Wednesday, August 01, 2007

Know thy grip

I have been to this page of Jeff Cooper a few times before and never really looked into it much; his lingo here never meant much to me. Tonight though, I got my racket out, the first time when reading about tennis and it all came through. The handle of the racket is hexagonal!! I never noticed that until now :O

So here are the grips.



Continental Forehand Grip
The palm is on the upper, right slant of the hexagonal handle
  • The racket face tilts upwards
  • Appropriate for hitting a slice
  • To hit flat - need to meet the ball in a weaker, slightly farther back than with eastern
  • Poorly suited to hitting top spins
  • Best for handling low bounces


Eastern Forehand grip
Palm is along the side(Right vertical) of the handle.
  • Wrist is straight and relaxed - Very natural and physically secure position
  • Racket face remains vertical
  • Very versatile - easy enough to tilt the face to slice the ball, and can hit a top spin with a vertical face.
  • more western grips yield better top spin, hence are preferred more.


Semi-western forehand grip
Palm is on the lower right slant of the hexagonal handle
  • Results in a natural downward tilt of the racket face
  • To counteract this, meet the ball a bit farther forward than you'd for an eastern grip
  • You will generally need to swing upward more sharply, which encourages you to hit topspin
  • Good at generating top spin and handling opponents' the high bounces
  • Not so great for slices and on low balls


Western Forehand Grip
Palm is on the bottom side of the hexagonal handle!
  • Racket faces tilts downwards severely
  • Must meet the ball even farther forward
  • Most natural swing pattern is sharly upwards and very fast - heavy top spin.
  • Hitting flat or a slice is awkward

Hawaiian forehand grip
Palm is on the lower, left slant of the hexagonal handle!!!
  • Requires point of contact to be way in the front or quite high
  • Requires whipping upwards severely
  • Cant hit flat or slice
Wow, I had never thought there was so much behind each grip. Hopefully, knowing about this will help consciously choose the right one and possibly switch between shots. If I may borrow a pharse from cricket - playing according to the merit of the ball.

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