Sports is like religion. There are commandments , there are gods and a lot of faith is involved. I just thought I would compare two sports I like table tennis and tennis and see where the similarities are, aside from the obvious.
After decades of absence from tennis, I decided to take it up again in 2000. unfortunately the spirit was willing but the body was weak. to provide a gentler work-up to the strength levels required in tennis, I took up table tennis. I adopted the penhold grip. I saw some cheap penhold type rackets (short handle) in one store and thought I would try out. Well I liked them very much. I remember reading in table tennis books that the penhold forehand is the most powerful forehand in table tennis.
You could youtube Kim Taek Soo, a great korean player and see what i mean. Now i asked myself why is it the most powerful forehand. Is it by design or by accident? I theorized it was probably due to the way the racket face moves against the ball at point of contact.Now when I tried to play tennis again. I was dumbfounded. I still used the old eastern grip and my balls always netted. all the time. It was kind of frustrating. Even the coach could not tell me what was going on. in desperation I tried adjusting my grip and imagined the ball was a ping pong ball and the racket was a pingpong bat.
The best grip that I came up with that insured the head was "trailing the grip as you swung at the ball was a western grip! I could not use the penhold grip on the large tennis racquet but I found that the western grip served the same purpose - that is to make the racket and foreaarm roughly move in the same plane as you hit the ball. This is unlike the shakehands (ping pong) and eastern grip where the racket and forearm are at an angle.
The confidence I had when I hit those penhold forehands in table tennis returned.
"The forearm and the racket should stay in the same plane as much as possible during ball contact..."
"The racket head should slightly trail the grip so that spin would naturally be imparted to the ball" (face "brushes" the ball)
Please note tht in the table tennis penhold the hand hold the racket differently from the western. but the head angle of attack as well as the forearm movement is nearly IDENTICAL.
So these are why the penhold is the strongest forehand of all, and the same reasons make the western the strongest possible forehand in tennis.In both grips the racket become the geometrical extension of the hand or palm like the aztec atlatl.
Technically the way the racket is held is not the same but the stroke is the same!