How to Hold a Tennis Racquet With a Semi-Western Grip

Video Transcript

"Hi, my name's Lincoln Ward. I'm a USPTA certified tennis teaching pro here in Austin, Texas with Lone Star Tennis Company. Today we're going to talk to you about how to hold your racket in a semi-western grip. If you look at the bottom of your tennis racket, it has an octagon shaped handle. Every tennis racket out there will have eight sides. They do this purposefully so that you can, it can help you determine which grip you're going to hold. Each one of these flat edges are what we call bevels. If you start out right on top, along the edge of the neck and come down to the handle, this flat edge on top is called bevel number one. If you're right handed, you want to rotate your racket clockwise one bevel to bevel number two, the next one we'll name bevel three, the next one we'll name bevel four. Bevel number four is the, is the bevel you're going to hold for your semi-western grip. You want to lay the bevel along the base of your corner knuckle, catacorner to the heel of your palm, wrapping your hands around it with the trigger finger. You want to hold the bottom of your racket. You don't want to choke up too high at the top. So let's count. One, two, three, four, you're going to lay that part on the base knuckle, catacorner heel of your palm, wrapping your hand around it with the trigger finger, and your racket should look like this in your hand. A little bit on the awkward side, but not too bad. This grip is very good for top spin, high balls and medium height balls. You have a lot of power because your wrist is completely behind the racket, you drive through the ball. That's what we call a strong grip. Your racket's back, your wrist is back here driving through the shot. A semi western grip is what a majority of the pros nowadays tend to hit with. That's how you hold a semi western grip. I'm Lincoln Ward. Thanks a lot."