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John,
When I first picked up tennis maybe six or so years ago, I basically mimicked a friend of mine who used a fairly western forehand grip. My game has obviously changed and evolved over time, but one thing that has stuck has been that western grip on my forehand. I spend a lot of time playing these days and my forehand has never really been the weapon I've wanted it to be. While I know some people can really be successful with a western grip, I'm sort of trying to break my stroke down to the basics and start over with it - get back to the fundamentals. And in that effort, I am trying to convert from what you would now call maybe a 4/4 to a more conservative agassi or safin-like 3/4.
My real question to you is - I am having an absolute fit tyring to break the muscle memory my hand has in grabbing the racquet with my old forehand grip. I feel like changing my old swing pattern won't be so difficult when i can simply grab my racquet the same way every time. Have you ever coached someone through this kind of switch after having it so ingrained, and did you have any tricks like putting tape on the racquet as a reminder, or something along those lines? I am trying to take your advice to take a more conservative grip as a fairly average club level player, I am just struggling to break an old habit.
Thanks,
Scott Newman
When I first picked up tennis maybe six or so years ago, I basically mimicked a friend of mine who used a fairly western forehand grip. My game has obviously changed and evolved over time, but one thing that has stuck has been that western grip on my forehand. I spend a lot of time playing these days and my forehand has never really been the weapon I've wanted it to be. While I know some people can really be successful with a western grip, I'm sort of trying to break my stroke down to the basics and start over with it - get back to the fundamentals. And in that effort, I am trying to convert from what you would now call maybe a 4/4 to a more conservative agassi or safin-like 3/4.
My real question to you is - I am having an absolute fit tyring to break the muscle memory my hand has in grabbing the racquet with my old forehand grip. I feel like changing my old swing pattern won't be so difficult when i can simply grab my racquet the same way every time. Have you ever coached someone through this kind of switch after having it so ingrained, and did you have any tricks like putting tape on the racquet as a reminder, or something along those lines? I am trying to take your advice to take a more conservative grip as a fairly average club level player, I am just struggling to break an old habit.
Thanks,
Scott Newman
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