To simplify, I would never play a backhand clear, drive or smash without my thumb on the extra narrow bevel. I would only play a slow push or loopy drop with the panhandle grip (thumb diagonally resting on extra narrow bevel) as its easy on the wrists. It's definitely the worst of the three grip options for backhand side shots because it offers no power and still lacks in wrist pronation almost as much as a backhand clear grip. Assuming we cannot play a backhand clear grip with the thumb on the extra narrow bevel because the angle is too much and the wrist pronation required is a lot just to get the shuttle back down the line. Then I'd play a drive or drop with a forehand grip at any height even if the shuttle is almost hitting the ground. Because with the forehand grip you get full wrist pronation so you can even the tightest of angles due to being so late to hit the shuttle. The downside is using a forehand grip for a backhand shot gives you only whippy type power, low accuracy/stability and no real option to make adjustments to the racket face angle at all. But its definitely the best last resort option to recover from that situation when a proper backhand is not an option.
when you say "extra narrow bevel" I guess you mean the top inner diagonal bevel.. With the panhandle grip would you say the thumb goes angled over both that diagonal "extra narrow" bevel and the narrow bevel? Well described as going angled over the narrow bevel (and that includes going past the diagonal bevel) We agree that panhandle is a last resort.. and the bevel grip(thumb straight along top inner diagonal bevel), offers more power. And I agree that a downward shot is easier.. it'd be very hard to clear with that grip / when forced to use that grip. none of this involves stress or lack of stress on the wrists.. forearm rotation is the forearm rotates and the wrist moves because it is connected to the forearm.
For a panhandle grip exclusively talking about the backhand situation, the thumb is only contacting the extra narrow diagonal bevel and does not rest between two bevels or contact two bevels simultaneously. It's just the stock standard panhandle grip. This would be a niche shot selection which I wouldn't use in 99% of backhand situations because it offers nothing the backhand clear grip or forehand grip offers more easily. It's just for some very awkward reaching shots that require a long reach back but are too close to the body to play a lower wider shot with a forehand grip like I mentioned before. To answer your second question: If you try to clear with a panhandle grip you would indeed put stress on your wrist. As there is no thumb power to support the the weight of racket during the swing and the stress would be on your wrist more than if you were to use the correct grip. Hence why I said you would need to play a much less powerful shot if you were to use said grip on the backhand. On both the backhand grip, and the forehand grip playing a backhand shot, the weight of the racket is supported by the thumb because the thumb is more flush with the handle thus offering more support. But the panhandle grip leaves the thumb in a much less supporting position because it's at an odd angle.
interesting that you think the thumb only contacts the extra narrow diagonal bevel and you don't think the thumb contacts the narrow bevel. if you see this image from the badmintonbible link you see the thumb does angle over the (inner) narrow bevel. Looking again at your image of you showing a panhandle grip you see the thumb does angle over/across the (inner) narrow bevel, infact very much so. The four fingers are wrapping around the outter narrow bevel, and the wide bevel below. The palm is over the wide bevel above The thumb is over the inner narrow bevel. I find it easier to identify the bevels when the racket is not at an angle, and in your pic, your racket is at an angle. but you say yours is like the badmintonbible example that i've included. But i'm puzzled why you say that for panhandle grip, "the thumb is only contacting the extra narrow diagonal bevel " i.e. not the inner narrow bevel.
Yeah that's the panhandle my bad I got mixed up. I do vary between that kind of panhandle and the one I described above depending on if I'm taking the shuttle in front of me or from my right shoulder area and the angle I want. Like I said before for me the panhandle is not a rigid grip and you will be changing the racket face angle slightly to adjust for the angle and if you are taking the shuttle from in front or over your right shoulder so naturally your grip will shift slightly and the thumb could land on either bevel. So yeah I guess you do move your thumb between both bevels depending on where you take the shuttle. I'd still call both of those grips a panhandle grip it's just a slightly different racket face angle which determines the thumb position. As for using this grip for backhand shots I don't do it enough to say for sure which variant I'd use to play an energancy backhand scoop. I feel more comfortable using either the backhand clear grip or forehand grip in those situations as it feels more natural. I think my brain would tell me to use the backhand clear grip because it's on the backhand side, and if that fails and I'm swiping from a very low point I just naturally grip the handle fully (forehabd grip) and try whip the racket around to get a good contact on the shuttle. Sorry for the confusion before, i was posting this at midnight so my brain wasn't fully alert
Doing some dry swings now I can say for sure I'd use the forehand grip over the panhandle grip in an emergency backhand situation every time. It's just much more comfortable and you get a better grip on the racket that way. Panhandle is really weak for backhand shots, don't really have any thumb support to whip the racket around like you would on a forehand grip. The only advantage I can see to using a panhandle grip is that you can lunge directly at the shuttle amd scoop it back in the direction it came from, but you get no power and no control. I'd sooner try to use footwork to get into a position to swipe low with a forehand grip because the shot quality would be much better and it gives you a chance to continue the rally.
Bevel grip and forehand grip are very close.. I have heard of defending smashes with bevel grip because then you can very easily change to forehand grip when required. The thing is though that if you are very late on a backhand and it is far ahead of you, far in front of your face, , not wide, If you stretch out your arm perpendicular to your torso, then it's there, then with a bevel grip or forehand grip the racket face will point off-court. You'd need a panhandle there but it is of course a far from ideal situation, as mentioned. And indeed a clear would be very hard and bringing the shuttle down to midcourt on the opponent's side would probably be better . If playing a net shot with forehand grip(by which I mean V on the wide bevel) when the shuttle is in front of you, is a bend, then it's even harder when facing backwards and you have to hit the shuttle further. Panhandle would apply at the net but also in the equivalent situation of a backhand - backhand directly past you not wide If you imagine trying to hit that backhand with a forehand grip then it is slightly easier than with a bevel grip 'cos the racket is rotated slightly more in the correct direction.. but if you rotate your racket a bit more past forehand grip towards panhandle then the racket faces the right direction a bit more, requiring less contortion(bending the wrist back/up/extension). You could do a grip with the V on the top outter diagonal bevel then the thumb could be round the back. So if you want that support from the thumb that a forehand grip offers then you'd get that, + the racket rotation to keep the shuttle in.
You're not wrong, but I think if you are forced to use that panhandle grip to push the shuttle directly back over your shoulder flat and slow as you seem to suggest then you are losing that point 99% of the time vs a good opponent. Of course any return is better than no return so it's still an option. If you can lunge directly back (Rather than diagonally towards the shuttle) to create a wide angle it's better to let the shuttle drop a bit lower and swipe across with a bit more pace using a forehand grip. That would be ideal. You'll see this at pro level a lot, they will lunge not towards the shuttle but slightly off to create more room to hit the shot because it's extremely awkward to hit a shot too close to your body and too easy for the opponent to predict the shot and perform a net kill. I think the bottom line is there are not fantastic options in this situation, do whatever you can to get the shuttle back over the net but in reality you've been caught out and will most likely lose the point if the opponent is decent enough to punish you.
And yes if the shuttle is flying directly over your head towards your backhand side but with no good angle, you must attempt a panhandle scoop type shot. It will be a drop shot at best, no way can you drive or clear in that situation it's practically impossible without over exerting yourself. So a drop is the only option really.
So I think there may be two grips that people may call panhandle. there's the regular one, with thumb curled around, and there's the backhand pull shot, where you can't clear it and can only do a drop shot at best.. Looking at the racket handle as having 2 wide bevels, 2 narrow bevels. and 4 extra narrow bevels. The panhandle variation for the backhand pull shot, so where it's far behind you and not wide, the thumb would be up the narrow bevel. I think Gollum might mention it https://www.badmintoncentral.com/fo...andle-grip-vs-normal-grip-for-backhand.47061/ in post #4 "For shuttles behind you: panhandle grip. The thumb is placed along the side bevel." I just found https://www.badmintonbible.com/shots/grips/adjusting/late-backhand He tries to describe it as "towards panhandle", though the fact is the racket is in the same place as for panhandle. He then says "This thumb placement is different from a normal panhandle grip, because now we’re using the grip for backhands". Seems like he's basically calling it a panhandle variant there. And do you think that (that panhandle variant), might also potentially be used for a round the head shot?
