Get A Grip On It

We’ve all seen the transition in racket technology in the last 50 years, and it’s been quite amazing. However, although this evolution may have changed the tools we use, the sport players try to master has always required their passion and competitive drive. Because of these strong emotions, players often hurry to purchase any new popular equipment without much discretion. As a result, we coaches need to be vigilant about monitoring their choices. Their choice of the weight and the size of a racket is somewhat easy to evaluate, but one area of concern that is often overlooked is the size and shape of the handle.

Maybe the most important and unrecognized features of today’s rackets have been the gradual disappearance of the larger grip sizes. Any player with a large hand may discover that purchasing any racket with a grip size larger than 4 5/8 is very difficult. Why is this relevant for coaches? Because when the height and size of players gradually increase, they in turn are more likely to have larger hands. Note that a person's hand size is measured from the palm's base to the tip of the middle finger. The average size for men is 7.44 inches and for women, 6.77 inches. Although the size of a person’s hand is not always in ratio with their height, some players who aren’t that tall may have a hand size of over 10 inches, and of course, the opposite can be true. Whatever the individual physical character, any student having issues with grip size is a student who may need special adjustments to their grip.  

These players that do have very large hands may need to have the handle increase in size by adding overgrips, sometimes as many as three. Coaches need to know how this addition of overgrips can impact the shape of the grip of a racket.

Every grip has eight sides, often referred to as bevels. The racket is shaped like an octagon, so every time an overgrip is added to the racket, each of those bevels is slightly larger. Because the shape of the grip is an octagon, with the front and back of the grip slightly wider. Adding one overgrip will slightly make the grip rounder, but adding several of these overgrips, if needed, will make the grip completely round. Think of it as smoothing out the corners as you add more and more segments to the shape. The closer you get to an infinite number of sides, the closer the shape will be to a perfect circle. Players need to have rackets that have a distinctly wider front and back side to better feel and identify how they are holding their rackets.

There is a solution to this problem. Before adding an overgrip (which, by the way, usually will add 1/8 inch to the handle), you apply layers of strong adhesive tape to the six smaller bevels on the top and bottom of the grip, not the wider front and back sides of the racket. If a player performs better with a more rectangular grip, you can also add just a few strips to only the top and bottom of their racket. This addition will help keep the grip more octagonal if you are adding several overgrips.  

So now that a player has a new engineered grip size, what has been gained? The answer is very important because all coaches know that the way a player holds their racket is a very important connection. It could be looked at as another joint of the body. A piece of the connection, much like the shoulder, elbow, or wrist, with possibly the most impactful influence on the mechanics of a stroke.  

In addition, the relationship of a player's hand to their racket is where the feel and feedback are mostly generated. Having a grip that is more naturally held and supported also helps in keeping a player from holding their racket too tightly. This issue is very important. There are several analogies and instructional tips that are used to support this important connection, which help a student understand and create a better feel through their grip. Consider how a person should hold a pencil when writing, or the common analogy of holding a live bird, too tight and you can injure it, and too loose and it can fly away. The message is the same…harmonizing feel and control. This is especially true these days with the way the more advanced players hit their forehands; both the dip and whip demand a soft hand to allow the stroke to have this freedom of movement.  

There is one other very important issue, and that concerns injuries. As mentioned, the grip is like another joint in the body that helps conduct the mechanics of all strokes. Imagine that a player's elbow, wrist, or shoulder was very stiff during a stroke; this can lead to an injury to that part of the body. It should be pointed out that recent statistics have shown a dramatic increase in injuries among top players, but those stats are exclusive to the professional level of tennis; the statistical impact on others just learning or playing more recreationally is not as readily available, but it is safe to say, that those with lesser physical attributes likely have a greater number of these types of injuries.

Hopefully, coaches and their students will appreciate that every aspect of playing tennis is being addressed during their lessons, including the goals of playing better tennis and playing injury-free tennis. We all know that the other half of growing the game is retaining our current players through a healthy approach to our lifetime sport.