The three fingered grasp

The thumb and first two fingers are made for penmanship, a  very accurate articulated pendulum.  Try keeping the little finger under the butt of the racket and playing a few strokes.  Especially the serve.  This adds another articulated joint in the swing sequence, from  balls of feet to thumb/index finger.  If you get the fingers working, you see a jump in  swing efficiency.

Which brings up a teaching point.  If the butt of your racket was a marker pen, what is the 3-dimensional shape you want your students to follow?  Tell them to write that mark in space with the butt of their racket.




When did we learn to coordinate thumb and index finger?  It is part of throwing a rock and  fine tuning the trajectory.  That ability translates directly into holding a bone tool.  That whole dominant hand neural sequence control is cultural, stone age fundamentals.