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What about the grip in the ready position??
Below is a quote from Doug Eng's excellent article on grips in the two-handed backhand:
"The conclusion is probably that different options may work for certain players who discover this through experimentation, rather than following rigid textbook dictates. But yet all the combinations fall within a certain range. For example, no players are using true eastern forehands with the bottom hand or extreme semi-westerns with the top."
Clearly, there is a range of grips that works, ... or that player's make work but what is the best position to start someone out in if they don't already have a grip which they are really committed to? I understand there are some guidelines, but no matter what you teach, there will be examples of something that is different that is being used successfully by someone who just happens to be your student's favorite player.
Anyway, I have a rationale I try to offer to my students which isn't necessarily borne out by much comparison to what is actually being employed by the best players in the world; nevertheless, I think my reasoning has merit. Here it is:
First, let me preface that I prefer to see moderate grips somewhere between an Eastern and a semi-Western on the forehand and something near the Continental for the bottom hand on the 2-handed backhand with an Eastern opposite hand forehand grip with the top hand, certainly no stronger than a mild semi-Western, in accordance with the guidelines JY has shown here and Doug has outlined in his article. Remember I said PREFER. Often, however, the grips with which the player comes to me are something very different. Once the myelin is laid down for that habit, it is a daunting task to change it. As pumped as I was about learning that there was an actual physical component to making habits in the form of laying down myelin on nerve axons, I am also a little disappointed to learn that there is also a physical component to "bad" habits and I am not just imagining it when I feel like I am beating my head against the wall trying to get such habits to change. Not easy!!
Anyway, one thing is abundantly clear in all but the rarest of throwbacks to classic Aussie tennis: there is a grip change that must take place sometime between the forehand and backhand groundstrokes. If a player is going to be able to deal with returning serves at upwards of 120 mph or at least 110 mph for the women, he/she will not have time to change the grip in a separate, additional motion before they get the racket in position to return serve. The grip change has to be an integral part of the backswing and the player has to maintain absolute control and feel for the position of the racket head as he/she is making that move.
In the past, it was acceptable to poke the big serve back and try to get back in the point; not anymore. You have to be ready to HIT the return (agreed, you also need the chip, etc.).
So here is what I advocate for my players. (I don't often get it from the advanced ones. It has to be trained early.) Wait with the dominant hand in the forehand grip position and the non-dominant (top) hand in the backhand position. If you have to hit a forehand, you can reach immediately to your right and get some kind of a shot off. I like the idea of pushing back with the left hand and this enables someone to change from an intermediate grip in the ready position, but it is awfully hard to do what Djokovic does in this clip:
I don't know what grip he waits in. Perhaps he does change, but it would seem to me to be awfully hard to do.
OK, but what about the backhand. I teach my students they must pull the racket back with the top hand and that hand has to tell your kinesthetic computer exactly where the racket head is as the dominant hand rotates around to the backhand grip, whatever that might be. So I want them waiting in the ready position with the opposite hand in the position they will use in their backhand stroke (1 or 2 handed), with the palm of that non-dominant hand well against the shaft of the racket so they can "find" the racket very easily and quickly with the other hand as the racket is pulled back.
So that is my theory and what I advocate. We all know that the reality is that an awful lot of players wait with an intermediate grip and many wait with the non-dominant hand high up near the throat of the racket. But that doesn't mean that is the best way to do it.
I really hope this topic will create a little dialogue. I know there will be plenty of response from some of the regular posters. I hope some of the rest of you will chime in, even if just about your own style and why you use that.
don
"The conclusion is probably that different options may work for certain players who discover this through experimentation, rather than following rigid textbook dictates. But yet all the combinations fall within a certain range. For example, no players are using true eastern forehands with the bottom hand or extreme semi-westerns with the top."
Clearly, there is a range of grips that works, ... or that player's make work but what is the best position to start someone out in if they don't already have a grip which they are really committed to? I understand there are some guidelines, but no matter what you teach, there will be examples of something that is different that is being used successfully by someone who just happens to be your student's favorite player.
Anyway, I have a rationale I try to offer to my students which isn't necessarily borne out by much comparison to what is actually being employed by the best players in the world; nevertheless, I think my reasoning has merit. Here it is:
First, let me preface that I prefer to see moderate grips somewhere between an Eastern and a semi-Western on the forehand and something near the Continental for the bottom hand on the 2-handed backhand with an Eastern opposite hand forehand grip with the top hand, certainly no stronger than a mild semi-Western, in accordance with the guidelines JY has shown here and Doug has outlined in his article. Remember I said PREFER. Often, however, the grips with which the player comes to me are something very different. Once the myelin is laid down for that habit, it is a daunting task to change it. As pumped as I was about learning that there was an actual physical component to making habits in the form of laying down myelin on nerve axons, I am also a little disappointed to learn that there is also a physical component to "bad" habits and I am not just imagining it when I feel like I am beating my head against the wall trying to get such habits to change. Not easy!!
Anyway, one thing is abundantly clear in all but the rarest of throwbacks to classic Aussie tennis: there is a grip change that must take place sometime between the forehand and backhand groundstrokes. If a player is going to be able to deal with returning serves at upwards of 120 mph or at least 110 mph for the women, he/she will not have time to change the grip in a separate, additional motion before they get the racket in position to return serve. The grip change has to be an integral part of the backswing and the player has to maintain absolute control and feel for the position of the racket head as he/she is making that move.
In the past, it was acceptable to poke the big serve back and try to get back in the point; not anymore. You have to be ready to HIT the return (agreed, you also need the chip, etc.).
So here is what I advocate for my players. (I don't often get it from the advanced ones. It has to be trained early.) Wait with the dominant hand in the forehand grip position and the non-dominant (top) hand in the backhand position. If you have to hit a forehand, you can reach immediately to your right and get some kind of a shot off. I like the idea of pushing back with the left hand and this enables someone to change from an intermediate grip in the ready position, but it is awfully hard to do what Djokovic does in this clip:
I don't know what grip he waits in. Perhaps he does change, but it would seem to me to be awfully hard to do.
OK, but what about the backhand. I teach my students they must pull the racket back with the top hand and that hand has to tell your kinesthetic computer exactly where the racket head is as the dominant hand rotates around to the backhand grip, whatever that might be. So I want them waiting in the ready position with the opposite hand in the position they will use in their backhand stroke (1 or 2 handed), with the palm of that non-dominant hand well against the shaft of the racket so they can "find" the racket very easily and quickly with the other hand as the racket is pulled back.
So that is my theory and what I advocate. We all know that the reality is that an awful lot of players wait with an intermediate grip and many wait with the non-dominant hand high up near the throat of the racket. But that doesn't mean that is the best way to do it.
I really hope this topic will create a little dialogue. I know there will be plenty of response from some of the regular posters. I hope some of the rest of you will chime in, even if just about your own style and why you use that.
don
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