Anyone try a western forehand/eastern backhand grip as neutral return grip?

I was wonder if anyone with a one handed bh and semi western or western forehand uses or has ever tried to use that grip as their neutral grip on returns since it's the same grip (or in the case of semi western forehands, at least very close). This seems more logical than having to do such a drastic grip change from the continental. There is virtually no grip change this way.

It's something I've never done but have thought about it, though I think it'd be kinda tricky to implement after having used continental for so long.
 

jamauss

Hall of Fame
This is exactly what I do on service returns since it's how I hit all my backhands anyway and it's not a huge adjustment for me on the forehand side even though I play semi western there - it just means I can't typically go for a huge forehand return but I'm OK with that since it usually means I can get in more returns against guys that have a big serve
 

LeeD

Bionic Poster
Kiteboard does it, and can hit huge winner returns of serve.
The best doubles player at the RoseGarden does it, but doesn't go for power, instead goes for consistency and low returns.
AlbertoBarasetchi did it, and hit top 20 in the world.
Better to be strong.
 
Thanks for the input. I think the bigger concern is being to extreme on the forehand side, since I kind of favor an eastern grip against big servers just to get the strings on the ball.

I'll try it and see how it pans out.
 

BevelDevil

Hall of Fame
I toyed around with it against a wall. After a while I could hit some pretty mean fh shots. The problem is that I could feel the western fh was consuming a lot of energy since I had to power upwards so much. So going western isn't for me.

I've decided to make my return of serve grip my backhand grip, then just rotate a bevel over to the fh.
 

DeShaun

Banned
With this grip I would feel obliged to stroke the felt off the ball. Half the time when returning, what I'm aiming for is only to return the ball to a neutral location preferably with as much or little pace as would seem advisable. This grip would incite me to rip my returns, probable make too many errors.
 

Chyeaah

Professional
I use an conti for first serves since they skid low and hate hitting low balls with a semi-western compared to an eastern forehand and if everything goes wrong i can just chop slice it back. On 2nd serves i use a western since its a small switch to a semi western but it usually goes to my backhand so i don't need to change.
 
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