Your grip strength can make or break every other aspect of your swing technique, so how much is too much (or too little)? In this episode I’ll answer a key question from one of you and try to dispel the myths!
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An excellent podcast. However, you state that you cannot save a miss hit because your reflexes are not fast enough to react after the contact. True enough, but that is not what happens when you "save" a miss hit. What happens is you realize much earlier that you are in trouble and you alter your swing. The result is never pretty. You should argue as you do later in the podcast about having a tight grip to save miss hits that even if you could save the miss hit, altering your stroke to do so harms your game in the long run.
This episode is totally right on target about grip strength is NOT what quality, injury free, tennis is all about.
Basically, a strong grip is the tool for hiding weak technique in the supporting cast of quality tennis — proper footwork, stable core movement with bent knees, opposite arm movement, long strokes, focus on contact point, and more.
I've been there done that with a strong grip and attempting to short cut learning the supporting cast of quality tennis — I developed bad tennis elbow as a result of trying that stupid shortcut.
Then I discovered the OK grip with the thumb and middle finger as the pivot point for racket control of most shots along with focused on developing a strong supporting cast of tennis technique. With the racket, not my elbow, absorbing much of the power of contact, the tennis elbow went away, I developed way more powerful and consistent strokes, with better spin shots from both wings, with better touch from everywhere, including at the net, serve with power, location, plus a full complement of spins.
With tennis elbow, it started for me by practicing hitting easy balls with the ball machine and the OK grip and with the other three fingers off the racket — sort of throwing the racket at the ball. There was a few minutes of spraying balls while focusing on properly organizing and executing the supporting cast of movement required for quality tennis strokes with a relaxed grip. With some patience, soon the ball started to go in. Then after a few more minutes to get more feel for what's going on, I added the other fingers to the grip, WITHOUT losing any of the supporting cast… I kept this regiment up for a few months, and my game has never looked back.
Also, I start my warmups with the loosey goosey two finger OK grip. I mix in some strokes with all the fingers focusing on having no changes to the supporting cast (no strong grip shortcuts with sloppy technique), then I'm good to go…
Learning how to use the OK grip was one of those 'ah hah' moments that I've been building on ever since — without tennis elbow, with better play results.
Ian,
Related to grip strength, last week I had a lesson and we were working on developing a fluid repeatable motion for my strokes. Lissa (teach pro) noticed some tension when I hit the ball, and she asked me about my breathing. Before that, I had never thought about it. She told me to exhale while hitting the ball. Breathing is mostly unconscious, so it has taken me some focus to purposely exhale while hitting, but I can say that it has definitely had a positive impact. I'm more loose and relaxed, specially on my serve, and I can see that I am missing less and overall hitting the ball better serves and ground strokes.