Squash Coaching Blog: The Height Of Your Grip

The Height Of Your Grip

As I’m sure you have noticed, different people hold their racket at different heights up the handle of the racket, for example; Greg Gaultier holds it pretty low down, near the end of the handle, whereas Amr Shabana holds his racket very high, near the top where the grip becomes the shaft. This suggests there is no right or wrong, but just down to personal preference; but each way does offer different benefits.

Holding your racket low, near the bottom of the handle:

• This offers more power. You also get an extra inch of reach. What I personally find is it favours a flatter shot with less downward slice. It’s also good for rolling in a counter-drop. This is perfect for a smooth moving, aggressive player like Greg.

Holding your racket toward the top of the handle:

• This gives the player a feeling of more control. I think it works well with a more medium paced drive, where the swing has come from above to chop down on the ball. Usually suits a more compact swing. Amr Shabana moved his grip further up in the latter 3 or 4 years of his playing career. As he became older he changed his game slightly, to revolve less around power but more about hitting controlled straight lines and accuracy, hence the slight change in his grip.

So you can see, it’s possible a different height of grip can be suited to different types of player. What type of player are you?

Generally people hold their racket in the middle of the grip, but I do think it’s worth experimenting. If you are disciplined enough to ever do solo practice this is a perfect time to try out different grip heights. It’s not advisable to try in a match, but if you happen to have an easy match it might be worth giving different options a try when you’re 2-0 up in games.

Experimenting might just reinforce that you are most suited to the way you currently hold your racket, or it might just give your game a new dimension in a way you never considered before!