Swinging or Hitting?

For a little more than a decade, I played golf and dabbled with clubmaking. 

And when the golf club fitters and club makers started turning away my very unusual requests, I learnt how to DIY. 

Pulling and swapping shafts, shaft flex tunings via tip/butt trims, spine alignments, total weight and swingweight adjustments, MOI matchings, grip sizings, clubhead CG adjustments, wedge grinds, lie/loft alterations, parkerization re-finishing, etc. I did them all.

To match the shafts and clubheads appropriately, I had to understand the golf swing. Both my friends' whom I fit for and my own. That was when I first encountered the term "swinging or hitting". (link1)(link2)

While I have never heard nor read this concept being applied to tennis, a lot of similarities cropped up repeatedly as I modify and re-string rackets. 

Generally, a "swinger":
- uses a light grip pressure,
- takes long loopy backswings,
- relies on the racket's momentum to hit the ball,
- looks relaxed and effortless during impact.

Whereas a "hitter":
- clenches the racket grip tightly,
- takes very short backswings,
- relies on forearm strength to muscle the racket through,
- tenses up during impact.

It is possible to be both swinging and hitting in a series of rallies. However, usually one trait is dominant. In my opinion, Federer swings the racket more often, whereas Nadal hits more than swing.

These two traits translates to very different demands on one's preference for equipment.

A "swinger" usually prefers:
- heavier rackets with high swingweights, 
- de-polarized weight distribution,
- rackets with some flex

Whereas a "hitter" prefers:
- lighter rackets with maneuverable swingweights,
- polarized weight distribution,
- stiffer rackets

Understanding this helped me solve a lot of racket selection struggles, both mine and others. 

As I have mentioned previously (link), more often than not, the racket "problems" many faced tend to be player related rather than equipment.