Which would be the better choice? Rather, I'm looking for more power rather than control for my backhand clears. Which would be the better handle grip?
there's no such thing as a grip that gives you control, or a grip which 'gives' you power... For maximum power on your backhandclear, hit the shuttle square on. So when you hit it in front of your body: a full thumb grip would work nicely. For anything paralel or behind your body, a bevel grip works best, soem say this grip is also bets when hitting in front of your body... search BC for the details on these grips, they've been discussed almost as much as jumpsmashes
i remember posting a reply to this question twice already. pls don't under-utilize the search function in badminton there is no universal grip, like jerby said. panhandle is useful for tapping at the net(i have closely observed cai yun do it, but he changes his grip so fast that it's far from obvious). most overhead strokes would be handshake. For backhand this is my personal opinion- (1) use the thumb grip(normal backhand grip or whatever u call it). (2) but if the ball has gone behind you(which is quite frequent for me), you position your thumb lower before you hit, but the thumb is still used when doing the hit. (3)(courtesy of Jurethatsme for highlighting this) When doing backhand crosscourt drops, there is a popular recommendation by the legendary Zhao Jian Hua to use thumb on the narrower bevel (from zhao jian hua instructional video episode 6) however i haven't tried it yet, i use the way in (2)
As jerby said, there is more than one "correct" backhand grip. As a basic guide: For shuttles in front of you: thumb grip. The thumb is placed "behind" the racket, touching the wide flat bevel. For shuttles level with you: bevel grip. The thumb is placed along the narrow diagonal bevel. This grip is very similar to the basic grip ("forehand" grip). For shuttles behind you: panhandle grip. The thumb is placed along the side bevel. These are just guidelines. There are many cases where you might profitably violate them; in particular, the grip may need to change when you play a cross-court stroke. The idea with all these grip changes is that you want to maintain a flat racket face on impact with the shuttle ("flat" = perpendicular to the shuttle direction). If you hit with an angled face instead -- a glancing blow -- then you will lose power. This does not mean that the racket face will be aligned with the shuttle throughout the stroke. On the contrary: it will be turning, and will only be flat at the moment of impact. For backhand clears, the shuttle will rarely be in front of you (that is, between you and the net). A bevel grip is a good default choice for backhand clears, but you will need to move towards panhandle when the shuttle is behind you (a desperate situation; consider a drop shot instead). Note that the picture posted by DivingBirdie shows a panhandle grip. Check out the video: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=uqiR2vVn-J8 .
