Hi everyone, wondering if I could get your input on my grip. When I just pick up the racket or do light net shots, I have a grip that looks like what you see in the online guides with the nice V between the fingers and thumb and the index finger running slightly up the handle. (First photo) But during a fast overhead stroke like a clear or smash, my fingers shift down. (Second photo - an approximation, as I can't do an overhead in my apartment) I think the reason for this is that I can pronate a lot better - having my finger higher on the handle restricts my range of motion during the end of the pronation. I'm not sure if I change the grip to allow for better range of motion, or if the momentum of the racket carries it through that motion and forces the change of grip, but either way I'm a little concerned because no one talks about this that I've seen. Thanks all for any input!
First of all... That's totally normal and totally fine, it has been discussed many times before, but having it as a separate thread might be a good idea anyway. And that's kinda the reason why it's normal. For power strokes with strong pronation, you will grip tightly and the racket has to be stable, this is achieved by using this (as I call it) hammer grip. Now, let's talk some more detail. Looking at your second picture, the thumb is up quite high. While that's no issue for many people, I've seen players who were unable to pronate properly until they moved down the thumb. My ideal picture for a grip to start an overhead forehand stroke would be your thumb and middle finger touching each other. These two fingers really hold the racket while the other fingers only add some stability. I cannot take a new picture right now, so an old, exaggerated one, has to do: Here, the emphasis was on the triangular gap where the shuttle sits, but you get the idea. This way, the racket can rotate over the side of the thumb when pronating. Again, for most people it's no issue to have the thumb slightly more upwards. And again, for powerful strokes, that grip will close and become a hammer grip right before impact.
Thanks! I think my thumb does come down a bit more than what's shown in the picture, I'll look out for that during actual practice. When you tighten your grip, do you tighten into the fingers leaving that gap in the palm, or do you tighten into the palm so that there's no longer that gap?
For pronation to work, you need some angle between the shaft of the racket and your forearm. When tightening your grip, your wrist will automatically extend slightly, already changing that angle for the worse. It's illustrated by the orange lines: Therefore you need to keep that red(ish) triangle between the handle and your palm. You don't want the handle to slip in the little buttcheeks of your palm. Just try it and try to pronate. The shaft will barely move. I hope this answers your question.
Between the two pictures you attached here, which one is more correct for an over-head action? You said that the first (with colors) is more exaggerated to show the space between racket grip and hand "buttcheeks". So that would mean the second one is more appropriate - but I feel that my grip looks a little bit more like the first picture - mostly because of the thumb position. On the first, just the tip of the thumb touches the racket, on the seond one the middle part of the thumb does. They feel really different when I try these thumb positions (with the second one I feel like I can pronate much better) Or are these just before/after(during) stroke grips? The first one being "relaxed in fingers" and the second one being "tightened" when hitting the shuttle? I would love some more input for this! Thank you.
This exactly. The second picture is the answer to... The first picture is the relaxed grip. When you tighten it very strongly, it will end up similar to the second picture, keeping that space shown by the red triangle. It also is totally normal that pronation feels easier/more natural with the tightened grip. For most strokes, the real grip when actually hitting the shuttle will probably be somewhere in between those two. I hope that answers your question.
