How to Grip a Tennis Raquet

Frankie Dell: Hi, I am Frankie Dell, I am a professional tennis instructor, you are watching how to play at the net. Next, I will demonstrate the proper grip. Okay let's talk about now how to grip the racket, when you are up at the net. Now, because you are at the net you are much closer to your opponent and so you are much closer to the action, so the ball is arriving much sooner than if you were at the baseline hitting regular forehands and backhands. So, we are only going to use one grip while we are up here at the net. When you are at the baseline, you can use a forehand grip and hit a forehand and then you have time to switch the grip and hit a backhand if it comes to your backhand. Now you are so close let's just use one grip, saves time. So we are going to go with the continental grip. We use the continental grip on the serve as well. Finger and thumb just run it down, the grip and there is your continental grip. The reason we use a continental grip is because you can get the strings pointed in the direction you want to hit he ball easier than say if you used only a forehand grip. If I use the forehand grip, I can hit a forehand volley just fine, but a backhand volley is awkward and it's tough on your wrist and it leaves your wrist in a awkward position as well. Now let's if I use the backhand grip, I can hit a backhand volley, but I can't really hit a forehand volley it's very awkward, I have to turn my whole arm around. So we just use the continental grip so the continental grip I can hit a forehand, I can turn it around and hit a backhand. Also let's say a lob goes up and I want to hit an overhead. Same grip, turn and you can still meet the ball flat and flat through it and that's your grip for the volley and the overhead.