Comfort and Power Zones

[johnyandell]

Let's discuss Dave Hagler's latest article, "Comfort and Power Zones"

[jthb1021]

I loved your articles from a few months back and I’m glad you’re doing this and I hope it is a series or has some follow up articles. In my teaching one of the most common themes for ground strokes would be the emphasis on the footwork of moving to get the ball in your strike zone. I know for me my forehand grip seems to shift a little more extreme when I’m on clay vs. an indoor hard court. A few weeks ago I noticed that I would hit a forehand and would leave my grip in the recovery phase, either out of laziness of teaching or the old days where I am looking for another forehand. I made the adjustment which I thought I always have did, switching back to shifting to a continental grip in between shots. In putting that in action I noticed in the warm up of a practice set earlier in the week I found that my grips varied a lot more with this change in a good way. (Nothing huge just a tiny click one way or the other on both forehands and backhands)I played one of the better sets I’ve played this summer but my takeaway was my grip was naturally adapting to my intended shots allowing me to hit better shots than usual on certain balls. I had actually taken a note on this for my teaching and then I am blessed to read this really well presented article. I look forward to the next one.

[doctorhl]

Great article for adjusting to different variables. Jthb1021: notice that the 10 yr old in the article makes a grip change when he moves back to a ready position, whereas the 19 year old has almost completed his grip change by the time he returns to his ready position! If a second ball was quickly fed to the 10 yr old’s backhand, he would have some difficulty in making the grip change in time. I struggled with a forehand full wraparound followthrough with my grip in semi-western and trying to change it quickly to a full backhand grip if I had to wait to change it until I was in a ready position.

[DavidLHagler]

Thanks for the kind words. There are more articles in the works. Not sure when they will be finished. dlh

[stotty]

A great article from David as always. He goes about coaching in a very practical way. Ball height is a big deal and I like to get my better juniors adept at higher bouncing balls in terms of spacing and higher, shorter backswings. All too often players prepare for higher balls in the same way they would balls that come in lower. Leg drive also becomes really important...and the timing of it.