Get a Grip

Pro Christian Alshon grips his Paddletek in an “Eastern-intal” Grip

Where do all these pickleball grips come from?  Continental, Eastern, Semi-Western?  Am I turning my paddle toward the East and the West?  What’s going on here?

The answer may surprise you. It has nothing to do with the compass and everything to do with geography and the spread of style and innovation in tennis.

Continental

Tennis was invented in Europe and played on grass with wooden racquets that did not impart much spin to the ball (sound familiar?).  Therefore, a neutral grip to both the forehand and backhand was preferred.  Hence, the continental grip was born.  

The continental grip is very popular in pickleball. It gives the player a paddle face that can quickly react to a ball on either side of their body without popping it up with an open paddle face. Gabe Tardio, Hayden Patriquin, and Mari Humberg are prominent players who primarily play with a continental grip. 

Find this grip by shaking hands with the handle and voilà!  You have a grip that maintains the paddle perpendicular to the ground (as shown in the color image below).  It’s neither closed nor open when attempting a forehand or backhand.  It is named after the sport's birthplace on the “continent” of Europe; hence, the grip is continental.  It sounds so sophisticated, doesn’t it?

Eastern

Fast-forward a few decades, and tennis has flourished in the new world, particularly in the eastern part of the United States. Hard courts and racquet innovation began to reward spin. Players began to twist the racquet closed both on the forehand and the backhand, and the Eastern grip was born, named after the eastern part of the United States.  

Pro Pickleball players such as John Cincola, Tyson McGuffin, and Zane Navratil adjust the paddle in their hands toward an Eastern backhand or forehand to impart spin or to direct the paddle down at their opponents' feet.

Note that an Eastern forehand does not have the same orientation in your hand as an Eastern backhand. Each of these Eastern grips is one tick or bevel to the left or right of neutral, making the paddle tilt toward the ground slightly on the forehand and backhand, respectively. This allows the player to be more aggressive with their low-to-high swing path, imparting more spin on the ball while keeping it in the court. 

Grip Progression: Hand Rotating Around Neutral Racquet

As a refresher, bevels are the flat portions of your handle that go around in a circle. The grip is an octagon shape, so there are eight bevels, each 45 degrees away from the next. 

You can find grips by twisting your hand around the paddle, as the above illustration shows, or twisting the paddle in your hand. If you twist the paddle in your hand one bevel at a time, you close the paddle face in 45-degree increments. 

In the image above, an eastern forehand would have bevel 2 twisted to the top, which closes the paddle face by 45 degrees. 

Find Your Grip Video

California Dreamin’

Now, returning to our origin story, California, the birthplace of new-age therapies, Kendrick Lamar, and Tupac, would not be denied a seat at the table. The Western grip went extreme as court innovations and racquet technology moved westward across the United States.

Like California wines, the Western grip comes in various varietals. We have the semi-Western, one tick or bevel beyond eastern at 90 degrees closed. And then we have the bolder, more extreme full Western, which is 135 degrees closed with the palm entirely underneath the handle at impact!

Few players go full Western in tennis, so the semi-western grip became the standard for extreme grips out West.  This semi-western grip is commonly known as the pancake grip in pickleball. 

Find your semi-western grip by setting the racquet or paddle on the ground and then picking it up like you would the handle of a frying pan. Riley Newman is the most notable pro who uses a semi-western grip in pickleball. However, he uses it as a tool for volleys rather than as a spin-generating weapon from the baseline, as it is used in tennis. 

As an aside, the full Western grip in tennis is rare and typically reserved for clay-court specialists. Clay produces a high bounce, which lends itself to a grip that needs a high contact point. That is why the greatest clay court player of all time, Rafael Nadal, is the most well-known player to come close to closing the paddle face to this degree!

No pro pickleball player plays with a full Western grip, as the ball doesn’t bounce high enough, and the paddle does not grip the ball sufficiently to keep it from going into the net with a paddle face 135 degrees closed!

Hawaiian

What!?  There is another?  Yep, there is the Hawaiian grip, which is more of a joke than an actual grip.  The Hawaiian forehand is 180 degrees closed and in the same spot rotationally in your hand as the Continental grip, yet somehow, you are to hit the ball with the backhand side of the paddle on a forehand!  Sound confusing?  Well, here is a video showing how effective it is!

Full Circle

So that’s it!  As paddle technology continues to improve, we have seen the same evolution in pickleball as we observed over the years in tennis.  We started with Gen One paddle technology with Continental grips and a few outliers.  Then we progressed to “Eastern-intal”, a spot between Continental and Eastern where Ben Johns likes to reside.  And now, we have Quang Duong, who hits tennis-style groundstrokes in an Eastern grip with possibly some semi-Western shots at times.  

Will anyone move to full Western in Pickleball?  It’s not likely unless there are significant changes to allowable limits on ball and paddle specifications.  That said, it will be exciting to see how it plays out in the years to come!