The Continental Grip

The first step you will need to follow on your journey to becoming a great tennis player is to learn how to properly grip the racket. How you hold the racket is essential to hitting a proper shot, whether it is a backhand, forehand, serve, or volley. I will develop more in the future on why the grip is extremely important from a physical and biomechanical perspective. The continental grip is the first grip you will have to master on your journey.

The reasons behind the continental grip

The continental grip is the one we use to hold the racket for serves, volleys, and slices. This grip allows a player to hold the racket with his wrist aligned to the rest of his arm, allowing him to hold the racket firmly and to orientate the racket easily. This grip is bilateral, meaning we can use it for both the forehand and the backhand.
The continental grip is an ideal compromise to get started with tennis because it will allow you to learn to play while being relaxed, controlling your power, stability, and direction.

Holding the racket with the continental grip

So, to grip the racket in continental, you will need to position the racket in front of you straight and perpendicular to your body. Then, (1) place your left hand on the heart of your racket to hold it. (2) You will now put your right hand on top and at the bottom of the racket and do an L with your fingers. (3) You can now turn your hand by 45° (4) and grip the racket. You now have your continental grip!

Before moving on to the next 2 grips (forhand grip & backhand grip), you need to get comfortable with that grip. I am going to give you a few exercises that will be of increasing difficulty.

While doing the exercises:
• Always keep your arm, forearm and wrist completely loose.
• Try to be very precise on every details for each exercises, the goal is quality over quantity!
• Keep working on these exercises until you are able to do at least 20-30 repetitions at every try.

Exercises for the continental grip

Your goal is to make the ball bounce as many times as possible on the racket. You can move to adjust to the ball.

Your goal is to make the ball bounce as many times as possible on the racket but this time contolling the height and direction of your ball. You can't move and adjust to the ball this time.

Play forehand against the wall standing very close to it. You need to position your legs sideway (left in front and right in back), stand straight with your body (don't lean), hit the ball in front of you, stay relax with your arm (don't grip the racket hard), then repeat the same movement on every shots.

Play backhand against the wall standing very close to it. You need to position your legs sideway (left in front and right in back), stand straight with your body (don't lean), hit the ball in front of you, stay relax with your arm (don't grip the racket hard), then repeat the same movement on every shots.

Alternate between forehand and backhand with the exact same instructions of exercise 3 and 4, but you can move to change position after every shots.

Same instructions as exercise 2 but this time you alternate the face of the racket after every bounce.