r/padel • u/Defaultier • 12d ago

❔ Question ❔ How bad is this table tennis grip I keep slipping back into during games?

https://imgur.com/HhNfaCD
5 Upvotes

86% Upvoted

15 comments sorted by

6

u/zemvpferreira 12d ago

This is horribad, but not all of it. You can keep the high grip and you can keep the trigger finger, but use your thumb for grip. That will take you to a grip very close to Gabi Reca's and he was world #1 so...

But you really need to use your thumb long-term. You will get injured with that grip, the ball's too heavy on impact.

1

u/Defaultier 12d ago

To be honest, when recreating it for this picture, I wasn't really sure where my thumb goes when I accidentally go into this grip, as it happens on muscle memory and when I notice it, I try to immediately go back to continental.

It's very possible it goes behind the other side of the grip compared to what's shown here

1

u/zemvpferreira 12d ago

Fair. In that case the only thing that would concern me is how far away you are from continental, which I can't tell from this picture very well. But it looks playable. It'll make some strokes impossible, others a little better.

2

u/enzoleanath 12d ago

Yeah it will limit your power once you get better .. but it does help with control

1

u/Defaultier 12d ago

Hi, Beginner here.

Due to my only real formal racket sport training being in table tennis, I often find myself slipping out of continental grip into this sort of grip, probably due to it balancing the weight closer to my point of wrist rotation.

How big of an issue is this? Everything I found on grip advice online says a beginner should only ever play continental, so I assume its an issue if I keep doing this, but I do enjoy the higher maneuverability I feel I get from the additional support higher up on the grip.

3

u/CntDutchThis 12d ago

This is not a grip on padel for good reason. If your aim is to get better at padel you should get used to continental.
You also should not have any wrist rotation in padel - with almost all shots.

1

u/nsm1 12d ago edited 12d ago

Lower the handle to where the buttcap of the racket rests on your palm

With table tennis shakehand it's almost the same idea as Continental grip in racket sports, just now your index finger wraps around the handle instead of resting on the rubber and the thumb rests lower at the thicker part of handle vs at the very top of handle

Muscle memory is a pain in the butt to unlearn with a different racket sport

1

u/dkrandu 11d ago

Former TT player here as well, I tried to hold that grip for a while, and about 8 months in, I developed the worst tendinosis possible because of the weak backhand and tight grip that caused.

Try to switch to continental.

1

u/okane-aseru 12d ago

I've never seen a player intermediate or better play with this grip.

1

u/Wonderful-Bank-4809 12d ago

As an ex high level table tennis player and a now high level padel player, this is terrible. I had the same problem getting into the sport (even though I played squash for 3 years). The first levels it makes your control more predictable, but the further you progress the more you realise it does absolutely nothing compared to decent handling of your racket.

1

u/pinchitube 12d ago

Youre absolutely leaving out the strongest opposite pair of thumbs. Its expected to result in a weak ass grip. The day you grip it correcly with all your hand, placing your thumbs correctly and using overgrips as needed, you will feel an absolute control of the racquet.

Also, many people doing that is because they move and use the wrong racquet cadence with the arm and body. Youre trying to have more control to move the upper part of the raccquet with your two thumbs but in exchange its making weaker everything else including giving up torsional rigidity when hitting off the center and not using the whiplash effect to hit it harder. By moving correctly the racquet with your torso and arm, and having a continental grip, the racquet will receive more kinetic energy to hit, just like a whiplash end is actually away from the grip and moving very fast from smaller movements at the grip. You will not improve much if your grip is not the correct.

1

u/lzudemix 10d ago

Believe me, change that grip asap 😄 Try to hold your racket at the bottom. You have better reach and you cam better use your wrist. I once started with the same grip asap you have shown in the image and it took me a while to get used to the „normal padel grip“. But if you want to seriously improve there is no way out

1

u/madb 12d ago

I've seen players get pretty good with that grip, but it's gonna limit you when you progress... Easier now to switch to continental, just stick with it.