Strokes and Technique
hi Alois,
I have a small question when playing my backhand strokes where exactly should my thumb be. I normally keep my thumb close to my other three supporting fingers and my strokes are consistent and really spinny as I can use my wrist very easily like this but I often see players keeping the thumb high up on the racket and playing their backhand strokes. but when I tried doing so I found that the transition from that grip to my forehand grip takes me a lot of time and i end up playing my forehand with my thumb high up on the face of my racket. Please help me sort out this confusion.
Hi Rakshith,
Keep playing with your thumb down. It is a better way to play the stroke as you don't need to change between eh forehand and the backhand. It also allows more use of the wrist.
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Rakshith Parashurama Posted 7 years ago
Thank you for your answer.
Beauford P Posted 7 years ago
Different strokes for different folks I guess. I was having trouble with my backhand so my coach suggested I try resting my thumb in the middle bottom of the rubber (it looks like you're giving a 'thumbs up'). This helped tremendously and improved my back hand. It felt unnatural for a few times, and it was hard getting back for the forehand as you say, but my muscle memory quickly got used to it and it's not an issue any more.
I find that having my thumb up lets me swing more freely and there's no strain on my arm, because I'm not over-stretching my thumb on the wind back anymore which it was doing when I had it down with the other fingers.
I also feel like I have more control of the ball because I can feel it through my thumb through the stroke.