Semi-Western Forehand Grip

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The semi-western forehand grip is where the heel pad and index knuckle of your hitting hand are resting on the fourth bevel of the tennis racket. At 0:10 in the video, you can see a shot of me holding the racket with a semi-western forehand grip, and you can see my heel pad and index knuckle resting on the fourth bevel of the tennis racket handle.

A shortcut to finding the semi-western forehand grip is to place your tennis racket on the ground, and then reach down and pick it back up again. This should get you very close to a semi-western grip, but you should always check to make sure that your hand is resting on the proper bevels.

If you hit with a semi-western grip, your natural contact height will be between your waist and your shoulder. The advantage of a semi-western grip is that it allows you to easily hit both flat and topspin balls, but the tradeoff is that you cannot naturally hit with as much topspin as you could with a full western grip, and you cannot flatten the tennis ball out as easily as you could with an eastern grip.

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  • Nathan
    I heard that if you use a semi western, you naturally produce a WW forehand, is that true?
  • Daniel
    This is great, thanks. I'm used to hitting with the eastern grip, but I wanted to change it up a little and still get the same pace off of balls that were uncomfortably high.
  • Tim
    This doesn't make any sense. The western can produce more spin than semi, but nadal clearly gets more spin with semi.
  • Mark
    Thx for the whole idea & helpful knowledge over here. They really help me a lot...!!!
  • Matsuda
    Thanks for the instructional video, I found it very helpful. I hope I can can perfect the use of this grip and impress the tennis coach. :D
  • alext199
    where do you start counting to get to the fourth bevel of the racket?
  • larry
    i am useing a 90 square inch head, can i still use this grip?
    thanks
  • Henry
    Hey Kyle,

    I'm a lefty too, and the semi-western is found by taking the normal lefty eastern grip and shifting counter clockwise down one bevel.

    Hope this helps!
  • Kyle
    Hi I'm left handed. Do I in turn change bevel numbers?
  • Lim Kyungwon
    I begin to learn to play tennis. your lesson may help me much. Thank you.
    I want the video lesson.
  • doug
    sign in as requested
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