Serving with Extreme Continental Grip

[Allen30]

Hello,

I am a 5.0 player and have been changing my grips in the last year to improve all of my strokes. I previously had an eastern forehand and kept the same grip on the backhand.

Now I have a semi-western forehand and switch to the backhand with a continental grip with my right hand.

My question is that I have seen 2 types of continental grips, especially on the serve and I was wondering if:

1) Anyone had pictures of the more extreme continental grip
2) I get more spin with the extreme continental grip, but it feels so hard to garner any power. Any ideas? Also, are you able to hit flat with that extreme grip?

Thank you

 

[Rafa's best friend]

Just Watch Lendle serve, he serves with pretty much eastern backhand grip and he had one of the best serves ever.........

 

[Ten_is]

the spin comes from pronation of the arm during impact. Not the grip itself. Is Eastern forehand kinda like holding a frying pan? Look at Sampras serve.

 

[Rafa's best friend]

That is very true about pronation, but the Grip definitely helps........

 

[Ten_is]

Yep. Pronation is the key.
Think about the extreme continental for a second and think if you can pronate your arm all the way to make the head of the racquet face the net.

??

 

[Tennismastery]

Guys, please check carefully video of Sampras and Lendl's serves and grips. Both Lendl and Sampras use a continental grip. It looks somewhat like an eastern backhand grip as both, like many pros, turn their wrist inward which makes the racquet face open in a ready position. There are very few pros who use a true eastern backhand grip...and even fewer that use the frying pan, eastern forehand grip.

It isn't just about pronation...pronation with a true eastern forehand grip makes the racquet brush more under the ball and tends to hit a flatter serve. Pronation with a true eastern backhand grip creates more topspin and the brush tends to be more above the equator than a continental grip.

The continental grip can behave similar to both these grips based on the wrist position almost mimicking the two grips relative to the forearm.

While many skilled players can and do adjust their grip slightly for more emphasis on one serve over another, it is truly rare to see a pro use the true eastern grips on the serve. Look carefully and even Becker used nearly a continental grip but turned his wrist outward, th opposite direction as most players today...which is why many people say Becker used an Eastern forehand grip. (It was really about halfway between a continental and eastern forehand grip.)

 

[Rafa's best friend]

Also James Blake told me personally that he uses fast writst Snap and it gives hime more power and Spin on his serves, that is why he has such improved serve right now. James is one of the nicest guys i ever met.......

 

[Ten_is]

fast wrist snap? Someone on this board was saying there's no such thing on a serve and gave facts. no?

 

[Tennismastery]

fast wrist snap? Someone on this board was saying there's no such thing on a serve and gave facts. no?

Yes, this has been covered in great length. John Yandell did some excellent work on this concept and if you review any high-speed video of top servers, you seldom see the wrist inflection (associated with the so-called 'wrist snap') in these pros. What you do see is pronation of the forearm with the racquet and wrist relationship nearly the same from before contact to after.

However, there is some movement of the wrist including wrist tilt and a simple looseness that players have to prevent from holding the racquet in a 'death grip' that we see many recreational players use.

On some serves and certainly on some overheads, there can be some element of wrist snap...especially on flatter serves and overheads among some players. This is generally a slowing down of the arm and letting the racquet pronate and the wrist flex while the arm is still held high. (Similar to a smash in badminton.)

However, I agree with John Yandell's conclusion that for the most part, wrist flexion is not a conscious action and is seen more as a reaction to the speed of the racquet and the basic pronation of the stroke.

 

[fuzz nation]

I think of wrist snap as a result of an action, not an action in and of itself. Think of your wrist as merely a hinge in the service motion; if you're in the middle of swinging and then stop your arm, the racquet "whups" around right there and your wrist, well, snaps. More of a useful thing to put spin into a serve than power where you want to drive up and accelerate through the ball and not hold up anything.

I try to disguise my grip because the extreme continental is a dead giveaway that I'm going for heavy topspin--not like I have a baseball glove to hide it like a pitcher, though. A mild continental works for my slice and my heater, but extreme continental really sends my slice sideways!

 

[spot]

I can't remember where I read it but someone went through and asked the pros if they consciously snapped their wrist on the serve and nearly all of them said that they did. It very well might be just a mental cue that doesn't show up on film but I do believe that most top players believe in the wrist snap.

 

[Rafa's best friend]

James Blake personally told me that if he does not snap his wrist he loses about 20mph on his serve, so the wrist snap is not a Myth.........

 

[Tennismastery]

James Blake personally told me that if he does not snap his wrist he loses about 20mph on his serve, so the wrist snap is not a Myth.........

I think the conscious feel of a wrist snap during high velocity serves is tenuous at best. What many believe they feel is a 'wrist snap' may very well be the pronation in which all skilled players execute on nearly every single serve.

That is not to say that I don't believe there is some wrist 'element' in every serve that provides some impedus to increasing racquet head speed. It may not be true wrist flexion as is usually thought of as the 'wrist snap'...but there is some movements of the wrist that may not be a gross wrist/forearm displacement, but something that adds subtly to racquet head speed.