Say hello to the racquet end

Reminding myself of how to hold the racquet seems a bit bizarre to me after more than a quarter century of playing tennis :) We're not talking huge adjustments though, maybe a centimeter or two up or down the grip. But it's worth paying attention to that from time to time.

It determines how much control you have, how easily you can swing and accelerate the racquet head, and most importantly how far away the racquet sweet spot is from you. (Finding the right distance to the sweet spot is also important when switching racquets.) Also, you'll find that making micro adjustments can sometimes improve your game on certain days, for example if your string is too bouncy or your arm feels tight.

Last weekend, I re-discovered what position feels most natural to me. I quickly took a picture of it so that I can check back later if needed :)

From Grips

As you can see, I like holding the racquet quite far down, but in a way that I can still get my hand behind my ground strokes and volleys. I now feel natural racquet acceleration for all my shots again, and most of all I I'm feeling the sweet spot again! Sweet! I wonder what would happen if Zina Garrison gave that a shot :)