Do you use a dampener or not? It’s a personal taste thing. But what does the dampener do? Here’s a new vlog about this topic.
I have always been a dampener guy, because, with certain strings, I don’t enjoy the sound of playing without it. I prefer the “TWHOCK” over the “PIIIING”. But that’s mainly what it is, the dampener affects the sounds more than anything else and is not supposed to save you from harmful vibrations.
More on the topic in the video below:
One of the issues facing many new players is learning the grips in tennis. There are a few tools you can use to help you along though.
Learning the grips in tennis can be frustrating. You need one grip for the serve and volleys, one for the backhand, and one for the forehand. To make matters worse there are different grips to choose from for the forehand: western, semi-western, and eastern.
Learning the grips is not only for beginners. It can also be for long-time tennis players who want to transition to a more spin-friendly forehand or from a two-handed backhand to a one-handed backhand.
The above picture is from Swingitbig
Since the racquet has a tendency to move a little bit while you play and you need to be able to efficiently switch in between the different grips, you can easily transition over to the wrong grip. That’s why you see pros making sure they grip the racquet properly ahead of each stroke.
There are tools that can help you focus on achieving the right grip. One such tool is the Gripfixer, which is a rubber band that is wrapped around the grip and is designed for you to feel where to the base knuckle of the index finger.
If you want to try Gripfixer, you can use the code TENNISNERD and get 10% off.
A similar tool, but without the strong indications of where to put your fingers is the Tennis Grip Guide from Tennisbuilder. It strikes me as a bit more versatile, but on the other hand, the Gripfixer fixes your grip in place a little more.
The issue with both of these grip tools is that they do change the feel of the tennis grip quite a lot, so I’m not sure how that affects you once you’ve gotten used to them. Perhaps it’s a smooth transition, I don’t know to be honest.
I will be testing both these grips alongside each other and see if they do what they’re supposed to. My grip is pretty ingrained though, so it would be interesting to hear from beginners who have tried these to learn the proper forehand grip for example. If you’re out there and have tried these products, please let us know!
Do you struggle with your tennis grips? And do you think these tools can help in developing the correct grip?
If you’re interested in the forehand grip, you can watch this video I did with coaches Vijay and Nick as a part of our Tennisnerd Academy series
The app Swingvision offers real-time video analysis and coaching using just an iPhone*. This is how you can try Swingvision for free.
I have been using Swingvision for a while and I’m really impressed by its features. It cuts out all the dead-time during hitting sessions, sorts them into the categories like “5 Most Tiring Rallies”, “Jonas’ forehands” and so on. It gives you the percentage of shots hit inside the lines, the average shot speed, shots beyond the service box, the longest rally, rallies with 5-8 shots, and rallies under 5 shots. Shot distribution, spin distribution, you name it. Swingvision is a highly interesting tool to analyze your tennis. Get a free 30-day trial of Swingvision Pro using my link and see if it’s something that can benefit your tennis.
I am going to try to implement it into my reviews and see if certain racquets make me hit harder with more consistency. Maybe it will be a way for me to add more data and a more objective analysis of what a racquet does to my game. I will give it a try at least because I have wanted a tool like that for a long time.
Swingvision was the app of the day in November 2020 and was featured in an Apple Keynote in the Fall of 2020. It’s backed by high-profile tennis players like James Blake and Andy Roddick.
*You can also import footage from any camera (e.g. GoPro) for processing after recording.
Automated shot tracking
Trim points and create highlight reels
Track 1st/2nd serves, winners and errors
Challenge line calls in real-time (2021)Automated video analysis
Stroke type, spin type and ball speed
Shot placement, contact and rally length
Footwork, posture and positioningIn mid-2021, Swingvision will include A.I. Umpiring, bringing you automated scoring, match stats, and line-calling.
Swingvision has three different user modes.
Basic gives you 2h per month of shot tracking and video analysis and doesn’t cost anything.
Semi-Pro gives you a 10h per month and costs $59.99 per year
Pro gives you 60 h per month and costs $119.99
I’m a pro user myself and if you want to try it, get a free 30-day trial of Swingvision Pro through my link. If you decide to stay with Swingvision Pro, Tennisnerd gets a small commission, but you can cancel anytime during the trial period.
They are working on Android, but for now, you need an iOS device like a Macbook, iPad or iPhone. I record with my iPhone mounted to a Functional Tennis camera mount on the back fence. My tripod doesn’t get up quite high enough to get the angle right. You can also import your regular camera footage or GoPro footage into the Swingvision app.
I really like this product and believe in upcoming features like line-calling, match stats, and automated scoring to really revolutionize the sport for many club-level players. Imagine having an automated line calling for your local tournament? No more arguments about line calls or questionable sportsmanship.
I will do a full-on review after I’ve used it more, but for now, I’m genuinely excited about this product.
What do you think of Swingvision? Is it something you imagine yourself using?
For my reviews, I use the NTRP rating to describe player level. But not everyone understands NTRP. Here are tennis ratings explained.
There are different tennis rating systems all over the world. That creates a lot of confusion and is something that the UTR (Universal Tennis Rating) system is trying to fix. But adaptation is slow and that’s why I wanted to create a post with tennis ratings explained where I translate different tennis rating systems.
The work here is not mine. One graphic comes from Tennis Pal and one from a German website that was sent to me by Marcus Ruoff who is a patron of Tennisnerd. Big thanks to Marcus for that!
Let’s start with the graphic from Tennis Pal as it also describes the different player levels.
I find this table quite useful and shorter and easier to work with than the NTRP scale, which I will publish below. For my Tennisnerd consultation, I have tried to simplify the scale into beginner-intermediate, intermediate-advanced, advanced-pro. That works okay alongside the information the player writes in the form, but is far from perfect.
If you familiarize yourself with the numbers above and what they mean, it’s possible to translate that into your country’s ratings using the table below.
The table can look quite confusing, but it does the job in a complicated tennis world! Why do we have all these tennis rating systems? Wouldn’t it be better if everyone just stuck to one scale? Well, of course, but that will take time. I think it would be great if tennis could have something similar to the ELO system in chess (I used to be a competing chess player of about 2300 ELO and an FM title). The ELO system works really well across over-the-board chess as well as online platforms.
I find the NTRP rating scale to be wordy, but I think it does the job pretty well. You can find more content on determining your tennis rating here.
Where are you in the tennis rating scale? And what do you think about all these rating systems?
I have written previously about the TopCourt online program, which I enjoy, and Top Level Tennis provides a slightly different take on online tennis training. In this online academy, you get different programs, from beginners to advanced level players. This includes pdf-files that will give you some drills and tips on how to improve your tennis. I have so far only looked through some of the videos from Boris so I can’t say that much. But I can say that Boris Becker knows tennis! I might not be accepting financial advice from him (joking aside), but from what I’ve seen so far, I’m intrigued.
When the content from TopCourt is so far more drill-based and more focused on the production and keeping it short, this allows the coaches to be freer with their content. That’s just my feeling from watches the first couple of videos, so I will create a more in-depth Top Level Tennis Review when I’ve gone through more material. But thumbs up (to Boris) so far! Definitely interesting and valuable material.
If you want to get a Gold membership from Top Level Tennis – you can get 10% off if you use the discount code TENNISNERD10. A Gold membership is $89.
This is what Top Level Tennis writes on their website about their services.
What is the project all about? Each of the tennis star is taking part in 10 episodes of the highest quality professional tutorials within the range of physical and mental preparation. You can get to know unpublished stories from their personal and professional lives and learn how to follow your career, what mistakes to avoid to become an athlete to the best of your ability. Each guest is going to prepare appropriate training schedules to download. Additionally, (exclusively for a desired package) there are some extras in the form of professional training materials and e-books with graphical presentations of the most advanced tennis techniques available.
Tennis stars you have a chance to see in the first 10 short episodes are Dominika Cibulkova and Urszula Radwa?ska. The legends of this discipline, such as Boris Becker (a successful former player, who won the Grand Slam both as a player and as a coach) will be joining us moving forward. Besides, the following experts expressed their willingness to participate in the project: Brad Gilbert (the coach of Andre Agassi, Andy Roddick and Andy Murray, among others), Marco Panichi (Novak Djokovic fitness coach) or Wolfgang Thiem (the father and the coach of Dominic Thiem).
As you can read above, there seems to be plenty of material to look forward to.
A review of Top Level Tennis to come. If you have tried the service, let me know what you think about it in the comments below.
The TopSpin Pro is, like the name suggests, a tool to help players generate topspin. The game of tennis has evolved into a sport that is mainly centered around the topspin shot, but it is not a technique that comes naturally to a lot of players. The idea of the TopSpinPro is to teach players how to naturally angle their racquet to create more topspin. This will, in turn, allow for a greater margin of error. If you learned way back when tennis balls were mainly hit without a lot of spin and underpin (slice) was more popular than topspin, this tool might actually help you, but I think it is mainly intended for new players to the sport. So the short form of this TopSpinPro review would be to say that this is a great teaching tool for coaches.
I got interested in this tool for personal reasons. Over the course of a year or so, I’ve tried to transition from an Eastern (almost Continental grip) towards a Semi-Western forehand. The reason being that I could hit flat shots well, especially on the rise, but I often struggled with consistency in matches when the arm got tight. I am not a hundred percent there yet and the struggle “has been real”, but I’m finally getting closer to a more solid and reliable forehand. If I had this tool at the beginning of my forehand transition journey, it would probably have been a lot easier.
I’m actually so impressed by this training tool that I have signed up to be an affiliate of TopSpinPro (I only do this with products I believe in). So if you’re interested in the product, please consider purchasing it through this link where a small commission goes towards supporting Tennisnerd. Thanks.
Let’s look at some practical details of the TopSpinPro.
I really find it useful for getting my technique back together after switching racquets all the time and playing around with the technique. I’m sure that building a solid foundation of topspin will help you hit fewer errors and enjoy tennis more.
Have you tried this product? What are your thoughts?
I have been using VT Advantec strips and grips for a few months and overall it’s been a positive experience. I can’t sadly confirm the claims about reducing vibrations compared to lead tape. Because any added weight will technically reduce vibration according to The Physics and Technology of Tennis
A strip is around 0.8-0.9 grams so if you add two strips, it does make a difference. If you haven’t tried racquet customization before, this is a great way to start.
The VT Advantec grips are something like a synthetic leather grip with the same material as the strips included to reduce vibrations. If you don’t like the feeling of the bevels of the grip or never used a leather grip, this might not be your cup of tea. But if you use leather grips and want a more comfortable alternative, I think you should give the VT Advantec grips a try. I really enjoyed these grips and they did feel more comfortable to me than a leather grip, especially for my hand.
As you can tell, I like the products, but I am not sure about whether they do everything they claim to. I would love to see some scientific data on how and how much these products eliminate vibrations. I didn’t personally feel a difference compared to lead tape, but if you don’t use lead tape – these products should work well to make your racquet more stable and solid-feeling.
I do like the feel of the grips and my favorite part of the strips is the ability to move them around between racquets. Perhaps they would make a difference if I use them for a long period of time, but since I don’t suffer from tennis elbow or wrist pain these days, I have a hard time telling whether they would help me or not.
That’s why I’m keen to hear from you who have tested their products. What do you think about them?
The Functional Tennis camera mount is mainly made for mobile phones but can also be used for GoPros or similar cameras. It is not made for larger, more traditional digital cameras, but I have recently moved from recording with my Lumix GX85
The Functional Tennis camera mount is not a tripod
It weighs less than half a kg and includes a collapsible pole which makes it fit easily in all tennis bags.
The setup is easy and only takes a minute. The phone is steadily in place and there seems to be no risk of it slipping out of the mount even if hit by a ball.
I have really been impressed by the quality of the footage when filming with an iPhone compared to my regular mirrorless camera, but the biggest improvement is probably the sound. Now you can really hear the thwack of the racquet hitting the ball. I will create a video review of the mount shortly so that you can see how it works. Below is a screenshot from a video I recently released on the Tennisnerd Patreon page called “Cleaning my technique”.
You can buy the Functional Tennis Camera mount here.
Yesterday I got a box with a couple of VT Advantec strips and grips and it will be interesting to review their products. I have already added both the grip (which feels like a softer leather grip) and the rubber-like strips to one of my Soft Drives to see what it does to the feel.
The VT Advantec marketing talks about the following:
“Our science will give you an edge. We’ve combined innovative dampening materials with demanding real-world testing to design a vibration reduction technology that lets you inject life into your game and bring your best game to the court.”
At first, I thought the rubber strips would add weight to the racquet, similar to lead tape, but one strip is only 0.5 grams, so although you do add 2 grams if you do 3-9 or 10-2 positions, it is quite minimal.
According to VT Advantec, vibration is the enemy. Maybe they are right in a way, especially if we talk about harmful vibrations that create injury issues like tennis elbow and wrist tendinitis. But the way I understand it if you mute vibrations too much you risk eliminating feedback which will give the player information on where in the string bed he hit the tennis ball. So a product like this should hopefully not mute the feel too much. But let’s look at the science according to their website:
“Certain chemicals and compounds have the ability to cushion impact and greatly reduce unwanted vibration. We engineered highly specific combinations of these materials to do just that. Our technologies are special for their unique qualities of frequency absorption and dissipation that help increase your stability and control on the court.”
I am really curious about this tech because if this works, it is really some proper innovation in the tennis industry. But I will remain skeptical until I have properly tested the Advantec products. But judging by the feedback I got on the Instagram posts, they seem to have a lot of fans of their products.
This is what they say that I will set out to verify:
The Tennis Grip Guide is a rubber band with numbers illustrating the various bevels of the tennis racquet handle. It will help you identify the differences between Continental, Eastern, Semi-Western and Western grips. This can be useful for players of all levels, especially if you are starting out as a kid, junior or a beginner.
The Tennis Grip guide
I have played tennis for many years and know the grips pretty well, but I still enjoyed using the tennis grip guide to test various grips. I have tried to make the adjustment from Eastern to Semi-Western forehand grip, and this is where the grip guide can help remind me of where to grip the racquet. It is based on where to place your heel pad and index finger knuckle.
If you really want to focus on learning the proper tennis grips, I found this tool to be of great help. The only issue I encountered was that the grips might move a little bit during play since you are placing your fingers on them. But you can re-adjust them quickly.
All in all, the tennis grip guide is a nice innovation that does a good job of helping players identify the correct tennis grips. It also costs less than 10 USD, which should be affordable for most people. There is also a guide online with videos of different grips.
You can buy the Tennis Grip guide
Would you find the tennis grip guide useful? Do you know all the grips of tennis? Please comment below.
