INSTRUCTION

Power Through Relaxation

on the Serve By Joe Dinoffer

Which Fingers need to be

Relaxed
While none of the fingers will hold tightly onto the grip, the two fingers
that maintain the proper hand position on the racket handle are your thumb
and index finger. How firm should you grip? About as firm as you could hold
a pet parakeet you didn’t want to fly away. If a bird isn’t handy, try this. Borrow
an egg and hold it in your hand. Pretend you are holding your tennis racket
and go through a full serving or throwing motion. Just don’t let go of the egg.
If it breaks from you squeezing it, you are holding it too tight. If it rolls around
in your hand and breaks or doesn’t break, you are holding it too loose. Warn-
ing: If you tend to be tense you might want to try this exercise outdoors in
case the egg breaks!
Of course, there’s almost always an easier way to make the same test. Use
an empty plastic water bottle. If you squeeze too tight, you will hear that the
water bottle will make a “crackling” sound. Practice your throwing motion until
you minimize the crackling sound or hear no sound at all.

The Grip and Range of Motion

The wrist is understood to be the fastest moving of all major joints in the
human body. Therefore it is no surprise that the wrist should stay as relaxed

Photo 2: Hit ball

with the racket
Photo 1: Relaxed edge to find the
starting position “Hammer” grip

The Importance of the Serve

The average set consists of 55 points. The average point lasts three hits,
including the serve. Statistically, this results in 44% of all swings at the ball in
singles being the serve. If that doesn’t send a crystal clear message that the
serve is the single most important shot in tennis, nothing will. At what levels
does this astonishing statistic hold true?
It’s pretty much the same for both recreational and pro level players.

Relaxation
Let’s start the discussion on relaxation while serving by identifying the key
link in the service motion. You can do everything right, the stance, the toss,
the preparation, the swing, the follow-through, etc., but if you do not have
a relaxed racket-hand grip, and the subsequent relaxed wrist, you will have
a weak serve. To test this theory, just throw a ball. The first time do it with a
normal relaxed wrist. Then, lock your wrist to understand how a firm wrist will
prevent a natural and effective service motion.
Although most players know that the wrist must be loose and whip-like
to snap the racket head into the ball, a surprisingly large number of players
stand ready-to-serve with a moderate to extremely tense ready position that
includes a tight grip on the racket.
To help begin and maintain a relaxed grip, try using the non-racket hand to
support the weight of the racket. (Photo #1).
Start relaxed and the racket-hand should remain relaxed. Start tight, and
chances are it will remain tight. A relaxed service motion requires all the parts
of the arm to be relaxed, from the fingers to the wrist, and on up through
the bicep into the shoulder. Since the fingers on the grip are critical in the
process, let’s discuss which fingers need to be completely relaxed and which
may need just a slight force on the grip to remain in position.

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 INSTRUCTION
as possible during the entire service motion. However, a simple, but common-
ly ignored connection is that the wrist cannot remain relaxed if the fingers are
squeezing the racket handle in a vise-like grip. Try it for yourself. Squeeze the
handle of the racket and try and relax your wrist and flip your wrist quickly up
and down. You’ll quickly see it’s impossible. If you want to move your wrist
freely and quickly, you’ll have to relax your fingers on the grip.
Next question: does the position of your hand on the grip make a differ-
ence in racket head speed, or does any type of grip yield an equally quick
wrist motion through a full range of motion. Answer: The continental or “ham-
mer” grip is commonly accepted as the hand position that allows the largest
and quickest range of motion in the wrist. If you’re not familiar with this grip,
you can most easily find it by tapping a ball down on the ground with the
edge of your racket (See Photo #2). And, yes, from its nickname, this same
grip position is how most people would hold a carpenter’s hammer. If you’re
still curious, experiment for yourself. Hold the racket grip in 90 degrees away
from the hammer grip, just like you would hold a frying pan. The strings of
the racket should now be pointing up and the palm of your hand should be
pointing down to the ground, just like cooking on a stove (See Photo #3).
When you flex your wrist you should immediately see that the range of mo-
tion in the wrist is drastically reduced in this “frying pan” position as compared
to the continental or hammer grip.
This should clear up any lingering mystery around racket head acceleration
and power on the serve. Relax your fingers on the grip, holding it in a position
similar to holding a hammer. Keep the fingers relaxed through the motion
and feel the wrist flexing in as full a range of motion as possible, as quickly as
possible.
Of course, there are other concerns on the entire service motion, but these
basics will get you a decent serve if you do perform none of the other ele-
ments, including a well-placed toss, bending of the knees to build ground
forces, and coiling of the torso and upper body to further accelerate the entire
body together through the entire service swing. Now that you are hopefully
convinced of the benefits of relaxing your grip for a better serve, lets move on
to some ways that you can get a feel for a the right amount of relaxation.

Ways to Loosen the Grip

Although there are many ways to loosen your grip on the racket, we will
share two surefire ways to get you on your way to a faster and more powerful
serve.

Tip #1: Drop your fingers off the grip – As you might imagine, if your
fingers are not even on the grip, they certainly cannot squeeze it! To get a

Photo 4: To Relax try

dropping fingers off the grip

42 TennisLife magazine APRIL 2 0 0 9

 Photo 3: Avoid the
“Frying Pan” grip shown in
this photo

feel for a relaxed grip, try dropping one or even

two fingers off the bottom of the grip. Serve some
balls this way and then put the fingers back on
and try to keep your grip just as relaxed. If needed,
go back and forth with fingers on and then off
again until you feel the same relaxation both ways.
(Photo #4)

Tip #2: Use a golf aid to help you relax – It

always helps to get immediate feedback when
you’re trying to get a feel for a new tennis skill.
There’s a golf aid that also works great for tennis.
It’s a finger sleeve that beeps when you squeeze
too hard. Go to www.griploose.com if you want
more information. (Photo #5)

Summary
I remember asking a tennis industry leader I
consider one of the most knowledgeable in the
world the obvious question, “So, just how loose
a grip do you want to hold on the
serve?” He replied, “As loose as pos-
sible, as long as the ball goes in the
court a high percentage of the time
and the racket doesn’t fly over the
net.”

Photo 5: Using
auditory bio-feedback
with a beeping finger
sleeve

photos courtesy: joe dinoffer

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