Wrist position and hand-grip strength

[julian1]

Please see

http://w4.ub.uni-konstanz.de/cpa/article/viewFile/3224/3026

Comments welcome

[DougEng]

Please see

http://w4.ub.uni-konstanz.de/cpa/article/viewFile/3224/3026

Comments welcome

Good information however already obvious. Very simple but somewhat incomplete of a study. Study should take more into account of actual hitting. For example, maybe adding sensors to a racquet that can detect pressure of hands with high speed videotaping of stoke and close-up of hands.

[bottle]

A question: Interesting information but do we always want our fingers to be the best possible nifty contributors? What about relaxed grip or holding the racket like a bird's nest? Does finger strength even matter at such a point?

[stotty]

Role of the wrist

Interesting this wrist and grip strength stuff. Grip strength seems to vary significantly amongst club standard players. I imagine pro's have a relaxed grip when they play...maybe they brace more for volleys, or when returning powerful serves. Has anyone ever asked them? Me, I have a relaxed grip for all shots. I grip the racket more tightly when nervous...always a mistake...relaxed arm, wrist, and body come to that, is always best for my tennis.

I don't believe in wrist snap. The wrist is just the end of the chain and plays a more passive role than people think in my view. I don't discourage wrist. I just maintain wrist "part of the shot" not all of it. Wrist snap tends to result in an abbreviated follow through in my opinion.

I know some very good players (approaching tour standard) and have asked them about the role of the wrist. As always when you ask good players, they can tell you nothing about they produce a tennis shot or what goes on within a given stroke. But they seem to concur the wrist feels slowish moving in many cases...relaxed with little snapping going on.

I tried snapping my wrist in to some forehands this morning. Things went ok until I tried to move my wrist a good deal more quickly than my arm. Seems when the wrist gets ahead of itself it leads to a shorter followthrough. I think the speed you rotate your shoulder along with the speed you move your arm and wrist must have to fairly strictly relational.