[tennisbiz] Re: Questions about gripping the racket?

From: Edward Fagen <Tennisgeom_at_aol.com>
Date: Sat 1 Nov 2003 18:23:02 EST

Miguel,

First, thanks for responding and making all of us think. It is great to
discuss concepts and exchange ideas and a lot of times we are saying the
same thing just in different ways.

You said. "That is why on volleys we rarely see a backswing or a
followthrough because volleys are a control shot." I can't argue with that.
All I will add is that all three elements you mentioned about a stroke are
also part of a volley. Because time to react is so restricted each element
you mentioned is restricted but they are part of the volley. If you are at
the net and someone hits a ball at you at 50 mph from the baseline your
range of motion will be greater then what it would be if they hit the ball
at you from the service line. Control time and you will control the
response.

You said, "You bet I'm confused. If you loose power with a loose grip, why
do we loosen up the grip for the serve." Interesting, in my opinion you not
only loosen the grip on the serve, you loosen the triceps, the shoulder
muscles, the stomach muscles, the back muscles, the leg muscles. All this
is necessary to load the muscles (stretch them out), you call it the
backswing, I like to call it loading the muscles. The greater the range of
motion you can create, the greater the potential energy and power you can
create. But, but to generate the power, all these muscle groups must
contract in a perfect sequence (coordination). At the point of contact with
the ball the muscles in the forearm which basically control the wrist, the
angle of the hand (pronation) and even the fingers ( grab you forearm and
open and close your fingers) must contract in an orderly sequence to create
the much heralded wrist snap. My point is, yes. you start out with a loose
grip but end up with a very firm grip at the point of contact. If Mr. Pete
Sampras ended up with the same grip pressure on handle as he started out
with, his racquet would have flown out of his hand and killed someone in the
crowd.

I said: The fulcrum point and the leverage created would be much greater for
him. Assuming they both grip the handle the same way she might have a lever
range of 3" and he might have a range of 4". That is one big advantage.

You said: This part really confused me so I'm not going to elaborate.

I understand why you are confused, my fault. Let me try again. If you have
a seesaw the is 6 feet long on each side of the fulcrum, them try to lift a
100 lbs. of weight but the side you are pushing down on is reduced to 4' .
It is still much easier then trying to push down with a 3' lever. The
offset is the 4' requires a greater range of motion vs. the 3' lever. Yikes,
I am going to get hate mail after this.

Thanks for responding, so can you get us tennis bums some good rates at the
San Juan Hotel, Spa and Casino.

Best regards,

Edward Fagen
President

Tennis Geometrics Company
1844 Walker Valley Rd
Charleston, TN 37310

Phone: 423-336-3953
Web Site: http://www.tennisgeometrics.com

  
Received on Mon Nov 03 2003 - 06:05:43 CST