How To Hold A Pickleball Paddle: 3 Best Techniques Described!

In Search Of The Best Grip

Splendid!

Designed with sweat-absorbing, extra cushioned and perforated grip makes a simple paddle to one of the players’ top choice. The manufacturers produce tailor-fit paddles to meet the players’ demand addressing different playing styles. 

But, how to hold a pickleball paddle-is truly a million-dollar question.

Do you wanna outplay your opponent?

Before diving in the court, let’s have a quick session on holding a pickleball paddle first. Various grip styles like Continental, Western and Eastern are the popular methods among the players. Find the best fit for you.

Get You Grip Going

Learn and practice according to your desire. So many learning sources are available nowadays. Try using YouTube, Pickleball forum, Pickleball book, blogs etc. to learn grip. Here, you can find below different styles of grip researched by us:

Continental Grip

The first way that people grab a pickleball paddle is like they’re grabbing a hammer and hammering in a nail. Players who had an equal number of backhands and forehands typically prefer this hammer grip or a continental grip.

Just to make the players easily understand, shaking hands with your paddle is a perfect form of pretending. Watch carefully, there is a V shape in your hand that meets the paddle bevel.

When you hold the paddle in 90 degrees to the ground, the reflex is as good as you want it to. If you swing you see that the paddle basically stays straight on the Continental grip. Undoubtedly, this is the best way to hold a pickleball paddle.

In the continental grip, switching between forehand to backhand is a piece of cake for the professionals. But the beginners should take time in doing this. However, the novice players having the right beginner paddles would love to adopt continental grip.

Western or Semi-Western Grip

The second is to shift the hand to the back of the paddle as if swatting a fly. This is the grip that beginners instinctively follow who don’t have any paddle-sports background.

This is a great grip for forehand strokes because the palm of your hand is behind the flat portion of the paddle. In tennis, we call this the western or semi-western grip.

If the base of your forefinger is on the position of the handle, this is a semi-western grip. However, if it’s all the way to the bottom of the handle it’s a fully Western grip.

This grip makes the backhand tougher for the players. Because the wrist is now facing the net and you have no strength to hit that backhand stroke. Few players who hold the semi-western or fully Western grip will actually use a two-handed backhand in order to get power in their backhand stroke.

Eastern Grip

A perfect blend of forehand and backhand stroke is the Eastern grip. This third grip is by far the most popular grip in pickleball and it’s the grip that I talked about shaking hands with the paddle.

It’s the perfect compromise between forehand and backhand. So, players, those hit more forehands than backhands like the Eastern grip. It’s the preferable grip in pickleball in terms of the ideal compromise.

Have a Video Tutorial on This Topic:

Things To Remember While Gripping Paddle

A Tight Grip

The top-rated players hold the paddle with a loose or a relaxed grip. It’s the loose grip that helps you generate a lot more power with less effort. A tight grip can’t help you in controlling the third shot and volley too much. Sometimes, it creates extra pressure on your wrist.

Switching Hands

I have watched a few experienced players swapping the paddle between hands at the time of the game. They do it so easily that I am amazed to see it. Generally, the tennis players do it because the court size is bigger than pickleball and they get an ample amount of time to switch between hands.

In pickleball, the pro players master this technique over time. Needless to say, this method takes a lot of practice. You need to control the ball with the weaker hand. Moreover, there is a challenge to complete the switch without dropping the paddle.

Finger On Surface

Many players particularly those with a table tennis background like to have a finger or a thumb on the paddle surface.

By having a finger on the paddle surface, a connection automatically builds up between the finger and your brain. This link keeps telling you about the orientation of the paddle and the preferred stroke you should play.

Some players put two fingers and a thumb, some prefer to have four or five fingers. By having fingers on the paddle face, the players show their incredible control and stability on the paddle. It results in great control in stroke play. There is a chance of hitting the exposed finger by the ball at the time of the game.

Importance Of Finest Grip

Do you wanna execute your best stroke?

I am sure you do. Then learn to hold the paddle in the first place. The way you hold the paddle compliments your best strokes.

A nice grip ensures good output of touch shots, dinks and volleys. Moreover, if you want to generate great spin out of your paddle surface, the execution should be spot on. A suitable grip works as an added quality to make the difference here.

Manufacturers come up with different grip-related technology that prevents paddle slippage from hand. Approved quality paddles have a great grip to play with. Hold the grip comfortably and play your natural game.

Considering the gaming style, the grip you usually maintain has great importance. Grip has an impact on the angle of your paddle face. Our goal is to match the way you hold your paddles with your style of play.

Conclusion

Hey, picklers!

One of the basic pickleball skills of paddle-holding sometimes overlooked. Because players are generally busy thinking about diverse hitting techniques of pickleball let alone gripping a paddle.

Before start playing, hold the paddle first and get the feel of it. The nice, smooth and comfortable architecture of the grip makes the paddle lucrative.

This narrative keeps me reminding and makes me nostalgic when I began to use the Paddletek series back in 2017. So much to talk about one of my old collections.

How do you hold a pickleball paddle is completely depends on your choice. Which gripping method fits you mostly hinges on the way you control the ball and the overall comfort level.

Stay tuned, hold comfortably, and let the paddle win the game!