How to Hold a Tennis Racket With a Western Grip

Series Summary

Tennis originated in Europe in the late 1800's and spread quickly throughout the English speaking world, particularly among the wealthy. It is now an Olympic sport and is played by people in many countries and social classes. Played on a flat court made of grass, clay or concrete, tennis players use stringed rackets to pass a rubber, felt-covered ball back and forth over a net. The rules of tennis and the basic techniques have remained relatively unchanged since the beginning of the game. In this free video series on playing tennis, get tennis lessons from a certified tennis pro who discusses the various grips of tennis rackets like the continental grip, western grip and eastern grip. He gives instructions on how to fix a serve, hit a power serve, hit a flat serve and hit a slice serve. Discover the joy of singles and doubles tennis as etiquette is explained. Learn about other types of tennis shots like the approach, lob, drop and volley shots as well.

Video Transcript

"Hi, my name's Lincoln Ward, I am a USPTA certified tennis teaching pro here in Austin, Texas with Lone Star Tennis Company. Today I'm going to talk to you about how to hold your racket in a western grip. Your racket consists of an octagon shaped handle. This handle is the same on every single racket. They all have eight sides. These flat sides are called bevels. The bevels help you determine what grip you're going to hold. And the, a lot of the pros they tend to hold a semi western or a full western grip. The way you find your grip, you're going to line up one of these bevels starting at the base of your corner knuckle cat corner to the heel of your palm. You want to lay the bevel flat up against that part and wrap your hand around it giving somewhat of a trigger finger. So the western grip, you start off right at the top on the flat edge of the neck and come straight down. It's going to be called bevel number one. If you're right handed, you're going to turn, you're going to rotate your racket clockwise one bevel to bevel number two, again to bevel number three, to number four, and down here to number five, so the bottom bevel is bevel number five. That's where you're going to hold the racket for a western grip. You want to line that bevel up right on the base of your knuckle, cat corner to the heel of your palm, wrap your hand around it with a trigger finger, and as you can see, it's a very kind of awkward looking grip to hold, but when you go to make contact, you're going to really come up from underneath the ball and spin the ball heavily. This grip is very good for heavy top spin, high balls and driving through the higher shots. It's a little, it lacks the power a little bit on the lower balls, so use this on higher shots. If you're playing clay court, western or semi western grips are really helpful for that. I'm Lincoln Ward, that's how you hit a Western gripped shot."