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TennisOne Lessons 
Relationship Between Grip and Racquet Head SpeedDavid W. Smith, Senior Editor TennisOne Unless you have never read a book on tennis, taken a tennis lesson, or listened to the typical tennis tips on the Tennis Channel, you should know that the optimal grip for serving well is the Continental Grip. While there are slight variations among skilled players and professionals within this foundation grip, and we do see some advanced players migrating towards an eastern backhand grip in order to generate more topspin for a kick serve (an advanced ‘evolutionary’ variation since it is more or less based on the same serving pattern associated with the continental grip), it is indeed very rare (if at all) to see any skilled server use anything but the continental grip or slight manipulations like this.
I should preface this article by first recognizing what constitutes a skilled serve. It isn’t speed alone. After all, I’ve seen hundreds of weekend hacks muscle first-serves a hundred miles per hour. The problem is they are more likely to hit the back fence or the bottom of the net than the service box. Then these uncontrollable swings are followed up by an exponentially slower second serve. And this is the crux of the issue: Skilled players are usually recognized by the effectiveness, including the right kind of spin and the necessary amount of speed, placement, and consistency, of their second serves! These four criteria must be combined and are complementary to each other. This is an important word, “Complementary.” Spin and racquet head speed go hand in hand. Without the right spin, the ball doesn’t curve in the direction we want, (usually down and to one side or the other). One without the other is a recipe for frustration and a lifelong sentence to mediocrity. If a player can’t create these two criteria (right spin and racquet head speed), their ability to hit a significant and seriously effective serve will be greatly diminished. For example, if I have racquet head speed, but no spin or worse, the wrong kind of spin, then I won’t be able to create a downward arch of a fast moving ball. If I have the right spin but can’t generate racquet head speed, then the serve becomes a sitting duck for most reasonably skilled opponents. If I don’t place the ball or diversify the placement, opponents can start setting up for the expected serve both mentally and within actual execution strategies. Eastern Grip Calamity So, if the continental grip is the grip of choice among skilled servers, than why is the eastern or waiters grip so prevalent at the club level?
The answer is both complicated and relatively simple. For any player who knows absolutely nothing about serving, or had never bothered to examine all the video clips or paid attention to pros on television, then I can understand the propensity for any beginning player to use the eastern forehand grip. It feels comfortable, it feels right. It feels ‘controllable.’ Indeed, it sets the racquet up for a linear swing towards the target (squaring the racquet face to the target throughout the swing), and it allows the player to face the target within the majority of the stroke. For any beginner, these elements feel not just logical, but mentally, it would seem to make the most sense since, if I am aiming somewhere, in most instances I would want to swing to the target, and align the hitting surface of my racquet to be square to that target. However, while all these aspects of the serve seem logical to any beginner, they severely limit ones ability to develop an effective serve. I’m not going to go into all the limitations of the eastern forehand grip. However, you can look at several service articles and learn much more about the grip and its prohibiting factors. For those who want to explore this further, here is a link to my article, “The Serve: Spin Axis, Body Position, and Swing path." Generating Racquet Head Speed Let's isolate one of the most important aspects of an effective serve, the ability to generate racquet head speed. Obviously, if we understand that we need more spin to make a ball move in a certain way, and if pace is generated by racquet head speed, we need to learn how to maximize the speed in which we move the racquet head through the contact zone. Typically, biomechanical issues inhibit the ability to generate racquet head speed at the optimal point when using an eastern forehand grip. The main issue is the inability to use pronation in a productive manner. The eastern forehand grip generally forces the player to use the arm to generate maximum racquet head speed, limiting the ability of the forearm to deliver the final “link” in the kinetic chain. If we use a whip as an analogy, we are trying to accelerate the tip of the whip (or racquet head) to create the ‘cracking’ sound we associate with, well… the ‘cracking of a whip, which occurs when the tip of the whip breaks the sound barrier.’
This cannot be achieved by only swinging our arm fast. obviously, no one can swing their arm at 700 mph. We have to actually decelerate the arm so that the forearm and wrist can speed up and move passed the hand. In tennis, players who use an eastern forehand grip tend to accelerate the racquet faster well after contact instead of achieving the fastest racquet head speed at the top of their swing where optimal contact is generally located. In addition, the eastern forehand grip locks the wrist and inhibits the racquet head from accelerating passed the hand. Factors The problem is most beginning players feel more comfortable using the eastern forehand grip on the serve because it actually actually feels stronger, and that is what leads to the very demise in players using it and why they fail to advanced their serve. It is initially easier to create a linear swing path in the direction of the target with an eastern forehand grip. And, because the grip aligns the racquet face square to the target, players feel they can steer the ball into the court with more control. Both of these statements are very true…and both severely limit the player’s development of a skilled serve. Simple logic tells us that we want to hit the serve so that the spin would arc downward into the court. The harder we hit the serve, the more downward spin we will need to generate. In order to increase this action, we need to increase racquet head speed within the context of the proper swing path for the desired spin. Unfortunately, the eastern forehand grip tends to generate varying amounts of underspin, so the harder one swings, the less likely the ball will find its way into the service box. That is why players using this grip tend to swing hard at the first serve but have to decelerate the racquet on the second serve so that gravity alone can bring the ball down safely into the service box. Once a player understands the kind of spin needed to make the ball do certain things, then the next action is to increase the available racquet head speed within this desired swing path for the desired spin. This is where the continental grip comes in. Angle, Pronation,Range of Motion The continental grip sets the racquet at a much better angle to the ball to impart proper spin. This grip also allows for the movement called ‘pronation,' and finally, the continental grip allows for the greatest range of motion within the acceleration phase of the stroke. Angle: For any ball to spin downward, we must put some amount of ball rotation that spins forward. This means that the racquet must brush the ball from a point above the equator. Anything below the equator will produce some degree of underspin. Those who know anything about the physics of spin understand that a ball with underspin, hit with increasing force, actually will rise due to the spin and speed, not drop. It is critical that players understand this concept and know how to get the racquet to contact the ball so that it imparts some degree of topspin. (Usually we call it ‘hybrid’ when the serve has some degree of slice or ‘sidespin’ and some degree of topspin.)
Pronation: There is a common word in the vernacular pros use when teaching the serve, it is “Pronation.” Pronation is the key factor in generating racquet head speed. With proper Pronation, a player even kneeling on the knees can generate serves into the 100 mph range with no use of the legs and certainly limited available height at contact! The act of pronation or ‘internal rotation of the forearm’ is a natural occurring action when players use the continental grip. I’ve seldom had to instruct a player I’ve taught to intentionally pronate. However, with the eastern forehand grip, it is almost impossible to pronate and get the ball to go in. Pronation is the last ‘link’ of the kinetic chain as I’ve mentioned, and it exponentially increases the available racquet head speed a player can generate when used correctly. Range of Motion: The continental grip allows a player to gain the greatest range of motion within the acceleration phase of the stroke. This is established because the player is able to create the greatest amount of ‘collapse’ of the racquet on the backswing portion of the serve, then move the racquet from this position to contact gaining necessary time to increase velocity. Velocity is determined by the displacement divided by time. In another words, velocity is increased when the distance an object travels is increased within the same period of time. Thus, if we can gain distance our racquet travels within the same period of time, we gain velocity of the racquet. And here is the key factor, pronation is severely limited by the Eastern Forehand grip. In fact, the Eastern grip causes the maximum racquet head speed to occur usually around waist level. So much so, that it isn’t uncommon to see players who use an Eastern Forehand grip on the serve with many dings in their shins! The reason for these banged-up shins is because when a player uses the Eastern Forehand grip on the serve, they end up gaining maximum racquet head speed at or below the waist…and they don’t have room to decelerate the racquet enough to keep from hitting their leg! Eastern forehand grips don’t allow for much distance both on the backswing as well as the follow-through which we would call the relaxation phase. When a player has to abruptly stop a swing (as in keeping from hitting his shins!), then the player must begin to decelerate the racquet earlier. This explains why a long follow-through is advantageous to increasing racquet head speed. While the ball has already been hit, the follow-through allows for a player to continue to accelerate the racquet through to contact without having to start decreasing the swing prematurely to keep from hitting himself in the shin. Conclusion Players who use the continental grip can effectively create the kind of spin that contributes to a ball dropping down into the court. In addition, they can increase their overall racquet head speed at the point that such speed contributes to the effectiveness of the serve. The problem with the eastern forehand grip is that it creates a feeling of both control and even power, since the eastern grip creates the perception of being able to use more musculature in the articulation of the swing. Yet, as I’ve mentioned, these two perceptions are what lead players to fail in developing the optimal technique needed to improve their serve over time and reach a much higher overall level of play. When a player gains confidence in their competence of the serve, it naturally leads the player to swing more aggressively; it allows the player to aim with greater error room. And, the type of spin that contributes to both these effects is usually much tougher to return because the ball bounces higher, bounces more forward, and, depending on the spin choice, can bounce radically different than a ball that has no spin or the wrong kind of spin. Once players understand these working relationships between the grip and the swing elements of an effective serve, they can start to implement the proper grip within the proper swing components and eventually—and perhaps finally—start on their way to having an effective serve for life. Your comments are welcome. Let us know what you think about Dave Smith's article by emailing us here at TennisOne .
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