Grips

Roger Federer's Forehand Grip

This video explains the technical definition of a grip. How you position your heel pad and index knuckle on the tennis racket handle — where on the handle they rest — determines your grip. We also look at how grips affect how you hit the tennis ball.

The Continental Grip
The continental grip is the grip many professionals use to serve, volley, and hit overheads. It’s probably the grip you want to use for these shots as well. Also, many pros used to use this grip to hit a forehand. However, given the changes in the game over the past few decades it’s no longer an acceptable forehand grip.

FOREHAND GRIPS

The Eastern Forehand Grip
The eastern grip is the most conservative grip you can use to hit a forehand. The natural contact point for an eastern forehand grip is about waist high. This grip makes it easy to hit the tennis ball flat, also called “driving” the ball.

The Semi-Western Forehand Grip
The semi-western grip is a very popular forehand grip. In fact, it’s probably the most popular grip on the professional tour. The natural contact point for the semi-western forehand grip is in between the waist and the shoulders. This grip allows players to both hit the tennis ball flat and with spin.

The Western Forehand Grip
The western grip is the most extreme grip you can use to hit a forehand. The natural contact point for a western forehand grip is about shoulder high. The grip makes it easy to hit the tennis ball with a lot of topspin.

BACKHAND GRIPS

Two-Handed Backhand Grip
The two-handed backhand grip is distinct because you will have two hands on the tennis racket. Each hand will be positioned different on the racket handle to facilitate correct technique.

Classic One-Handed Backhand Grip
This video explains and shows the classic one-handed backhand grip (also called the eastern backhand grip) that many tennis players use when hitting a one-handed backhand. This is a great grip to start with if you’re just beginning to learn how to hit a one-hander.

Extreme One-Handed Backhand Grip
TThis video explains and shows the extreme one-handed backhand grip that some pro tennis players, such as Justine Henin, use when hitting their one-handed backhands. The heel pad and index knuckle of your hitting hand rest on the eighth bevel of the tennis racket handle.

OTHER GRIPS VIDEOS

Your Grip Influences how much Topspin you Create
The grip you use to hit a forehand will typically affect the amount of topspin you get. Conservative grips give you less topspin on the tennis ball, while more extreme grips give you more..

Your Grip Influences Body Rotation on Forehand
The grip you chose to hit your forehand with will normally influence the amount of upper body rotation you get. Conservative tennis grips result in less rotation on your forehand, while more extreme grips result in greater rotation. This video looks at the reasons behind this forehand phenomenon.

Roger Federer’s Forehand Grip
This video looks at the grip Federer uses to hit a forehand. As we’ll see, Roger uses the eastern forehand grip.

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pov

Grip has never been something I think about. I tend to think along the lines of either an open or closed racket face. I adjust it by "second nature" depending on what shot I'm hitting. I was surprised that this wasn't automatic for everyone since no one ever taught me to do this.

Johny

Hi,
compliments for the site, videos and the tips!Its realey great what you guys are doing, and it improved my game a lot!
Now i am about to buy a new racquet so:
Could you please explain how to chouse the grip size of the tennis recquet?
And what to do if you are in between 2 sizes?
Thanks a lot
From Rome, Italy

Matthew

one question

say if you change from a western grip to a semi western grip. If you are not quite hitting with semi western grip and your hand is just not quite around around enough like it needs to be a centimetre more around but your hitting the ball well like that and it feels comfortable is it okay to keep hitting the ball with the grip not quite around?

alex

which grip should i use nadals grip which is western or federers which is eastern

m1r4culous

I now watch at YouTube but of course it is not as convenient as to watch them here. I hope the problem will be solved soon. Great lessons and great website. Thank you very much.

Will Hamilton

We're having some tech issues at the moment... unfortunately they won't be resolved until Monday or Tuesday... in the meantime you can watch most of our videos at youtube.com/fuzzyyellowballs.

Sorry for the inconvenience!

Jonas Olander

can't get through to your videos.

works fine on an iphone, but not on this laptop. tried with different email, but gets me to this screen:

System Error Encountered!

Error

could not find valid list with the name Website+Subscribers

is there a login or other solution?

congrats on a great website. played tennis in the 70's and started again a year ago! boy, has the game changed!!

kind regards,
Jonas

I.E.

Very good videos, I was having problem with control and went with an eastern grip and it's a lot easier to control now.

Ary Avnet

Will,
Great site and innstruction. I am relatively new to tennis playing at probably a 3.0 or 3.5 level. The problem I had when learning grip and that you dont discuss in your video is transtition from one grip to another. Since you use diifferent grips for Serve, forehand, backhand, etc. the grip is changing quickly and so it seems that you have to adjust your grip when you pivot. You can clearly see Andy Roddick doing this in the video library footage of his backhands in slow motions. He pivots ands brings his shoulders back and adjusts his grip for a backhand. This part baffled me for a while so I thought Id comment on it.