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Tennis - General Discussion

I use eastern for my forehand and continental for my backhand. Switching grips from a continental backhand to an eastern forehand comes naturally, and I never have to think about doing it manually. It's like breathing, and if you practice it enough it will for you too. Just takes time. To switch from my backhand grip to my forehand grip on the fly, I use my off hand to rotate the grip in my hand to its eastern position. If I were you, I'de find a wall and hit the ball against it alternating backhand to forehand after each shot. That could expedite the process of getting the grip change to muscle memory.
 

MIMIC

Banned
I use eastern for my forehand and continental for my backhand. Switching grips from a continental backhand to an eastern forehand comes naturally, and I never have to think about doing it manually. It's like breathing, and if you practice it enough it will for you too. Just takes time. To switch from my backhand grip to my forehand grip on the fly, I use my off hand to rotate the grip in my hand to its eastern position. If I were you, I'de find a wall and hit the ball against it alternating backhand to forehand after each shot. That could expedite the process of getting the grip change to muscle memory.

That's what I was doing. I only had about 30 minutes of practice with it. Then I was like, "OK, let's try going from BH to FH."

That's what I want: muscle memory. I want to make it where the transition is seamless because I think I may have definitely found the cheat code to my game :)
 

Nemo

Will Eat Your Children
So I changed my grip from eastern to continental. I have a tendency to come over the ball and hit it into the net (which is why I inexplicably miss way too many cross court shots). A lot of people suggest that I "get under" the ball (don't you think I try?! lol), but I instinctively come over it. Opening the racket face up more compensates for that issue.

I can hit AT the net....but it still goes over. It's like magic! :)

But then I run into a few problems:

1. It FEELS so fucking weird. Sometimes I'm like "Is this even the proper way to hold a racket?" I have to keep adjusting my fingers to get a decent grip on it.

2. Going from backhand to forehand....how the hell am I going to remember how to hold it? The ONE convenient thing is that my BH grip isn't that far from a continental grip, so I don't have to make that much of an adjustment, but still.

I'm gonna Google some tips on this, but does anyone else have any experience changing grips?
Try to switch from continental to inbetween continental and eastern for helping you get used to the feeling faster. I use this grip when I try to go for a forehand winner or change the pace of the next shot faster to throw off the opponent, regular forehands I hit with a semi western tho

IMO all players should at least try to master a few different grips for their shots and be able to switch them out instantly when needed, seeing young kids all over town for a while now going only full western for all forehand shots trying to be Nadal with fake ass executed topspin (arm funny enough always bend, never seen straight arms, I get it's much more stable to use a bend but straight arm people almost always have great footwork to back it up with) is breaking my heart
 

MIMIC

Banned
^before I read that....

I'm gonna take a picture of my grip just to make sure that I am using the correct terminology. I'm reading all this stuff on grips and now I'm not even sure that I'm calling my grip by the right name.

Also, everyone gets to see my "weird" grip :)

EDIT:

**WARNING: the images are monstrous in size.

Here's how my typical forehand looks like (otherwise known as my "weird" grip). I gave it up a little while ago (by removing my thumb), but I recently went back to it
LCujENU.jpg

Here's how it looks like from a different angle

My backhand grip...that creates the most wicked slice ever witnessed :)

Different angle:

My NEW forehand which allows me to basically hit any ball anywhere without dumping it into the damn net. It's very similar to my BH grip (I could barely distinguish this from my BH grip):

Different angle:

What grip is MIMIC using for each of these shots? :)
 

Reyne

Member
What grip is MIMIC using for each of these shots? :)


Old Forehand: Eastern grip.
Backhand: Continental grip.
New forehand: Continental grip.

Actually, I would say the way you place your thumb is the only thing that looks odd to me about those grips. Generally, you want to grip around the racket. But other than that, there is nothing wrong with hitting with continental grip off either wing I suppose, a bit old school maybe, but it also depends what your swing looks like I guess.
Still, hard to see someone generate a whole lot of pace or topspin with grips like that. :p
 

Faith

Member
I would never hold the racket like you for the forehand. This is my forehand grip:

ae3aobzg.jpg


I think you are holding the racket way to stiff. Your grip should be loose (no matter how you are hitting the ball) and at the moment when you are hitting the ball you should tense your muscles.

And that's the reason these things happen to pros:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kplQ8eNxjlA&t=0m12s
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YKB0936X3rY&t=0m28s
etc.

Even when you serve your grip should be loose so that a 3 year old child could steal it out of your hand.
 

Diamond

Member
Now I want to see a video of Mimic playing ! Curious to see this forehand in action. :)
If you feel better holding your racket that way, why not, but applying topspin to your forehand will be very difficult. Even with a very offensive playstyle it's nice to have a little bit of security on your net approaches.

Now I suppose some people must have told you before but you certainly could had more pace to your shots with holding your racket nearer to the butt cap. Like Faith does for instance.

Then again, if you feel better that way... Changing these aspects of your game can be annoying if you don't play very often.
 

Jay Sosa

Member
^before I read that....

I'm gonna take a picture of my grip just to make sure that I am using the correct terminology. I'm reading all this stuff on grips and now I'm not even sure that I'm calling my grip by the right name.

Also, everyone gets to see my "weird" grip :)

ab9.jpg
 

Diamond

Member
Haha, yeah, I thought of Berasategui too, but I suspect our Mimic hits with the other side of the racket, old school, like René Lacoste or Fred Perry.

110725_183743.jpg
fred1.jpg


The two methods would be interesting to see in action though ! :D
 
I think the draw was rigged to favor American men. Young got revenge against Berlocq. I remember when he double bageled him here then got double bageled in the proceeding match against Blake.
 
I think the draw was rigged to favor American men. Young got revenge against Berlocq. I remember when he double bageled him here then got double bageled in the proceeding match against Blake.

The bottom half doesn't have any American men. Speaking of American men, did Mardy Fish retire from tennis? In the end I think his paranoia got the best of him.
 
What was his paranoia? That his roid retimen was effecting his heart? Or that becoming a pusher would cause his wife to leave him?

lol. He would always dodge the press' questions regarding what condition he had. It sounded like he had some very minor heart condition, but was afraid it would flare up during a match even though doctors told him he would be just fine. His problems were less heart condition, more phobia related from what I gathered. Probably Hypochondria
 

Faith

Member






That's the quality of TennisTV btw. Don't forget that a screenshot from the video doesn't look as good as in motion :)
 

MIMIC

Banned
Old Forehand: Eastern grip.
Backhand: Continental grip.
New forehand: Continental grip.

Actually, I would say the way you place your thumb is the only thing that looks odd to me about those grips. Generally, you want to grip around the racket. But other than that, there is nothing wrong with hitting with continental grip off either wing I suppose, a bit old school maybe, but it also depends what your swing looks like I guess.
Still, hard to see someone generate a whole lot of pace or topspin with grips like that. :p

Thanks for the grip analysis (all this time I thought I was using a continental grip)

I think you are holding the racket way to stiff. Your grip should be loose (no matter how you are hitting the ball) and at the moment when you are hitting the ball you should tense your muscles.

And that's the reason these things happen to pros:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kplQ8eNxjlA&t=0m12s
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YKB0936X3rY&t=0m28s
etc.

Even when you serve your grip should be loose so that a 3 year old child could steal it out of your hand.

LMAO, I've seen the Nadal one, but not the other one. That was hilarious.

But I don't think I'm holding the racket as tightly as I am in those images.

Now I want to see a video of Mimic playing ! Curious to see this forehand in action. :)
If you feel better holding your racket that way, why not, but applying topspin to your forehand will be very difficult. Even with a very offensive playstyle it's nice to have a little bit of security on your net approaches.

Well I instinctively hit DOWN on the ball instead of brushing UP on the ball (which would create topspin). I'm trying to compensate for my instincts.

Now I suppose some people must have told you before but you certainly could had more pace to your shots with holding your racket nearer to the butt cap. Like Faith does for instance.

Then again, if you feel better that way... Changing these aspects of your game can be annoying if you don't play very often.

I only hold it closer to the frame when returning serves; I hold it closer to the butt cap for everything else.

Also, today was my experimental day. I got beat 6-1, 6-3 but I was mostly trying to get the feeling of making the transition from BH grip to FH grip (and then remembering to change grips whenever I needed to hit a drop shot or a volley, which I effed up a couple of times).

I thought I was gonna get bageled in the 1st set but I ended up holding from 0*-4, 40-AD lol


lol, when I was hitting against the wall, I thought of this guy.
 

Faith

Member
Wawrinka 6:0 in 17 minutes with 11 winners xD

I just love TennisTV. I can watch it everywhere, like now on my smartphone while I'm not at home. The streams on the internet work only on computers with flash.
 
Wawrinka 6:0 in 17 minutes with 11 winners xD

I just love TennisTV. I can watch it everywhere, like now on my smartphone while I'm not at home. The streams on the internet work only on computers with flash.

I decided to start watching this match after this post because I wanted to see prime Wawrinka. I'm going to sue you for false advertising.
 

Faith

Member
I decided to start watching this match after this post because I wanted to see prime Wawrinka. I'm going to sue you for false advertising.
Sorry dude, but his 1st set was perfection xD

It's not my fault when he starts playing bad after I say he plays awesome :(
 
Isner only breaks his opponent 11% of the time. I wonder what % of time he breaks opponents when he's down 0-40. DY was serving up 40-0, and ends up being broken by Isner
 
In a mens draw Rafa = fedkilla noted was "rigged for the Americans", only Isner makes it to the 3rd round from the USA.

I miss the good old days when the American men only sucked on clay. Now we just suck at tennis in general :(
 

Niraj

I shot people I like more for less.
In a mens draw Rafa = fedkilla noted was "rigged for the Americans", only Isner makes it to the 3rd round from the USA.

I miss the good old days when the American men only sucked on clay. Now we just suck at tennis in general :(

Don't worry, you're going to have a lot of time to get used to it :p
 
Will it really take ~9 months to recover from this surgery? If so, he won't be back until the AO 2015. Poor fella.

edit: looks like this Sam Stosur match won't end until around 2:30 am local time. In Australia is prime time television so they don't mind I guess
 

Faith

Member
Maaan, I have to work on my nerves. Today I had a match against my friend, which plays tennis since 4 years. Last year I had no chance, he smashed me 6:0 6:1. We didn't play several months and early 2014 we had a match, which he won 7:6 6:1 (I had 2 set points in the first set). Third time he won 2:6 6:4 6:3, I won my first set. Fourth time I won 6:4 6:4, I did it, finally!

He was leading 4:2 today and I managed to come back and I had a set point at 5:4. He won this game and then it was 5:5 40:0 for him. I won this game (don't know how) and had a 6:5 40:15 leading with 2 new set points. Double faults on both and he got into a tie break with me, which I luckily won 7:3. Second set was 5:3 for me and then the time was over.

But my serve is sooo bad when I have to serve out a set/match. Any ideas for mental training?
 
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