You can adjust the grip on your tennis racket to get the amount of spin, power and control you want on your shots. There are different grips for a forehand, backhand, serve or volley, and you can put the desired amount of power behind your shots as well. Understanding grip basics will help you choose the right tennis grip for your style of play.
Continental
The Continental grip is the most fundamental, but it's rarely used by top players for ground strokes. Place your palm flat against the strings of your racket and slide your hand down to the grip. “Shake hands” with the grip, and hold the racket like you would a hammer when you're ready to pound in a nail. This grip is easy to hold, but will put less spin on the ball than some other grips. The Continental grip is most appropriate for serves, overheads, volleys, slice ground strokes and the drop shot.
Eastern Forehand
Hold a Continental grip and turn the racket to the left, placing the knuckle of your pointer finger and heel of your hand one bevel to the right, if you are a right-handed player. Your knuckle and heel should be resting on one of the two wide bevels of the grip. This hand placement gives you more stability and more power. The slightly closed grip adds more topspin to strokes.
Semi-Western Forehand
Hold an Eastern grip, and turn the racket one bevel to the left. This closes the face even more, increasing the amount of topspin you get. This is a basic grip for hard hitters with a more open stance, because it imparts more topspin on ground strokes, keeping the ball in play.
Western Forehand
Turn your grip one more turn to the right for a Western forehand grip; the knuckle of your ring finger should be against the bottom bevel. This is the most extreme of the ground stroke grips, and the choice of extreme power players who use an open stance and hit the ball at shoulder height. The closed face provides the most topspin, but makes it difficult to hit short balls and volleys.
Eastern Backhand
Hold a Continental grip, and turn your racket one turn to the right to get the basic grip for a one-handed, topspin backhand. The knuckle of your ring finger and heel of your hand will be on top of the handle, on the thin bevel. This grip provides the same benefits as the Eastern forehand grip.
Two-Handed Backhand
You can use a variety of grip combinations for the two-handed backhand, depending on your stance, dominant hand, and if you want to release one hand to play slice shots. A basic combination for the two-handed backhand for right handers is a Continental for the right hand and an Eastern forehand for the left hand.
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