Eastern Forehand Grip = Less Pain

[Lunaticalm]

I used to hit my forehand with a semi-western grip, and although I got a lot of spin on it and crushed high balls better, I started to have rotator-cuff pain that got worse in time. I also think the windshield wiper motion contributed to this.

So I decided to do rehabilitation exercises to ease the pain and I read somewhere that an eastern forehand grip is more forgiving, so I started using an eastern forehand grip again, and yeah, that did the trick. What's even more surprising is when I used the windshield wiper motion again with an eastern forehand, the pain did not comeback at all.

Has anyone experienced the same? Any thoughts?

 

[Mahboob Khan]

The Eastern FH grip places the wrist-forearm in a natural position that's why the pain disappeared. Congrats.

 

[Bacterio]

Probably has less to do with the grips and more so your technique. The more you go towards extreme grips the better your technique has to be in order to make contact at the right time and not put extra strain on your body.

 

[Funbun]

Probably has less to do with the grips and more so your technique. The more you go towards extreme grips the better your technique has to be in order to make contact at the right time and not put extra strain on your body.

Agreed. There are plenty of players that use extreme(r) grips that don't feel pain, myself included.

 

[Manus Domini]

And there are many players that do use extreme grips and do feel pain, even pros. Nadal says he uses a SW grip instead of a full W to reduce injury (I believe so, anyway), and someone who used a full W on tour a while a go (with odd strokes but still proper technique) retired early in his career because of wrist injury (anyone know who I'm referring to?).

Also, extreme grips add more tension to your arm. They can induce injury, especially if your technique is poor. They might not, it depends, but Eastern is more injury-resistant. You can feel it just by turning your hand with your racquet in it for each grip...

 

[fuzz nation]

Well keep in mind that the OP said that he(?) also did some rehab exercises. Hard to know exactly what contributed to the solution and what didn't, but I agree that the eastern forehand is probably a little less strenuous.

In my experience, if I want to hit with a more extreme grip on my forehand side, I also usually need a fuller, faster swing to make it work well. That more angular contact depends on greater racquet speed to churn out enough pace and spin on the ball. That's fine, but again, it can be more strenuous. If the eastern forehand grip allows a player to make "enough" pace and spin with a swing that's more through the ball than across it, that can make for acceptably solid hits without needing higher swing speeds for the stroke to work.

 

[LeeD]

Hey, you get OLD enough, EVERY stroke you hit is with continental! EVERY!

 

[Mahboob Khan]

Hey, you get OLD enough, EVERY stroke you hit is with continental! EVERY!

We have a former Davis Cup player, Mr. Hamid ul Haq, here in Pakistan. He uses continental for all his shots including forehand (double handed BH) and he gets more topspin with it than any Semi-western FH grip player. Yes, he aligns the racket face with the adjustment of his wrist-forearm, and low to high swing and generates tremendous topspin with his forehand. Basically, it is the face of the racket at contact which should be vertical and low to high swing path causing the ball to rotate forward-upward.

 

[LeeD]

I started playing in the mid '70's. Conti forehand users included TomOkker, AdrianoPanata, JohanKriek (a little towards eastern, but no grip change to topspin backhand), and of course, Mr.IliaNastase.
I'm sure they are still hitting with continental, and hitting extreme topspin at times.

 

[Connors Fan]

Ill just add, that for me, its much easier on my arm hitting Eastern/SW. I can hit a much more extreme topspin forehand with a SW to full Western, but not only does my arm bother me a bit more, it takes more energy.

 

[Lunaticalm]

Thanks for all the replies guys, they're all very insightful. I consulted a coach yesterday and he said that I open my shoulders too early on the forehand, so maybe it is poor technique after all. Is this the reason why I got the pain in the first place? I don't know. I'm just glad that my shoulder is a little pain-free again.

 

[LeeD]

Wouldn't opening your shoulders early expose the deltoids to the point of impact from the ball strike, causing your shoulder injury? Keeping closed would cure that, and take away power at the expense of accuracy.

 

[mightyrick]

So I decided to do rehabilitation exercises to ease the pain and I read somewhere that an eastern forehand grip is more forgiving, so I started using an eastern forehand grip again, and yeah, that did the trick. What's even more surprising is when I used the windshield wiper motion again with an eastern forehand, the pain did not comeback at all.

When you say "more forgiving", I presume you are meaning less pain/not as hard on the body.

From a technique perspective, as someone who uses an eastern, I can say that the grip is anything but forgiving. I work twice as hard as a SW-gripper to keep the ball in court. I really have to focus. To me, the versatility of the grip is worth it though.

 

[Lunaticalm]

Wouldn't opening your shoulders early expose the deltoids to the point of impact from the ball strike, causing your shoulder injury? Keeping closed would cure that, and take away power at the expense of accuracy.

Maybe that's the reason why I got the pain in the first place. I didn't realize I was opening my shoulders too early when I hit a forehand. Especially when I'm huffing and puffing and struggling between points, I think my forehand technique is the first to breakdown in retrospect.

 

[Lunaticalm]

When you say "more forgiving", I presume you are meaning less pain/not as hard on the body.

From a technique perspective, as someone who uses an eastern, I can say that the grip is anything but forgiving. I work twice as hard as a SW-gripper to keep the ball in court. I really have to focus. To me, the versatility of the grip is worth it though.

I'm willing to sacrifice some measure of consistency in my forehand if it means I can play again without any kind of pain at all. I love tennis too much.