The Forehand Grip Guide
OVERVIEW
All Forehand Grips
FOREHAND GRIPS
Find the bevel that your base index knuckle is at to determine grip
Let your hand grip the racket naturally and relaxed.
Use the base index knuckle exclusively to identify the grip.
Don’t worry about the heel pad —it has a role in identifying the alignment of the hand, but is generally unnecessary for new players. Read more about the heel pad in this section.
The Bevels:
Index Knuckle on….
Bevel 2: Continental
Bevel 3: Eastern
Bevel 4: Semi-Western
Bevel 5: Western
Bevel 6: Hawaiian
Look at the bevels from this perspective, with the base of the racket facing you, the ends of the racket facing up/down, and the strings facing to the side.
GRIPS & COMPETITIVE PLAY
The De Facto Forehand Grip for Competitive Play
Semi-Western
Viable for Professional and Competitive Play
Eastern
Western
Not Recommended and Extremely Niche.
Hawaiian
Continental
The Semi-Western Grip is King… but that does not mean you can’t succeed on other grips. In terms of professional usage, the semi-western eclipses the other grips and for good reason. It is the most balanced in terms of spin and power, giving you the necessary versatility in most situations.
Think of SW grip like the one hand vs two hand backhand debate. The two handed BH is certainly the prevailing backhand, yet it does not diminish the ceiling and capabilities of the one hander in the right hands. Similarly, the Eastern and Western grips will likely never be as numerous as Semi-Western, but that does not mean those grips cannot succeed at the top of the game.
While grips have certainly fallen in and out of favor, the modern game has reached a point of maturity where grips are “figured out” and optimized. I would not expect a shift unless major changes to the game occur.
BEGINNER RECOMMENDATIONS
It is generally recommended that players begin with Eastern Grip, and transition into Semi-Western once they begin to build confidence in their strokes.
The rationale behind this is that eastern is a great starting grip because of its ease of contact with the ball. And while Semi-Western is the most optimal grip overall, it is not a grip that is easy to jump right into. By starting eastern and then transitioning in to SW, the learning curve will be much smoother.
That being said, this is just a general recommendation and not a hard rule by any means. Eastern is a great forehand grip for casual players and the grip change is not essential. On the professional side, Juan Martin del Potro has an Eastern grip and is known to have one of the biggest forehands in history. However, just be aware that eastern grip is a very miniscule population in the professional tour.
Western grip is not recommended for the typical player, but very potent in the right hands. The primary deterrent is the lack of feel with the ball initially. There is usually a large adjustment period because of absurd amount of spin that is produced from the grip naturally. The key to adopting the western grip is pushing the contact point slightly more in front and focusing entirely on driving through the ball.
SEMI-WESTERN IS KING
Almost the entirety of both the ATP & WTA use the semi-western in our modern tour, and 2/3 of the the Big 3 use the semi-western grip (Rafa & Novak). And what’s interesting is that Roger Federer is so close to semi-western that he is basically there —a hybrid grip between Eastern and Semi-Western. I’ve left individuals hyperlinks of the fully diagramed visuals for their FH grips.
So what exactly makes the SW grip so successful on tour?
In order to answer this question, we must clear one misconception first. That is, as we go from Eastern grip, to Semi-Western, to Western, we are not just adding spin to our shot. If this was the case, everyone would be playing with Western and Hawaiian.
Changing the grip does not just affect the spin capacity,
but also it’s flatness or drive through ability.
In other words, it proportions the ball that we create: both its spin capacity and drive through ability. This yin/yang property is what changes as we shift grips. So for eastern, we are able to drive through the ball very well, but lack spin capacity. And on the other end of the spectrum, western has very good spin capacity, but lacks drive through. And finally Semi-Western is right in the middle — a balance of spin and drive through. This balance is not to be underestimated as versatility is the name of the game for our sport.
Generally, we compensate the weaknesses of a grip with the swing path itself. For Eastern, the tendency is for the ball to go long, so the swing path needs to be very focused on spin production. The low to high motion will have stricter timing requirements because there is a greater need of spin to keep the grip from pushing the ball out. For Western, it’s the opposite: put anymore spin on a western grip, and your ball will never get over the net. So keep the racket face relatively open, and emphasize a forward driving motion.
The slightly ironic nature of these grips is that for:
Western grip you will want to swing flatter
Eastern grip you want to swing spinier.
Therefore, the true advantage of the Semi-Western grip is that you have greater freedom of how you swing because the grip is already quite balanced.
Role of the Heel Pad & Hand Alignment
As a coach, I typically omit the heel pad when explaining grips as it tends to be extra and you don’t want that information overload. Usually having the index knuckle as the starting point and telling them to hold their racket naturally will suffice.
The purpose of the distinguishing the heel pad is to identify the hand alignment in relative to the racket.
I recommend having your racket for reference,
as you are reading this section.
If we only used a point to determine grip, then the hand can grip the racket in a number of ways, so long as the index knuckle is on the bevel. Adding the heel pad, and referencing the line between them, allows more specificity to how the hand “should” hold on to the racket.
The line formed between the index knuckle and heel pad will be used as the reference point to how to grip the racket. The “default configuration” is when this line is parallel with the racket. This is typically the natural way you grip the racket and there is no need to be too precise with this.
The only configuration that needs to be avoided is when the heel pad is above the index knuckle. In this position, the knuckles will also be parallel with racket. This is a very awkward position to hold and the wrist will feel completely restricted. Rest assured, in all my years of coaching, I have yet to see anyone hold their racket like this. With how rare this happens, this is less of a warning and more of an FYI.
The Base Index Knuckle & Heel Pad are typically parallel with the racket. Remember this not meant to be strict! So long as your knuckles aren’t parallel it’s ok.
The only hand alignment that you have to avoid. When the heel pad is higher than the base index knuckle, it will completely restrict the wrist and feel awkward. This is very rare because of how uncomfortable it is, so likely, this does not apply to you.
This configuration happens when the wrist is loose and relaxed.
The index knuckle stays in the same position, but the heel pad sinks lower. As a note, this illustration is not meant to show specific bevels, but only the alignment of the index knuckle & heel pad.
The third and final configuration is where this topic gets interesting. As the wrist becomes more relaxed, the heel pad will begin to drop lower than the index knuckle. In certain cases, you will have a grip where the index knuckle is on a different bevel than the heel pad. This is where hybrid grips come in.
Hybrid Forehand Grips
For full illustrations on Federer & Djokovic’s hybrid grips
check out: The Big 3 Forehand Grips Illustrated.
Eastern/Semi-Western Hybrid
Index Knuckle on Bevel 3
Heel Pad on Bevel 4
Semi-Western/Western Hybrid
Index Knuckle on Bevel 4
Heel Pad on Bevel 5
Sometimes known as the 3/4 Western Grip
Novak Djokovic’s SW Hybrid grip: This is a great angle to see how the the index knuckle and heel pad are on different bevels.
While the heel pad and index knuckles are often on the same bevel, this is not always the case. In the modern game, for some players, the wrist has become so loose and relaxed that the heel pad ends up slipping down a whole bevel. So what ends up happening is that the index knuckle is on a higher/different bevel than the heel pad. For sake of identification, the grip will be what the index knuckle is on —however it will play like a hybrid of both grips.
What this means overall, is that your hand is essentially half way between the two grips which leads to a mixing of the grip characteristics. Most notably the two players that have Hybrid Forehand grips are Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic.
Federer has his index knuckle on eastern, but his heel pad is on semi-western. Novak Djokovic has his index knuckle on semi-western, but his heel pad is on western. And with this context, you can see how it reflects in their respective games. Federer has that slightly flatter trait of the eastern grip, but enough spin for the modern game. Novak is not as straight forward, but if you look carefully you’ll notice that his forehand is spinier than your typical SW users.