The Intrigue of Feel

Over the last forty years, the game of tennis has improved dramatically. Today's players have more power, spin, and control, and additionally are stronger and faster athletes. The result is a much more enjoyable game for both participants and spectators. Much of the breakthrough for this improvement can be attributed to the innovations in racket and string technology. This improved, advanced equipment also brought to the forefront greater intrigue with the concept of “feel.” The transition to more responsive equipment has elevated the transfer of sensory information for players; as a result, coaches have placed far more emphasis on how their students “feel” when striking the ball and how that sensation can contribute to improvement in their game. So how did this all come about?

One of the pioneers involved in this transition was Warren Bosworth, stringer extraordinaire. Warren is considered by many to be one of the first to really delve into the technological dynamics of racket design and how best to string a racket to help a player optimize their hitting skills. He knew that finding a way to enhance the feedback and sensation of hitting a ball would both elevate the level of their play and create a new era of personalizing the racket to the player. He wasn’t just a racket stringer; he was an engineer using research and science to achieve these goals.  

There are legendary stories of the many top players who were adamant about having only him provide their racket needs. Few people in the industry had the opportunity to hear and learn from his insight, but at a rare lecture in San Francisco in 1983, about 30-plus attendees were treated to an unbelievable learning experience. He opened by explaining that “feel” should be understood by science and research, not speculation or intuition. His example started by asking the audience this question: “Which one of these surfaces in this room is colder, the curtain, the wall, or the doorknob?” After feeling these three objects, without hesitation, a young man answered with confidence, “The doorknob.” Warren responded, “You’ve just perfectly illustrated why proper science and facts are so important to understand and apply to our work. The fact is that all three objects are the same temperature, but the metal doorknob feels colder than the curtain or the wall because metal is a much better thermal conductor, rapidly pulling heat away from your skin, whereas wood or the curtain are more of an insulator.” That explanation was the introduction to an hour of absolute enlightenment and insight. He compared the stringing of rackets to the tuning of a violin, noting that the feedback was similar to tennis; although the musician could hear what he was playing, he could also feel the sensations, which allowed him to better execute his performance.  

His insight and expertise carried on for several decades, and today, you often will hear coaches use analogies to highlight the importance of feel. They may mention that a player should not hold the racket too tightly for loss of “feel”. In turn use analogies like holding a live bird, not too tight to harm it, but not too loose to allow it to escape your grip…the agility of using of chopsticks, writing or painting, and even using the ring finger to apply makeup, are all good examples of using a more sensitive method to better manage a tool or instrument through the process of having more “feel.”

Feel does not only apply to a player's hand, but also to any other part of the body that interacts with another object or surface, in this case, that would include the court surface. Finding the right shoes that provide stability, support, and still have a good “feel” for the surface has also been researched by many of the companies that provide footwear, and in the last 40-plus years, great progress has been made.  

There is one more element about “feel” that is very impactful. So often, you hear from athletes that they “did not have a good 'feel' for their game that day.” This absence of feedback goes beyond our physical feedback from their equipment; its physical feel that is the language of the body communicating its state, acting as the tangible, visceral experience that connects our bodily sensations with our emotional world. As a result, the loss or absence of “feel” can impact a player's focus and confidence.

The coach's response to address this issue is often to have their student find a ritual-like approach to beginning a point. We saw this with Nadal before his serve consistently going through a ritualistic pattern of self-grooming, or Djokovic bouncing the ball several times before serving. Even before returning serve, players will ready themselves to transition from mere observation to pre-participation for the next point. All of these routines allow a player to find an emotional and physical way of being in the moment, possibly reconnect with the flow of a match, and be more receptive to finding their “feel” before actually starting a point.

As it is in so many learning progressions, every player will discover that it is a journey that seems to have no ending, just one experience after another that takes both coach and player to learn from history and prepare for the future.