Changing Grips

[marcl65]

I’ve recently started playing tennis again after a 20-something year hiatus. But even when I played as a kid I was largely self-taught – i.e. I just hit the ball and if it made it into the other court I was happy. That said, this is probably going to be a newbie-like question.

I recently took a beginner’s lesson and started playing with a group. My basic grip for both forehand and backhand is the Eastern but I have a lot of trouble generating topspin with this grip and my backhand (one-handed) is almost exclusively a slice.

A lot of the more experienced players in my group use a Western(?) grip and generate a LOT of topspin. Some of them recommended that I try it and when I did, practicing with a ball machine, I was able to generate a lot of topspin but my problem comes in when I’m trying to shift grips from an Eastern to Western on the go; if my racket face is tilted too much I send my balls into the net.

Should I switch grips and abandon the Eastern? Do players really switch grips all the time (Eastern, Western, Continental, et al) during play? Isn’t that kind of difficult during fast paced games? I also wonder, isn’t it more difficult to hit high bouncing balls with your racket face closed like it is with a Western grip?

 

[TEAM ZERO]

Basically most of the advanced players and definately all the pros change grips for every shot! If you watch Federer really carefully, he changes his grip the moment his opponent makes contact with the ball and runs with the certain grip he has chosen!

Usually players hold their racquets with the midpoint of their forehand and backhand or just hold it continental! For me, I have a 2bh (continental+eastern forehand) and a eastern forehand, so i usually grip the racquet with a continental grip. This allows me to move to the net easily. But for balls that come up high I shift my forehand from a eastern to a semi-western to have more control of the ball!

 

[JackD]

As far as you backhand is concerned are you sure you've got an eastern and not a continental because you should be able to get top out of the eastern backhand grip. Have your instructer check you grip to make sure it truely is an eastern backhand grip.

For your grip change make sure you are allowing the nondominant hand to help you change your grip. I would recommend holding your forehand grip no matter in the ready position but keep don't sqeeze to tight. If you get a forehand you should be ready and it it comes to you backhand let your left hand take the racquet back so the right hand can change grips while you are turning. If you have time to take the racquet back you have time to change grips.

For your forehand if you playing on hardcourts you could try a semi western but a change to the full western isn't really in your best interest.

 

[BillyBee]

Marc, I changed my grip from Eastern to semi-Western, and it was the best decision I ever made. It was very uncomfortable at first, and I hit a lot of shots into the net, but if you commit to it, you'll never go back. Changing grips during points isn't easy at first, but you'll get used to it, and the payoff is huge.

The nice thing is, you can still use your Eastern grip for low balls, or whenever you need it. I also rotated my grip for my one-handed backhand, and, again, I sucked at first, but now I'm hitting topspin passing shots for winners when before I was reduced to hitting lobs or flat shots.

I'm now regularly beating a guy who used to beat ME, and it's all because I committed to making the change, knowing that in the short run I would probably be worse. But I knew if I stuck with it, I'd get a lot better. Didn't take long, either, to get used to it.

Funny thing is, when my opponent asked me why I was hitting better shots against him, I showed him what I was doing with my grip. I thought he'd view this information as revelatory . . . instead, he was like, "Oh, man, you're switching grips between shots all the time? Man, that sounds like too much trouble."

You can lead a horse to the net, but . . .

 

[marcl65]

As far as you backhand is concerned are you sure you've got an eastern and not a continental because you should be able to get top out of the eastern backhand grip.

I think this is largely a matter of my "conditioned" response. I've gotten into the habit of always bringing my racket head up, by my head, and then swinging down and out.

Also, correct me if I'm wrong here, but a lot of the books I've read say that the type of spin you put on the ball is largely a part of the direction of your swing. Most of the books I've seen say that you need to make contact with the ball with the racket face perpendicular to the ground.

The nice thing is, you can still use your Eastern grip for low balls, or whenever you need it.

I tried using the semi-western grip during practice this weekend. It works great if I've got the same ball (medium-high bounce, speed, etc) but when my partner would hit fast low bouncing shots that I wasn't expecting, my returns would go into the net whereas, when using the Eastern forehand I'd be better able to get the ball over the net and deep albeit, without much topspin. I think I read somewhere that the Eastern is the most versatile.

So is part of the trick of switching grips predicting what kind of ball (high or low bouncing) you're getting?

 

[Ripper]

Practice changing grips while at home, watching tv, for example. Also, when changing grips, help yourself not only with the feel of the edge of the bevels, but with the position in which the plane of the head/throat is in your other hand... Hummm, not sure if I'm explaining myself well enough. Sorry, but English isn't my main language...