Theoretical Modeling of Grip Firmness during Ball-Racket Impact

Abstract

Abstract This study was undertaken to establish theoretical bases for the experimental results reported by Baker and Putnam (1979), and Walanabe, Ikegami and Miyashita (1979), concerning grip firmness on a tennis racket and its effect on the ratio of post- to pre-impact ball velocity. The model predicted that, for central impacts, there was no change in the ball velocity ratio when a regular tennis racket was tightly clamped at the grip or allowed to freely stand on its butt. To validate the model further, alterations were made to two parameters of the racket—a tennis racket was modified to increase the stiffness, and a racketball racket was used to simulate a shortened tennis racket. Multiple exposure photographs were taken of balls striking the center of the rackets under the two extremes of grip firmness. Measurements were taken from enlargements of these photographs in order to calculate the horizontal component of post- to pre-impact ball velocity. It was found that shortening the length and greatly ...