The Elbow and Your Grip

Among the four basic elements essential for any professional tennis stroke, the elbow configuration is one of the two most important. To the right is a video in both QuickTime and Shockwave format that illustrates and explains the relationship of the elbow configuration to the grip for the continental, eastern, western, and extreme western grips. A professional might use any one of these grips depending on the situation (for example, when a player is pulled wide, a continental grip might be used to chuck the ball back into the court), so it is important to understand that the elbow and grip must be adjusted together.

Small Streaming Video for Slower Modems (700K)

Large Streaming Video for DSL/Cable Modems (2.2Meg streaming video, about 1 minute to load)

The stability of the elbow is essential to every shot. Once you learn about the elbow by studying the forehand, much of your knowledge will carry over to all the other shots. The elbow is the key to stability. Experiment with this. This figure shows an initial exercise that will shorten your experimentation time.

In this exercise, you hold the elbow of your racquet arm out in front of your body with your free hand. The point of the exercise is to start getting a feeling for the stability, clarity, adaptability, and maneuverability of this position.

For the eastern grip, the angle at the elbow is more open. For the continental, it is even more open.

Since this is clearly unnatural for most people, it does take a little time to get used to. Experiment with this position both at home and on the court.