, there are plenty of grip floats to assist with specialty shots. Keep in mind, these floats occur before contact with the ball. Just ask coach Ty Tucker of Ohio State. He likes his players to let their grips float more eastern on the high volleys to assist with put-aways. Again, the key here is that you are dealing with the highest ranked division I players in the country. They already have excellent racquet face awareness, so these kinds of exercises simply improve their feel for different shots. Teaching and Isolating Racquet Face Awareness Isolate the grip float: This exercise may be the first and most important component of learning racquet face awareness. As a player, pick a specific stroke you want to analyze like a forehand groundstroke. Then hit a series of shots and concentrate on what your grips are doing. Notice where they started and where they finished. Be careful not to change grips back to their starting position before you note their ending position at the end of the shot. You must hit the shot and freeze the hand to see where it finished. Did your grips move at contact with the ball? Hit without grip float: Once you see what kind of “float” you have, try hitting specific shots without any grip changes at all. Start by simply slowing down your swing. This will vastly improve your awareness of what your grips are doing at contact. During this component of learning you may discover that you are completely unable to keep the grips constant. If this is the case, you may have to look at the grips you are using and see if they are missing some of the elements of advanced grip skills. Tricks for creating a more stable grip: The first thing you need to do is make sure your grip is adequately on the handle for a non grip change. A lot of heavy grip floaters have a good chunk of the hand off the racquet. This kind of grip is great for loose grip skills like topspin. On the other hand, this is not a great grip style for the firm grip skills like hitting on the rise or return of serve.
You may also have to consider that you are not squeezing the handle tight enough at contact. I am a strong believer in looseness, but not at the expense of changing grips at contact with the ball. One final question, are you using your “trigger finger?” Fernando gonzalez has a full western forehand, but his whole hand is on the racquet and he uses an extreme trigger finger for extra stability. The trigger finger is allowing the index finger to be a little separated from the middle finger. This forces a hand angle that allows the western grip to work in a variety of situations. Hitting with Constant Grips Be patient: Once you have personal grip awareness, you will have to relearn some things that seemed to be automatic. The process of constant grips begins with awareness of grip changes during contact. For example, if I miss a forehand volley into the net and realize I changed my grip at contact, the proper learning process has begun. Topspin may be harder at first and the wrist feels different: You will have a different sensation of what the wrist actually does. In other words, players that have been changing their grips at contact for a while will think their wrist is doing something it is not. Once the grips are constant, you will feel the wrist more attached to the arm. Players talk about wrist snap on advanced forehands, but the science shows that it is actually the arm rotating, not the wrist snapping. Open Face Skills versus Closed Face Skills: The final thing you will begin to perceive is that you may have to relearn the concept of an open and closed racquet face. In other words, your brain's perception of racquet face may be inaccurate since you were changing grips all those years! You will begin to realize that some skills, like groundstrokes, need to be hit with the racquet face starting somewhat closed. Whereas volleys, the racquet face needs to start somewhat open. Drills, Racquet Face Awareness, and Grip Float
Build a personal database of feel: The problem with teaching racquet face awareness is that many of the things you want to learn are counter intuitive. A great example of this is a low volley. Hitting a low volley requires a continental grip with a more open racquet face. Advanced players can do this and keep the flight of the ball low. Many developing players visualize a severely open racquet faces as popping the ball straight up. So developing these skills is all about creating experiences that create the correct feel for the ball. Linear Strokes as a separate skill set: The emphasis on the modern game may have some of us forgetting that the classic linear momentum stroke was a teaching aid by itself. Hitting flat and stepping in has huge racquet face recognition benefits! Since linear momentum strokes are generally very flat, only the racquet face angle will tend to keep the ball at the correct flight angle. That means the user of the stroke doesn't have the luxury of topspin to get a ball to come down. As a footnote, the linear stroke is a perfect tool for teaching contact point and balance as well. Pure linear strokes require all three of the technical constants in perfect symbiosis. The Volley "Freeze Technique:" The "freeze technique" on the volley and half volley will help teach the pure feel of an advance volley. The drill is simple; players hit a volley and freeze their racquet at contact for a second or longer. I saw Jurgen Melzer doing this drill on a practice court in Cincinnati. I am not a fan of the word "punch." "Punch" describes the wrong kinesthetic feel of a volley. "Punch" also tends to push players into the wrong grip.
By having players "freeze" at the end of the volley, they will quickly learn two things. First, they will learn whether they were they actually freezing rather than "swinging." Second, they will become aware of their racquet face angle at contact. This drill may also uncover whether or not your grips are floating at contact! Slice One, Volley One (Backhand Volley): The backhand volley has a unique feel all its own. If you have a one-handed backhand volley, the feel is very similar to a backhand slice with a "freeze." Developing a sense of the angle of racquet at the start of a slice backhand is very similar to the feel of a backhand volley racquet face angle. Simply hit one slice backhand and then one backhand volley right after. That way, you start to make the connection between the related skills. Topspin forehands with multiple grips: The simple version of this drill is to hit a series of topspins with different forehand grips. If your standard forehand grip is a semi-western, start by hitting topspins with that grip. Then move your grip to and eastern and try the same exercise. Finally, move the grip to a continental. You will feel the need to manually close the face the more you approach a continental. Another thing to consider is that being able to hit topspin with every grip has technical benefits in addition to gaining racquet face awareness. For example, hitting topspin with a continental grip will help learn the feel of certain kinds of half volleys.
Crazy Spin: A drill that is very fun to learn racquet face and constant grips is "crazy spin." This also helps address a very common grip float issue on serving. The rules are simple. The server is allowed to serve anywhere as long as it is over the net. The only caveat is that the ball must have crazy slice to count. I use this drill for juniors a lot. I put them in a severe continental and tell them not to change their grips. Then they hit the ball hard and watch it curve! Not only are they learning about the feel of spins, but they are also learning what happens when the don't let their grips float on the serve. Now they are developing racquet face awareness without grip changes. There is a lot of laughter when a player curves a ball into a wall so no one can touch it. That ball is in under the rules of "crazy spin." Concluding Thoughts Racquet face awareness is one of the most feel oriented technical constants in tennis. It can take years to develop. On the other hand, if you can isolate unintentional “grip float” in specific shots, you may find the process will improve much faster than expected. Remember, managing racquet face is only effective when we combine it with its natural symbiotic relationship with balance and contact point. Yet, we may still have to isolate these technical constants during the learning phase to truly understand how they feel! Your comments are welcome. Let us know what you think about Walt Oden's article by emailing us here at TennisOne.
Walter Oden, USPTA (P1), CPA (inactive)
Walt Oden has recently finished his 4th season as Varsity Girl’s Tennis Coach at Laurel School of Shaker Heights, Ohio . During his first two years, Laurel tennis has had over 35 wins, a conference title and 7 state qualifiers. In 2008, the squad achieved a State ranking as high as #5 in Division ll. Laurel tennis has over 40 girls participating in organized tennis during the fall months. Walt was the Administrator and Head Coach of the USTA’s Competition Training Center (CTC) for 5 seasons. The CTC is the local arm of the USTA’s High Performance Coaching program. Walt continues to coach a number of Northeastern Ohio’s top ranked juniors. Walt has also been a constant volunteer for Northeastern Ohio tennis. He was President of the USPTA (Northern Ohio) for 6 years. In addition, he has been the Treasurer and member of the Executive Committee for the Northeastern Ohio Tennis Association (NEOTA). For his years of service, Walt received the 1997 USPTA Midwest Rookie of the Year Award as well as the 2003 and 2000 USPTA Ohio Professional of the Year. The NEOTA has also awarded him the Herb Nold Volunteer of the Year Award. Also in 2003, Walt won the National USPTA Seminar Contest for his presentation on Right Brain and Left Brain dominance. He was invited back to the 2004 National USPTA World Conference as a scheduled speaker. Become Walt’s Facebook friend for more banter by searching under odentennisnews@aol.com! |
Walt Oden is a certified (P-1) professional with the United States Professional Tennis Association (USPTA). During the last 15 years in the profession, Walt has worked at many of Northeast Ohio’s premiere tennis and sports clubs. Walt is currently a professional at the Chagrin Valley Athletic Club in Chagrin Falls, Ohio. He calls Santa Monica, California his hometown.