Change of grip between forehand and backhand
Strokes
Abhinav Upadhyay Asked 11 years ago
Hi Alois,
Watching too much of Timo Boll's matches seem to have influenced me a lot. Like him, I am also changing my grip slightly when playing the backhand shots. I would move my thumb on the bat slightly upwards to get a better angle and feel. I haven't yet faced any real problems because of it when playing matches. But during practice rallies I have noticed that if I am practicing backhand topspin and suddenly the ball comes to my forehand, then because of the changed grip I am not able to go at those balls with forehand, I try my backhand on those balls as well which makes it very difficult to put the ball back on the table. And even if I try to play those balls with forehand, the changed grip makes me feel like that the bat just might get dropped from my hand.
This has made me question whether it is a widely used technique to adjust grips between forehand and backhand or just something that some of the players (like Timo) have been able to adapt to and it is not possible for everyone?
Alois Rosario Answered 11 years ago
Hi Abhinav,
I think it is better to stay with a grip that you can use easily on both sides. If you are finding it is giving you difficulty I would try to change to a more central grip.
Players like Timo train a lot and are seeing the ball early enough to make the change.
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Ayesha Noon Posted 11 years ago
The way I play is putting my index finger on the raquet when Im doing forehand and when Im doing backhand I put my thumb on the raquet. Would that work good? Because sometimes I have trouble with it.
It is OK but not ideal. It is better to keep them both down lower on the rubber when you are playing both sides.
Rob Janssen Posted 11 years ago
The only thing I change is that I put my thump on the forhand side when playing backhand since I have a very relaxed grip my bat would 'wobble' when blaying backhand without my thumb up. but for the rest I dont really change my grip