How to Hold a Tennis Racket: Every Grip Explained

Ask most club players how they hold their racket and you will get a shrug. They grabbed it a certain way years ago, it felt fine, and they have never questioned it since. Yet the grip is the most important connection you have with the ball: power, spin and the angle of the racket face all pass through those few centimetres of handle in your palm. Change the grip and you change the shot.

The system is simpler than it looks. There are really only four grips worth knowing, they all live on the same eight-sided handle, and once you see how they relate you can move between them without thinking. Whether you are picking up the game for the first time or have played socially for years, this is technique that quietly rewards attention.

 

Why the grip matters more than you think

The racket does exactly what your hand tells it to. Hold the handle one way and the strings point slightly upward, which suits a flat, driving shot; rotate your hand a little and the face closes, which is what lets players brush up the back of the ball for topspin. None of this is about strength. It is geometry, and the grip sets that geometry before you start the swing. It is also why the same stroke feels effortless for one player and impossible for another: if your grip does not match the shot, you end up fighting the racket with wrist and forearm to force the face into position, which is tiring and, for some, a route to a sore elbow.

Getting your bearings: the bevel system

Before we name the grips, we need a shared map of the handle. Look at the butt of your racket and you will see it is not round but an octagon, with eight flat sides. Each side is a bevel, numbered one to eight. Hold the racket out as if to shake hands with it, edge pointing at the floor, and the bevel facing straight up is bevel one; rotate the handle clockwise, for a right-hander, and count round from there.

Every grip is defined by where the base knuckle of your index finger sits on that octagon, and that single point is all you need (left-handers mirror the numbers). Once you know the bevel, you can find the grip every time without looking.

The four grips every player should know

Continental grip (the all-rounder)

Put that knuckle on bevel two and you have the continental grip, sometimes called the "chopper" because it feels like holding a small axe. It is the most versatile hold in tennis: the grip for serving, volleys, slice, the overhead and drop shots, almost everything that is not a topspin groundstroke. Beginners find it awkward on the forehand, but it unlocks the touch shots and is well worth persevering with.

Eastern forehand grip (the classic)

Shift round to bevel three for the eastern forehand grip. Lay your palm flat against the strings, then slide your hand down onto the handle. The eastern gives a naturally flat, powerful forehand and makes it easy to take the ball early, because the face sits roughly square at contact and timing feels intuitive. If you are working on building a reliable forehand, this is a sensible place to start.

Semi-western grip (the modern topspin standard)

Move to bevel four for the semi-western, the grip that dominates the professional game and most competitive club tennis. It closes the face a little, encouraging you to swing low to high for heavy topspin, so you can hit hard and still bring the ball down inside the baseline. It copes well with high, bouncing balls; very low ones are trickier, but the extra margin is well worth it.

Western grip (the extreme)

Carry on to bevel five for the western, the most extreme of the four. The face is heavily closed, producing enormous topspin and thriving on high bounces, which is why it suits players raised on clay. It is demanding: low, skidding balls and fast surfaces can be awkward, and it needs real racket-head speed. Most recreational players need not go this far, but it is worth knowing where the spectrum ends.

And the backhand

Backhands have their own grips, but do not overthink them. A two-handed backhand pairs a near-continental dominant hand with a near-eastern top hand, which is partly why two hands are easier to learn; a one-handed backhand uses an eastern backhand grip around bevel one. Either way, the grip sets the face angle and the face angle shapes the shot.

Getting the size right

Which grip you use is only half the story. The thickness of the handle matters just as much, and many players are on the wrong size without realising it. In the UK, grip sizes run from 0 to 5 (you will also see imperial measurements from around four inches up), the number rising as the handle gets thicker.

There is a quick test. Hold the racket in an eastern forehand grip and look at the gap between your fingertips and the base of your palm: you should be able to slide the index finger of your other hand snugly into it. No room means too small; space to spare means too big. Too small makes you squeeze harder and can aggravate the arm; too big is slow to manoeuvre. Between sizes, pick the smaller and build it up, because you can add thickness but never remove it. It is worth getting right when you are choosing a frame, so check before you buy, or browse the current range of rackets where the size is listed for each one.

Looking after your grip

The grip is also the one part of the racket that genuinely wears out. It comes in two layers: the replacement grip, the base cushioning on the bare handle, and the overgrip, a thin tacky or absorbent wrap over the top. Overgrips are cheap, quick to change and the simplest way to keep a fresh, non-slip feel, and they add a fraction to the handle size, which is how you build up a grip half a size too small. A slick, sweaty grip makes you clench, and clenching ruins touch, so a fresh wrap is one of the cheapest upgrades in the game. Our guide to grip size and overgrips covers the options.

Putting it into practice

You do not have to change everything at once. Start with the continental grip for your serve and volleys, the shots most club players hold incorrectly, then settle on an eastern or semi-western forehand and keep it long enough to feel normal. The seamless switching you see from professionals comes with repetition, so a few minutes of shadow swings at home beat any diagram. Grip is tied to the rest of your kit, too: the strings and their tension shape the feel just as the handle does. Get the grip right and the foundation is sorted; everything else is built on top of it.