Ideal Racquet Motion

In every groundstroke, in order to strike the ball, the racquet must be advanced from a position in which the racquet butt is pointing toward the ball to where the racquet face is perpendicular to the path of the ball. Below is an animation of the ideal movement to advance the racquet from the contract to the strike position regardless of your grip.

This movement is ideal because the butt of the racquet remains on a straight-line path as the racquet is pulled forward (by the butt), and the head of the racquet is rotated forward into the path of the ball.

However, moving the butt along a perfectly straight line is impossible; thus we use the term ideal.

During the rotate stage, the butt may vary from a straight line as a result of the combined movements of the body and arm. However, during the acceleration stage, a straight-line movement of the butt during upper arm rotation is nearly achievable. The degree to which you achieve this ideal motion will determine, to a great extent, how cleanly you strike the ball.

One reason that this motion is so effective is that our brains can keep track of the racquet progress relative to the ball better than any other motion. The straight-line movement of the butt in conjunction with the racquet head rotation is also very stable.

It is possible that this motion was what Chris Evert was referring to when she said that one must swing the racquet with a "quiet" racquet head.