Gasquet hand position at contact
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Comment by Tim Prapong on December 28, 2011 at 7:40pm
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Nice detail to notice, Meags. I definitely noted that in a set of three separate pictures of Henin, Gasquet and Kuerten someone posted on an old TW forum thread. He showed where the index knuckles were for each one, Henin being on bevel eight. I'll have to go find those pics...
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Comment by Meags on December 28, 2011 at 4:34pm
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Looking at a few extreme eastern/semi western grips tim, guasquet, wawrinka, notice that his knuckles, infact the angle you have drawn on the pic is more closed than the racket face. Imo a full western would have the racket face on the same angle as to where his knuckles are facing...... guga kuerten's knuckles and racket edge would be parallel. You can see it here http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/tennis/1046008.stm
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Ah, yes. That's an excellent explanation there. Sometimes, I revert to the older backhand and line up the knuckles like Mac or Edberg. Definitely like a two hander line up.
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This is the natural position for those of us who use an extreme grip on their backhand. This is what mine looks like, guga is the same, guasquet's is more semi western but its still coming from very high position where your wrist naturally cocks. Modern 1hbh. Other players like samps, lendl etc line up like a two hander.
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I definitely did not find cocking the wrist makes for a weakened position against the force of the ball. In fact, it made hitting the ball very effortless. It would seem to be that way, but try it for yourself. Start at the point of contact with your arm straight and cocked. Then feed yourself the ball. You will find a wider and more horizontal swing path in order to arrive at this contact.
The brace of the whole arm is doing the work, powered at the shoulder instead of merely the rotating forearm/ elbowy motion of Fed.
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I would venture to say I would much prefer either Gasquet's or Kuerten's backhand to Fed's or Haas'. More power, better spin, stronger on the high balls, unflappable under pressure and greater variety.
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The video below at 0:41 shows the young 9 year old Gasquet on the cover of a French magazine hitting a backhand. His knuckles are cocked and aligned across the handle. Then there's footage of him as a junior hitting his backhand with his hand in the same position.
Guess the French teach their juniors to hold their backhand grips this way. Who knows? :)
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