OUT OF CONTROL (YOU, OR YOUR RACQUET?) {2002}

By Vince Chiarelli, PTR, MRT and Owner of String Along With Vince in Largo

I have a student who, when he makes an error, immediately looks down at his racquet. He taps his strings as if to say, "Why did you do that?" This is typical of many players. Most people who come into my store are looking for a racquet or string that will help their game. Even the top pros take their frustrations out on their frames. Safin, after losing a service game in the final of the Australian, sat down and proceeded to hit his racquet on the ground and destroy it. Hingis did the same thing. This is one of my pet peeves. The court is no place for tantrums, whether it's a grand slam or weekend social doubles. No matter what happens, it's not the racquet's fault; it's ours.

I use the above to begin talking about what I consider a related tennis fallacy. I know I'm going to get a lot of email about this one, but I'd rather speak my mind.
"String loose for power and tight for control." You've heard it for at least 30 years. In my opinion it is a half-truth. I agree with a looser tension giving you more power--that HAS been proven. It is based on scientific fact. The other part about tighter tension giving you more control, I feel is, at best, an overstatement because an objective test cannot be designed to measure subjective qualities. In my mind, control is about as subjective as you can get. The statement we are discussing leads you to believe that control and power are opposite ends of one scale, when they are more like treble and bass knobs on your stereo. You can adjust one with little or no effect on the other.

I will concede that if you usually string at 60 lbs and the ball mostly lands close to the baseline, then string at, say, 40 lbs, the ball will more than likely land out. In this case alone is there a relationship between low tension and loss of control. A recent study concluded the average club player couldn't tell the difference in tension within 15 lbs. Sounds incredible? The same study found the average satellite player couldn't discern less than an 11-lb difference! And you and I are presumptuous enough to think raising our tension from 62 to 65 is going to make us better players? I constantly hear people say to me, "I want my racquet strung as tight as possible. I need all the control I can get." What I'm hearing is "I can't hit the ball the way I want to, so I want something that will do it for me." As an instructor I have also observed that many people can actually GAIN control at LOWER tensions by not hitting the ball so hard. Ball control comes from the proper point of contact.

Earlier preparation, better footwork, better conditioning, more worthwhile practice; these are the ways to improve control. Let's stop blaming equipment for our failures and spend that time looking for the real reasons why we missed that important shot.

Copyright 2002 (Previously published in FLORIDA TENNIS - Feb., 2002)
By Vincent A. Chiarelli, USPTR, MRT, Owner of String Along With Vince