Tennis: The Basic Grips

The game of tennis uses five main grips:

The Eastern backhand; the Continental; the Eastern forehand; the Western forehand, and the semi-Western forehand, which, turning the racquet to the backhand position, becomes the Eastern backhand.

The Western and semi-Western can allow greater power and spin, but are difficult for amateurs, and normally used only in high-level competition.

This video describes the three basic grips: the Eastern backhand, the Continental, and Eastern forehand.

Step 1: The Eastern backhand

Hold your racquet out in front of you with your left hand. Place your right hand on top of the grip, taking care to keep your wrist straight, and close your hand around the grip.

Left-handed players do the same, but with the opposite hands.

Step 2: The Continental

Use the continental grip for serves, for volleys and sliced backhands.

Hold the racquet out in front of you with your left hand.

Touch your right thumb and index finger together through the strings at the top of the rim, slide them down to the grip and close your hand.

If you are left-handed, the action is exactly the same but with the hands reversed.

See how to play with the Continental grip in our videos “the forehand volley”, “the backhand volley”, and “the slice service”.

Step 3: The Eastern forehand

Hold your racquet at the base with your left hand, pointing straight out in front of you. Place your right palm on the strings, slide it down to the grip, and close it around the grip.

Again, to make the left-handed grip follow the same steps in mirror image.

Watch our video “the forehand” to see how to play with the eastern forehand grip.