Grip in Ready Position?

[johnpmcc33]

At the moment we are working to improve the consistency of my sons ready position - most of it (racket position, feet etc.) is fairly obvious and agreed on by all - but in one area - namely the grip - we are getting differing advice. On one side we have the national academy who my son goes to for group lessons telling us that they favour the forehand grip for the readiness position for all of their students - and that this is the modern way. On the other hand my sons one-one coach teaches the continental grip for the readiness position. (If it is relevant to the question my son uses a halfway Eastern, halfway semi western grip for his forehand). So whilst I appreciate that it is probably not that big a deal, and am guessing that you could employ either to good effect, I would be really interested to know what the prevailing standard is among the pros & top tier junior coaches (if their is one!).

[stotty]

The forehand probably has it...

In the old days I always taught students to wait with a forehand grip. The reason for this is that if a player gets caught out it's possible to make a backhand when holding a forehand grip, but far more difficult to hit a forehand with a backhand grip...Guy Forget managed somehow but it sure looked odd.

In today's tennis, forehand grips are far more extreme so I'm not too convinced my theory holds up as well, at least for single handed players. Hitting a single handed backhand with a full western or even a semi western is going to be tricky...but as most players are now two-handed maybe it is possible to hit a makeshift backhand this way.

World-class players hardly ever seem to get caught out with the wrong grip so it seems not to be an issue for them. There must be split second benefits, though, in waiting with a forehand or backhand, one would think.

More interesting for me is how two-handed players use their non-dominant hand when returning. Murray waits with both hands on the grip while Djokovic holds the throat of the racket with his non-dominant hand, then slides the hand down if he has to hit a backhand. Both players wait with a forehand grip as does Nadal. So waiting with a forehand grip looks like a sound decision if you want to copy the very best.

[johnpmcc33]

Nice one, makes sense, thanks. John seemed to be coming down on the side of the forehand grip in the ready position also.