The spot on your racquet's stringbed that transmits minimal initial shock to your hand is called the center of percussion. Hitting this sweet spot prevents the racquet from trying to pull out of or push against your hand.
Difficulty: Average
Time Required: 5 minutes
Here's How:
- Mark a spot on your handle where the base of your index finger would normally rest for your forehand grip. This should be roughly four inches from the butt end.
- Hold the racquet at this spot, between your index finger and thumb, so that the racquet can swing back and forth like a pendulum, with the flat of the stringbed facing into the direction of the swinging motion.
- Keeping your hand and arm still, allow the racquet to swing back and forth freely, with your thumb and index finger acting as the pivot.
- Measure the time it takes to complete five back and forth swings (five round trips).
- Divide this amount of time by five. Call the result "t."
- Multiply t squared times 9.77 ( t x t x 9.77).
- The product of this multiplication is the distance in inches from the spot you marked on your handle in step 1 to the spot on your string bed that will produce minimal initial shock to your hand.
Tips:
- If a ball hits farther away from your hand than this sweet spot, the racquet will try to pull out from your fingers (on a forehand).
- If a ball hits closer to your hand than this sweet spot, the racquet will push against your hand.
- See the links below for how to find your other two sweet spots.
