How to Change a Tennis Racket Grip

Video Transcript

"Hi, my name is Lincoln Ward. I am the director of the Austin Tennis Center here in Austin, Texas as well as a USPTA certified teaching pro. Today we're going to talk about how to re-grip your tennis racket. Generally there are two different ways to re-grip your racket. You can replace the existing grip or you can add an over grip. The replacement grip is generally a little bit more expensive, its the same as an over grip, it just has an extra layer of cushion. If you're grip is, if you're cushion is fine, then I would recommend using an over grip and wrapping around the top of your original grip. If you're original grip is completely without cushion anymore, then I would say go ahead and take that grip off, peel it back starting up off on the top and unwinding the tape and completely replacing it. Today we're going to use a replacement grip over the existing original grip. What you would want to do you just want to kind of set it stationary, the replacement grips come in a nice little round packet like this, they either come one to a pack or three to a pack. You want to unwind it, let it go ahead and just sag. You're going to start off on one end. You want to start off on the base of your tennis racket right here and keeping it nice and taut, you're going to wrap your grip around to where it catches itself right there. You want to make sure you don't allow any creases in the grip tape because that will kind of mess it over time a little faster. The replacement grips general purpose is to add a little tackiness to your handle or swear absorption. Those are the two reasons why most people replace their grips in the first place. Either sweaty hands or it just loses the tackiness and the racket spins around in your hand too fast or too much. One other reason why someone would put an over grip on their racket is to build up the size of your grip. The more racket, the more over grips you put on your racket, the wider the handle's going to become in case you have larger hands or in case its just a little bit off. One other reason for an over grip or replacement grip is to add a little bit more cushion to your grip. After you get all the way to the top, you're going to take the piece of tape they have, if you don't have a piece of tape or if you lost the piece of tape that came with your grip or your over grip, electrical tape I found works really well. That's how you replace your grip."