Grip Tightness
Grip tightness refers to the idea of having different amounts of tightness in your grip of the table tennis bat, depending on what shot you are trying to play. So let's talk a bit about loose grips vs firm grips.Loose Grip
In general, a loose grip is used when you are trying to help reduce the effect of the power or spin of an opponent's shot. Holding your racket slightly looser allows the racket to move a little more backwards when contact is made, thus causing more of the pace or spin to be absorbed by the racket itself. You are controlling their spin without imparting much yourself.
A loose grip is also useful when you are attempting to play a touch shot, such as a gentle drop shot over the net from the return of serve. Loosening the grip allows you to hit softer than a firm grip, which can help when you are trying to hit a double-bounce return. Defenders sometimes use a loose grip to help absorb the pace and spin of the ball when chopping as well.
Firm Grip
Using a firm grip when you want to impart your own spin on the ball also makes sense. In these situations you usually want to get as much spin or speed out of your stroke as you can, so a firmer grip will allow a better rebound from the racket, increasing the spin and speed.
Having a firm grip will be helpful when you are trying to loop, reloop, or block the ball with pace. A heavy push would also be easier with a firm grip.
Changing Your Grip
There are two main times you may want to change your grip, these being when you are serving, and during a rally.Changing Your Grip During Service
This technique is quite common today, and seemed to first become common during the mid-1980's, when several top European players began to hold the bat between the thumb and index finger only when serving. This appeared to be an attempt to allow shakehanders to achieve a freedom of motion when serving that came close to the penholder grip.
There now appears to be three main approaches when serving shakehand:
- The bat is held between the thumb and index finger, allowing a wide range of motion. The remaining three fingers are kept off the handle throughout the service.
- The bat is still held between the thumb and index finger at the beginning of the service, but the remaining three fingers are used to increase the spin by tightening on the handle during the service motion, increasing the speed of the snap (this is used mainly on normal forehand pendulum services and backhand services, it does not help on the reverse forehand pendulum service).
- The bat is held normally, with no grip change at all. The wrist is used to provide spin variation. I have seen this more often of late, perhaps it is making a comeback?
