grip

Hello there. First of all, thank you for a lot of useful material I was able to find on your website here.

I have a follow-up question about the index finger placement: I have since I remeber always held the bat as if I was holding a tennis racket, i.e. my index finger curled around the handle with the other fingers as opposed to the traditional "shakehand" grip with it extended over a side of the bat. Recently I have taken up table tennis again and started wandering whether my seemingly unorthodox grip places me at a disadvantage somehow. The way I see it, my grip gives me some extra freedom of movement, especially for backhand strokes, though it does appear that sometimes my forehand strokes are imprecise.

I have been using this grip since I started and I don't think I could easily switch to a traditional shakehand grip.

Would you have any comments or suggestions regarding this matter - am I losing anything by holding the racket the way I am? If I am, is it possible to adjust without switching my racket-holding style?

Hi Greg,

I would strongly recommend that you change your grip. No top player in the world uses a tennis style grip. One excellent reason for having your finger on the back of the bat is that is provides you with extra feedback as to the angle of your racket. This is especially important when returning serves and when playing against a short ball. It does give you extra control when playing other strokes too!

Although it does seem unnatural at first, you will be surprised at how quickly you can adapt to the new grip. You can even try walking around home with the bat in your hand at first just to get used to the feel of it. Then try some shadow play where you practice your strokes without a ball. Just go through the motions as if you were actually playing your strokes. Then just keep practicing. You'll get the hang of it quicker than you expect. 

Serving the pendulum serve is one stroke where you should consider altering your grip significantly but even here I would keep the finger on the bat but more down the back of the bat. We cover this in Serving Secrets Revealed.

I use the Tennis Grip.

I used to use Shakehands Grip, but for several reasons decided to experiment with Tennis Grip.  

I didn't find any difficulty in switching - my strokes did not deteriorate - I found no loss of accuracy;  nor did it take long to get used to the 'feel' of the grip - in fact it was almost instantaneous.  

I do not see any disadvantage in Tennis Grip over the orthodox 'finger on the blade' style.  It is just as easy to judge the angle of the blade with or without the finger.  Plus there are several advantages of Tennis over Shakehands:

1  There is less tendency to fine-adjust grip from Forehand to Backhand and vice versa.  Dennis Neale found time to switch [and he did it every single backhand shot] - most people can't.  Hence a universal grip is preferable - which is much easier with Tennis Grip.

2  Tennis players don't stick fingers out at weird angles - so why should we just because our bat is smaller?

3  Your finger isn't in the way of the ball [doesn't happen often but why put up with it at all?]

4  Tennis grip, being a more natural way of gripping [a stick, a hammer, an axe etc] is less likely to cause cramp in the hand.  Try rotating your bunched fist in a circle - then try it with one finger stuck out as you do with Shakehands.  You will find that without the finger your movement is more relaxed and easy.  It is easy to see that when playing strokes - especially with the modern ideology with the emphasis on extreme wrist movement - with the finger stuck rigidly out you are actually risking injury to the hand.

It seems that the only argument against the Tennis Grip is that no finger on the blade makes judging the blade angle more difficult.  I have not found this to be true.

Tony Dixon

Hi Tony,

Interesting view.  I think the main advantage of the finger on the bat is for touch.  I find you tend to get more feel of the ball on the racket.  Having said that, I have experimented with this over the past six months and I think you may be on to something.  It allows for a whippier swing.

Perhaps for learning the game and touch you may need to finger on and then as you improve you could drop the finger.

Interested to hear others' thoughts.

Thanks Alois.

It's nice not to be shot down in flames for having an eccentric viewpoint.  In my own defence I offer that progress is made by innovators. 

One additional point re my grip.  With my hand further down the paddle I found the handle a little on the short side;  so I extended it.  I found by trial and error 1" to be optimum additional length. There is an added bonus - the better proportion of blade-to-handle improves the aesthetics of the paddle.  

Cheers.

Tony

PS You guys are certainly on the ball with your emails!

Alois,

Yeah, I totally forgot the most important point - the extra Whip [due to the hand being further down the handle].  It should have been Point 5.

Good call Mate!

Tony