Basic Techniques Playing Tennis (Grip)

Here I will try to explain the basic techniques of playing tennis for you-if only you are still a beginner and wanted to try playing tennis properly. This paper I combine of some references that I can, hopefully it easy for you to follow.

Grip (Handle Racket)
I chose to discuss this because often the players are new or have been completely stuck playing tennis on the basis of an error in holding the racket. I see this is likely due to the most distant known badminton Indonesia as the most popular sport played in Indonesia, which often adopts the style grip badminton rackets.

Badminton racket grip tends to be in the middle of the handle, while the courts tend to be at the end of the handle of the racket. Examples can be seen in the following figure:

I think this difference can be understood from the kinetic swing in hitting the ball or shuttlecock in badminton. Tennis tends to use his swing and body movement as well as round the shoulder to hit the ball, so the racket can be considered as an extension and a single unit with the body. When the handle is in the midpoint of the racquet, the racquet will damage the stability and integrity of the swing arm itself. As with badminton racquet that has a lighter weight than tennis. Badminton use more wrist movement than the whole arm up to the shoulder itself, so that the handle in the middle of the handle even further strengthen the grip.

More ... The following will explain the position of the hand grip on the handle of tennis racket viewed from the position of the handle.

Generally octagonal tennis racket handle. The eight sides are divided into the top, bottom, left, right and angles 1, 2, 3, and 4 (clockwise) as illustrated in the picture on the side. That used to be the benchmark of every type of grip is the position of the base of the tip of your index finger.

Next we review some of the grip or handle of the racquet in a tennis game.

1. Continental forehand grip

 Grip is a classic grip that is always used by tennis players antiquity when wooden rackets are used. The position of the hand just above the base of the handle of the racket and the position of the index is at the corner of 1 (for right-handed players) or the angle 4 (for left-handed players).

 Modern pro players who were still using this type is Stefan Edberg and John McEnroe previously was. Grip is very good use on the field quickly, like grass, and is used by the player with the game type 'Service Volley'. Currently there is not much use as a type of continental forehand grip mainly because the faster tempo of the game with the ball spinning (spin). Minus grip is only used to blow horizontally (flat) and slice (slice), while for the spin punch rather difficult. Players who use this grip is also often difficult to face top spin balls that are slightly inflated parabolic. However, the continental grip is a standard grip to perform service and also to punch volley and overhead as a steady hand gripping the handle of the racket.

 2. Eastern forehand grip

Eastern  is most easily applied grip novice players. Grip is often referred to as the 'grip handshake'. You can try to start the handle of the racket neck, such as shaking hands, then down to the end of the handle of the racket. The position of the base of the index finger tends to be on the right side (for right-handed players) or the left (for right-handed players).

The handle of this type can provide a complete punch variation, be it flat, slice, or spin. Grip is perfect choice for players who often rely on the net to volley game because you can easily and quickly customize the grip to punch volley into the net. But minus the handle is again somewhat difficult to deal with topspin balls which are parabolic.

One of the pro players who dominated tennis in the 90s, that is Pete Sampras, using this grip as his choice because he is a typical player Service Volley very comfortable using this grip.

3. Semi-Western forehand grip

grip type is the most widely used by modern tennis players, especially those with type baseliner game (myself included).

You can try this grip by placing the base of your index finger in the corner of 2 (for right-handed players) or 3 (for right-handed players). Or it could be originated from eastern grip your hand then rotated clockwise one corner to 2 or 3.

The advantages of this grip is that you can hit a good spin by making it more likely to pass the ball over the net because it is parabolic. Grip can also be used to hit flat but it is not recommended to hit the slice. Minus of the grip is difficult to anticipate low balls resulting from blows flat or slice especially in fast pitch (grass or hard court).

Some examples of pro players who use this grip are: Andre Agassi, Roger Federer, Marat Safin.

4. Western forehand grip

 Grip this type is an extreme grip is used mainly to produce topspin strokes. Players claycourt specialist (clay) generally use this type of grip, too many of today's modern players.

I often refer to this as a grip 'handle frying pan' as how to hold a racket, just like we are holding up the wok or pan cooking. The trick is that you place the position of the base of the index finger on the underside of the handle of the racket. Or you can start from a position of semi-western corner and then shifted to the lower side of the handle of the racket.

Grip is very good to use for players who want to hit the ball with top spin to the extreme. Direction of the ball from the results of this blow can soar above the net and fell under extreme parabolic line. Grip is also very comfortable to use for anticipating high balls that usually occurs on clay. However, minus the grip of this type is not used to make flat punch and slice and also very difficult to anticipate slice balls that fall low on the ground quickly like grass (grass) or cement (hard court).

Pro players are adopting this type of grip is generally a clay specialist players such as Rafael Nadal, Carlos Moya or earlier is Sergi Bruguera.

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