My teacher suggested I change my forehand grip

[Break To Win]

My forehand isn't bad, but it wasn't having good depth, it gained a little more height, but it didn't gain depth. I asked my teacher for a suggestion. And he said that in addition to improving my footwork, I should change my grip. My forehand grip has always been somewhere between SW and Western, and he suggested I switch to the eastern grip. According to him, I will gain in power and depth, but I will lose a little Topspin.

Any thoughts about that?

 

[eah123]

You should try it.

 

[LOBALOT]

I agree or at least semi-western. You will find when scrambling for balls and out of position you still can flick the ball deep into your opponents court and also that it will be easier to put a ball away by hitting through the court when you have your opponent scrambling.

 

[Dragy]

Buy a new racquet. Bigger head, open string pattern, higher swingweight. String it looser with thinner string.

If your technique is overall decent, and the only problem is lack of depth, there’s no need to make such drastic change as new grip. There are a lot of great pro players with grip like yours who hit very penetrating ball. You may need to work on your swing though.

 

[sovertennis]

You should try it.

This. You hired and paid for the coach's advice, so you owe it to yourself to at least attempt to apply that advice to your stroke.

 

[nyta2]

going all the way to E is a bit extreme... (took me a year to make the switch from Hawaiian to SW/E)
personally i'd just move to a SW IF you're goign to switch... but i wouldn't be doing it for more depth, because you can get good depth even with a full W (it's all about footwork and spacing)... (see khachanov)
if i were to switch to SW, it would be to become more of an all court player (W can be tough handling short low mid court balls in transition)... or learn a slice fh, and keep your SW/W grip
else if you like grinding from the baseline, i'd stick with your SW/W grip
or i might switch to E if i wanted to play more like agassi (eg. close to the baseline, taking everything on the rise)... but guess what's going to have to improve even more... anticiptaion & footwork.. (same if i wanted to attack the net more, maybe even become an S&V'er)

main thing is that i'm not switching grips for "more depth"... as your depth is more a function of your spacing & footwork...

 

[ey039524]

I agree that E is too extreme from a w/sw.

 

[SystemicAnomaly]

Might be better off with a mild SW (or maybe an Eastern+).

 

[mental midget]

going all the way to E is a bit extreme... (took me a year to make the switch from Hawaiian to SW/E)
personally i'd just move to a SW IF you're goign to switch... but i wouldn't be doing it for more depth, because you can get good depth even with a full W (it's all about footwork and spacing)... (see khachanov)
if i were to switch to SW, it would be to become more of an all court player (W can be tough handling short low mid court balls in transition)... or learn a slice fh, and keep your SW/W grip
else if you like grinding from the baseline, i'd stick with your SW/W grip
or i might switch to E if i wanted to play more like agassi (eg. close to the baseline, taking everything on the rise)... but guess what's going to have to improve even more... anticiptaion & footwork.. (same if i wanted to attack the net more, maybe even become an S&V'er)

main thing is that i'm not switching grips for "more depth"... as your depth is more a function of your spacing & footwork...

yeah, that is a big change. doable, but, that's a whole new forehand. you will be launching balls into the fence for quite some time probably.

SW is fine, sounds like it's more about swing path...a little more 'through' contact, less ripping up over the back of the ball...think about letting the racket do more of the work, use that mass going forward rather than torque-ing up so much at contact.

 

[heninfan99]

Depends how long you have been playing with it. If you're new still it's much easier to change. If you've been playing ten years it may take years to switch because of ingrained muscle memory.

 

[sureshs]

My forehand isn't bad, but it wasn't having good depth, it gained a little more height, but it didn't gain depth. I asked my teacher for a suggestion. And he said that in addition to improving my footwork, I should change my grip. My forehand grip has always been somewhere between SW and Western, and he suggested I switch to the eastern grip. According to him, I will gain in power and depth, but I will lose a little Topspin.

Any thoughts about that?

How old is your coach? No one uses Eastern anymore

 

[ballmachineguy]

Depends how long you have been playing with it. If you're new still it's much easier to change. If you've been playing ten years it may take years to switch because of ingrained muscle memory.

Surely you jest? Not that I promote it, but there are people who post on here that change during a point. Should be able to be changed during a hitting session.

 

[heninfan99]

Surely you jest? Not that I promote it, but there are people who post on here that change during a point. Should be able to be changed during a hitting session.

I think forehand grip changes can take a long time for your main grip. I'm not talking about ticking over a little for high or low balls in emergencies. And I mean players that have a lot of muscle memory built up.

 

[nyta2]

Surely you jest? Not that I promote it, but there are people who post on here that change during a point. Should be able to be changed during a hitting session.

perhaps... but it took me 1y of practicing generally practicing 10h a week, to switch from extreme western (hawaiian) to sw/e... to get back to my then-4.5-level... and in that time frame i was losing to folks i usually beat 6-1 with my old-grip
not having specific examples, i would bet that folks doing grip changes (eg. W -> SW or E) during a point (or within a hitting session) are low level players (3.5-low4.0?)... so doesn't take much to attain the same level of consistency (which is not very consistent)

i could probably play and win/be-competitive with a mac-like topspin conti grip (something i never practice) at the 3.5-low4.0 level... because the ball i'm receiving is typically slower, and not well placed..

 

[badmice2]

You can certainly try changing grip; just make sure it's not extreme to start. Also, dont judge your success based on the ball going in, judge it based on whether you can execute your swing with that grip.

Ideally if the grip change is not drastic and you maintain the same delivery, you should naturally deliver an improved ball.