Whats your grip for the overhead smash

[molybdenum]

Do you use a continental grip or a normal forehand grip when you serve? Just want to know to make sure i am not doing the wrong thing. Thanks

[FiveO]

Continental.

[ondray]

By saying normal forehand grip, I assume you mean the Eastern FH grip. Anyway, both grips can be used for serves. Continental enables one to put more spin on the ball while the eastern fh grip enables one to hit flatter balls.

[Bobo Lat]

Eastern for flat, continental for sidespin.

[ondray]

double post.....

[FiveO]

Continental. (not a double post) For the serve and for the overhead.

The sooner you learn it, (especially on the serve) the sooner you will be able to hit all serve variations with it. As an example from the 1960's to present I can think of only one male professional who used a grip nearing the eastern fh for the serve, Boris Becker and he was a physical specimen. Not many have his kind of strength to overcome the limitations of the grip he used. All pros use the continental for the serve or go even further to that side, the eastern bh grip.

[kevhen]

Eastern for flat smashes when close to net and then also eastern when adding some sidespin while back at the baseline. I also use eastern for hitting overhead lobs while running back on a deep incoming difficult lobs.

[kevhen]

I am not sure eastern has to do so much with strength as it does with height. If you are tall enough you can serve with eastern, but I don't think there is any strength test.

[ironchef21]

Continental for me as well

[KingBugsy]

Continental is the way to go... Same for serves. Very similiar stroke.

[FiveO]

double post

[FiveO]

I am not sure eastern has to do so much with strength as it does with height. If you are tall enough you can serve with eastern, but I don't think there is any strength test.

If we're referring to the same thing, the eastern forehand grip, it requires strength in the forearm and wrist to perform with anywhere near the spin and pace potential the continental or eastern bh provide. It requires additional micro adjustments of the wrist to achieve those results. Employing natural forearm pronation to reach proper contact points is retarded by the eastern forehand grip. The perception that a flat serve is devoid of spin is a misnomer. The hardest, flattest serves, which go in, require spin to clear the net and arc into the service box. That rotation (pronation) is the strongest position/movement the wrist can make and requiring little if any strength to employ. Anything other than that is a weaker movement requiring greater strength to employ with equal result. Also, were it a functionally superior grip for taller players all the tallest players on tour would use it to their advantage which is simply not the case. Can an eastern fh be used? Yes. Can it be used with the same effect for the same effort? No.

[Bungalo Bill]

Eastern for flat smashes when close to net and then also eastern when adding some sidespin while back at the baseline. I also use eastern for hitting overhead lobs while running back on a deep incoming difficult lobs.

Kevhen, please...you are hitting the overhead in an unorthodox and an unrecommended way. No coach worth their salt would encourage a player to hit their overheads with an Eastern forehand grip.

It is a grip that is harder on the rotational aspects of the shoulder and requires extra effort to perform. The continental grip allows natural arm rotation and helps to provide better spin potential for a good overhead smash. Nearly every pro hits it this way and it is one of those things that doesn't need a whole lot of "out of the box" thinking.

If the Eastern grip was a good grip to use, don't you think more people would use it? Don't you think we as coachs would encourage it? I know you try to think outside of the box (and there is nothing wrong with that) and "give" players alternatives to the "current" thinking but sometimes it is simply not needed nor beneficial.

At times, you remind me of a person that still believes man can flap their arms and fly.

[Mahboob Khan]

By and large continental grip is used for serve, all volleys with some modifications, and overhead smash. You can also use a version of continental grip which is between Eastern FH and continental! Continental grip provides better hand action, pronation, etc.

[goober]

Did Boris Becker really use a eastern forehand grip for both his first and second serves?

[Mahboob Khan]

With the Eastern FH grip the strings are already lined up with the ball. If you pronate with the Eastern FH grip, you will be hitting the ball with the frame!

[Mahboob Khan]

I have not seen a Pro who uses an Eastern FH grip for serve. Boris Becker used a grip which was inbetween Eastern FH and continental! As I said the continental could be little bit this way or that way. But for sure, I do not recommend Eastern FH grip for serves! Bungalo Bill is precise in his answer and that's the reason I posted thrice not to sound different than BB!

[ondray]

Excerpt from http://tennis.about.com

Jeff Cooper says:

Grip: Although the overhead swing is very similar to a serve, overheads hit from inside the service line can be hit hard and flat with much greater success than one could hit a flat serve. As a result, an Eastern forehand grip, which is ideally suited to hitting flat, can be easiest, provided that you meet the ball out in front. An Eastern grip offers the most natural alignment between your palm and the plane of the string bed, making it easy to feel the direction in which you're smacking the ball. If you're used to a Continental grip for serves, however, and you use it for your volleys, you will probably find it simpler to stick with Continental. When, despite your best efforts, the ball gets behind you, a Continental grip is clearly superior to Eastern, because you'll need to spin the ball in (unless you revert to a windmill overhead, the subject of a future article).

[Bungalo Bill]

Excerpt from http://tennis.about.com

Jeff Cooper says:

Grip: Although the overhead swing is very similar to a serve, overheads hit from inside the service line can be hit hard and flat with much greater success than one could hit a flat serve. As a result, an Eastern forehand grip, which is ideally suited to hitting flat, can be easiest, provided that you meet the ball out in front. An Eastern grip offers the most natural alignment between your palm and the plane of the string bed, making it easy to feel the direction in which you're smacking the ball. If you're used to a Continental grip for serves, however, and you use it for your volleys, you will probably find it simpler to stick with Continental. When, despite your best efforts, the ball gets behind you, a Continental grip is clearly superior to Eastern, because you'll need to spin the ball in (unless you revert to a windmill overhead, the subject of a future article).

Yeah, unfortunately, I know about this article. I also know Jeff is a very good coach. But so was Braden and I didn't see eye to eye on everything. This is where Jeff and I part ways. There is no need for a player that learns to serve with the Continental grip to change his grip for certain balls. There is enough things to worry about in tennis.

I think the important clarifying statement is his last paragraph. The continental is the "total" choice. The last thing I want players to do is think "ok, now this ball is a continental grip ball", and start overthinking on which darn grip to use for the smash.

[FiveO]

The eastern fh v. continental grip issue on the serve/overhead comes to two separate questions:

Can you? Yes anyone can hit either with an eastern fh grip. Hell, I'm sure we've all seen players hit overheads and serves with a western fh grip. I know I have.

Should you? Only if you want to extend prep time, create confusion: which grip for which situation, sacrifice familiarity with the grip that you probably should use for everything else around the net, hit the ball in a less efficient wrist position, for pace, spin and direction and risk injury in the process.

IMO you shouldn't use an eastern fh for either the serve or overhead, there are too many "not as good as's" if not negatives associated to make it worthwhile and as I said earlier, the only male pro player using nearly an eastern fh grip on the serve was Boris Becker. No one else even approached the eastern fh grip on the serve. I would suspect that some of the answers to the "Should you?" question are the reason.

[Serve-And-Volley]

I would never hit a serve with an eastern grip, that would just completely kill me, especially when I had to hit a kick serve. I also don't think I could hit my overhead that way, I can hit into it and snap my wrist more, or even slice it with a continetial grip. I have to use a continetial grip on both (serves and overheads). There is a lot more variety in doing so.

[erik-the-red]

I don't know about Becker using the eastern forehand grip or an in-between.

The book, Boris Becker's Tennis by Boris Breskvar, one of Becker's first coaches, is quite old school and advocates a grip in-between the modern eastern-backhand and modern continental grip. I believe Becker employed this quite a bit.

Especially considering how fast he swung for the time and thus how much he pronated, I don't think it's possible to do that with an eastern forehand grip.

[papa]

No, I don't think its possible either to have any kind of a serve using the EF grip - the ball would end up in the next court if you were lucky and I'm quite sure I'd get a few home runs. I'm also quite convinced that its equally impossible to have any type of serve with a western grip --- I know there are some strange serves out there but these two ideas are talking to the limit.

However, I have seen folks using the "pitter patter" type serve using the EF grip and any overheads which they manage to hit the same way. I think its just a self taught thing at the lower levels.

[Queensryche]

Seriously , im no wheer as tall as some 6 footers out there.

I'm an asian and most of us are avg around grojean's height so i have no idea nor experience regarding the "taller people can use eastern FH grip"

But seriously , just thinking about using that grip makes my head hurt.

I think with an eastern forehand , your gonna need to force your wrist flex in a weird direction just to be able to "snap" at the ball to make contact for the serve/overhead wouldnt you ?

Just use a continental. It's a 1 grip fits all.

Problem solved , why make life so difficult lol