You guys did great, using extremes is the best way to explain. This is how my flight instructor used to teach me, and those lessons just stick. Thank you😊
a very useful and clarifying vid, guys. for a rec player it is important to practice loose grip to get a free motion of the entire kinetic chain, yet a loose grip is unlikely to acheive a fast and hard serve because you want proper pronation on your serve, and a loose grip is of no help here.
I think that in general as long as one can generate the fast racquet head speed, their grips would instinctively tighten at contact to prevent the racquet flying out. I am not sure if one needs to consciously control the finger tightening in this process. "Having a loose grip" is probably still a useful thought to promote the body relaxation needed in the first stage of the service motion before exploding up to the contact.
You are not wrong talking about the thought of a loose grip promoting body relaxation. However, most people are not at a level yet where they can control the ball with a loose grip. A loose grip does not mean that you hold on loosely to your racket, it actually means more that your wrist is loose when you swing, meaning that you want the desired whipping effect. The actual grip has to be strong enough to control the racket's swing path and if you try to serve hard this control of the swing path requires quite a lot of strength in the grip. That's why a lot of juniors eventually let go off their racket when serving. Their body got stronger and they can create more power with it but their grip is not strong enough to control all that extra power and they end up throwing the racket into the ground on the serve. Usually, that results in them holding on stronger next time and this issue of the loose grip solves itself. :)
At the most it should be a mix. Tighten up enough to maintain control of the racquet. But at impact loosen up. Great servers of the past openly talked about how loose the hand was as the racquet made impact with the ball. Watch Nastase who was so gifted. Does it look like for a second that he has a 10 out of 10 grip on the racquet? I remember watching John Mcenroe. He was so smooth and natural. He wasn't squeezing the racquet tight on his serve l guarantee that Yes you have to direct and control the racquet but it's kind of a meet halfway thing.
Every tennis pro I've known teaches that you should not hold your racquet as tight as you can due creating tension in your arm. Rather, you should hold at approximately 3-4 out of 10.
Yet, most recreational players have a grip that is too loose and lose control of their shots as a result. The definition of a loose grip is not the same between pros and amateurs. :)
Fun video.. my serve is pretty awful for my size so I am trying to improve. Good to know the super lose grip thing is a warmup/practice thing and not for hitting hard serves. I notice on your throw to serve video your trophy position is way more vertical then how some coaches recommend it. I wonder about the difference there.
I have served with 3 fingers and it works but I don't like the control I had. I hold it like Clemens when I serve but I maintain around a 3 out of 10 grip tension. (I have tried to get 1 out of 10 using the continental with Clemens grip but it's very difficult to do) On forehand and backhands, I hit with 1 out of 10 grip tension but I use an overgrip to prevent slippage. It's much easier to hit with the loosest grip you can produce. The racket moves much faster and you produce a lot of power. I disagree with on your point about contact, even though there is a reactionary force on your hand, it's not enough to throw the racket out of your hand. In fact, the heavier your racket is, the more stable the contact is and you produce a ton of lag. That's why you see pros imitating Federer's lag on his forehand. This comes only with the loose grip. If you watch slow-mo videos of Fed hitting the ball, you can see at contact, that there is no tension in his wrist. (This is not true for every pro, i.e., Nadal has a lot of tension on contact)
This must be an individual thing. I started serving recently with 2 fingers and my thumb and it has transformed my serve. Now I’m not opening the face at all and with more racket head speed I’m serving harder and also more consistently. I’m more relaxed serving in matches now and my swing is correct with the face on edge. I know I wouldn’t get the same results with 2 fingers.
The two-finger drill is executed with two fingers and the thumb, not one finger and the thumb. Doing that you can't swing the racket at all b/c it leaves your hand.
@@revolutionarymotion4161 ...but impractical, and no one else in the tennis nerdasphere ever demonstrates the two-finger drill using only thumb and index finger. You guys are different alright. 🥴
Pronation needs to happen to create a fast serve, however, if you use the kinetic chain correctly pronation will happen automatically. Active pronation will only interrupt the kinetic chain and potentially lead to injury so it is very important that the upper body rotation creates pronation and not the wrist and forearm itself. Hope this helps :)
This is correct! Without index finger and thumb we will not be able to control the ball unfortunately. The three most important fingers are index finger, thumb and pinky. However, if we squeeze those three it's very hard not to squeeze the other two. :)
The most important fingers in grip are pinky, ring and middle. The thumb and index act more like an anchor. This is why you see a spread index, you can’t grip with a spread index finger. Try it - concentrate on the last three fingers gripping kind of like holding and ice cream cone with the index and thumb more relaxed. This is what the pros do.
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You guys did great, using extremes is the best way to explain. This is how my flight instructor used to teach me, and those lessons just stick. Thank you😊
And time will tell about subscribers, quality works over quantity 😊
a very useful and clarifying vid, guys.
for a rec player it is important to practice loose grip to get a free motion of the entire kinetic chain, yet a loose grip is unlikely to acheive a fast and hard serve because you want proper pronation on your serve, and a loose grip is of no help here.
Great information. Makes perfect sense, explained very well. where can I buy that tennis basket ?
I think that in general as long as one can generate the fast racquet head speed, their grips would instinctively tighten at contact to prevent the racquet flying out. I am not sure if one needs to consciously control the finger tightening in this process. "Having a loose grip" is probably still a useful thought to promote the body relaxation needed in the first stage of the service motion before exploding up to the contact.
You are not wrong talking about the thought of a loose grip promoting body relaxation. However, most people are not at a level yet where they can control the ball with a loose grip. A loose grip does not mean that you hold on loosely to your racket, it actually means more that your wrist is loose when you swing, meaning that you want the desired whipping effect. The actual grip has to be strong enough to control the racket's swing path and if you try to serve hard this control of the swing path requires quite a lot of strength in the grip. That's why a lot of juniors eventually let go off their racket when serving. Their body got stronger and they can create more power with it but their grip is not strong enough to control all that extra power and they end up throwing the racket into the ground on the serve. Usually, that results in them holding on stronger next time and this issue of the loose grip solves itself. :)
Thank you🙏
Great Stuff Guys.... Wonder why your channel is not subscribed as much as it actually deserves... Good luck and keep it coming
At the most it should be a mix. Tighten up enough to maintain control of the racquet. But at impact loosen up. Great servers of the past openly talked about how loose the hand was as the racquet made impact with the ball.
Watch Nastase who was so gifted. Does it look like for a second that he has a 10 out of 10 grip on the racquet? I remember watching John Mcenroe. He was so smooth and natural. He wasn't squeezing the racquet tight on his serve l guarantee that
Yes you have to direct and control the racquet but it's kind of a meet halfway thing.
Every tennis pro I've known teaches that you should not hold your racquet as tight as you can due creating tension in your arm. Rather, you should hold at approximately 3-4 out of 10.
Yet, most recreational players have a grip that is too loose and lose control of their shots as a result. The definition of a loose grip is not the same between pros and amateurs. :)
Fun video.. my serve is pretty awful for my size so I am trying to improve. Good to know the super lose grip thing is a warmup/practice thing and not for hitting hard serves. I notice on your throw to serve video your trophy position is way more vertical then how some coaches recommend it. I wonder about the difference there.
I have served with 3 fingers and it works but I don't like the control I had. I hold it like Clemens when I serve but I maintain around a 3 out of 10 grip tension. (I have tried to get 1 out of 10 using the continental with Clemens grip but it's very difficult to do) On forehand and backhands, I hit with 1 out of 10 grip tension but I use an overgrip to prevent slippage. It's much easier to hit with the loosest grip you can produce. The racket moves much faster and you produce a lot of power. I disagree with on your point about contact, even though there is a reactionary force on your hand, it's not enough to throw the racket out of your hand. In fact, the heavier your racket is, the more stable the contact is and you produce a ton of lag. That's why you see pros imitating Federer's lag on his forehand. This comes only with the loose grip. If you watch slow-mo videos of Fed hitting the ball, you can see at contact, that there is no tension in his wrist. (This is not true for every pro, i.e., Nadal has a lot of tension on contact)
This must be an individual thing. I started serving recently with 2 fingers and my thumb and it has transformed my serve. Now I’m not opening the face at all and with more racket head speed I’m serving harder and also more consistently. I’m more relaxed serving in matches now and my swing is correct with the face on edge. I know I wouldn’t get the same results with 2 fingers.
The two-finger drill is executed with two fingers and the thumb, not one finger and the thumb. Doing that you can't swing the racket at all b/c it leaves your hand.
Same principle :)
@@revolutionarymotion4161 ...but impractical, and no one else in the tennis nerdasphere ever demonstrates the two-finger drill using only thumb and index finger. You guys are different alright. 🥴
I use five fingers and a toe on my serve.
it was 3 fingers actually, pinky & ring floating free...
Same principle :)
loose wrist...
Do you apply pronunciation? To get a whip?
Pronation needs to happen to create a fast serve, however, if you use the kinetic chain correctly pronation will happen automatically. Active pronation will only interrupt the kinetic chain and potentially lead to injury so it is very important that the upper body rotation creates pronation and not the wrist and forearm itself. Hope this helps :)
Pinky and ring are integral to grip strength.
The index and thumb thing is terrible advice
I agree with you. Exactly which fingers pressure is this video advocating?
Quite opposite actually. An ex-atp pro told me index and thumb are the most important fingers in tennis.
This is correct! Without index finger and thumb we will not be able to control the ball unfortunately. The three most important fingers are index finger, thumb and pinky. However, if we squeeze those three it's very hard not to squeeze the other two. :)
The most important fingers in grip are pinky, ring and middle. The thumb and index act more like an anchor.
This is why you see a spread index, you can’t grip with a spread index finger.
Try it - concentrate on the last three fingers gripping kind of like holding and ice cream cone with the index and thumb more relaxed. This is what the pros do.