(PIC) Is my grip right for the serve?

Unpunpai · Jan 11, 2012

My friend has been looking at my serve and claims that my grip is wrong. Her grip is more to the eastern backhand grip for serving. I checked my other friend's serving grip and it is nearly identical to hers. Here's a picture of my grip that I use.

This grip is pretty much burned into my muscles and naturally switches on slices, volleys, overheads, and serves. I doubt myself whether or not if I'm holding the right grip and might as well clear it up here. Cause you know after having a bad day of netting serves and hitting long and wide slices you begin to doubt yourself

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rkelley · Jan 11, 2012

That looks to be in the "good" range to me. It's a continental, with the base index knuckle on bevel 2. You might have it slid around a bit towards an E. fh, but it's still a continental. You can slide it around a bit either way from a pure continental and still be OK. I personally go a bit more eastern on mine (like your girl friend), but that's just my preference. Some players go almost full E. backhand - they're usually trying to hit American twist and big kick serves. It's pretty hard to hit flat with an E. bh grip on a serve.

SystemicAnomaly · Jan 11, 2012

^ Fully agree with rkelley on this. It's a shade toward a semi-continental grip, but it should be fine for both 1st and 2nd serves. It should also be ok for FH volleys but I'd shift it a bit toward a full continental for BH volleys. Best to use the latter for volleys on both sides if you can.

Unpunpai · Jan 11, 2012

Thanks for the reply guys. Needed that confirmation to put my brain at rest of doubt! @SystemicAnomaly Interesting that you say that I should go more to continental on my backhand volleys. I have been shanking my backhand volleys a lot. I'll try to move it a bit to continental on my volleys.

zapvor · Jan 11, 2012

that grip is fine for flat bombs, but not for kickers. you need to shift over to the left for 2nd serves

10sLifer · Jan 11, 2012

Unpunpai said:
My friend has been looking at my serve and claims that my grip is wrong. Her grip is more to the eastern backhand grip for serving. I checked my other friend's serving grip and it is nearly identical to hers. Here's a picture of my grip that I use.

This grip is pretty much burned into my muscles and naturally switches on slices, volleys, overheads, and serves. I doubt myself whether or not if I'm holding the right grip and might as well clear it up here. Cause you know after having a bad day of netting serves and hitting long and wide slices you begin to doubt yourself .

Nope. You have the base knuckle of the index finger right. But you have shifted the bottom of your palm over to far. Check the vid out on this page. http://tennistruth.com/freebies.php.

10sLifer · Jan 11, 2012

Unpunpai said:
My friend has been looking at my serve and claims that my grip is wrong. Her grip is more to the eastern backhand grip for serving. I checked my other friend's serving grip and it is nearly identical to hers. Here's a picture of my grip that I use.

This grip is pretty much burned into my muscles and naturally switches on slices, volleys, overheads, and serves. I doubt myself whether or not if I'm holding the right grip and might as well clear it up here. Cause you know after having a bad day of netting serves and hitting long and wide slices you begin to doubt yourself .

Your line is going more towards the middle of the bottom of the hand. This will feel like crap and you will chop everything with way to much spin umless you learn to pronate more.

10sLifer · Jan 11, 2012

HA HA Tha is a big pic lolol Sorry. Really made my point though!

Limpinhitter · Jan 12, 2012

Unpunpai said:
My friend has been looking at my serve and claims that my grip is wrong. Her grip is more to the eastern backhand grip for serving. I checked my other friend's serving grip and it is nearly identical to hers. Here's a picture of my grip that I use.

This grip is pretty much burned into my muscles and naturally switches on slices, volleys, overheads, and serves. I doubt myself whether or not if I'm holding the right grip and might as well clear it up here. Cause you know after having a bad day of netting serves and hitting long and wide slices you begin to doubt yourself .

IMO, that grip is too close to an Eastern forehand grip for serve. For optimal power and spin I think the best grip for serve is to put the heel of your hand on the top (first bevel), of the racquet handle.

rkelley · Jan 12, 2012

10sLifer said:
Nope. You have the base knuckle of the index finger right. But you have shifted the bottom of your palm over to far. Check the vid out on this page. http://tennistruth.com/freebies.php.

There are more bad things in that video than good. The volley grips that are taught are just wrong. On the backhand ground stroke many people (most?) slice with a continental. There's no mention made of more modern forehand ground stroke grips either. It's probably best to start with an E. fh as shown, but even a beginner should know that moving the grip around to a SW or W is an acceptable, and very common variance.

The player in the video is also way too stiff. I assume was done for teaching effect, but people will try to copy those stiff, wooden movements. It was good that he moved slowly and just stroked the ball, but it would be better if he moved more naturally.

And as we've discussed here before (to death), the swing path on the forehand is very old school.

mucat · Jan 12, 2012

10sLifer said:
Nope. You have the base knuckle of the index finger right. But you have shifted the bottom of your palm over to far. Check the vid out on this page. http://tennistruth.com/freebies.php.

From the video, it said the EFH grip is commonly used in FH volley and FH groundstrokes......hmm.....

TennisCJC · Jan 13, 2012

SystemicAnomaly said:
^ Fully agree with rkelley on this. It's a shade toward a semi-continental grip, but it should be fine for both 1st and 2nd serves. It should also be ok for FH volleys but I'd shift it a bit toward a full continental for BH volleys. Best to use the latter for volleys on both sides if you can.

^^^ good advice ^^^

Maybe work on a serve with more of a BH grip if you want more spin. My grip is a little more toward the BH than yours but your grip is a basic conti which is a good service grip.

gregor.b · Jan 13, 2012

zapvor said:
that grip is fine for flat bombs, but not for kickers. you need to shift over to the left for 2nd serves

No offense dude,but not if you actually know to serve. I have used a continental on first and second serve for years and hit a pretty good kicker. Only thing that should change is the depth of the toss. When I bring the grip around, I gets lots of kick but nothing else it is easier to get the ball through the court on serve with a conti grip.

zapvor · Jan 13, 2012

gregor.b said:
No offense dude,but not if you actually know to serve. I have used a continental on first and second serve for years and hit a pretty good kicker. Only thing that should change is the depth of the toss. When I bring the grip around, I gets lots of kick but nothing else it is easier to get the ball through the court on serve with a conti grip.

loli know you can hit 2nd with continental.but I went ahead and told him to move it over more because I think he can use the help

Oh yea why don't you post up a vid of your kickers and show us how its done......bet you will come up with some lame reason why you can't.

(PIC) Is my grip right for the serve?

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