What Grip Should You Use for a Pickleball Backhand?
Quick Answer: The continental grip is the standard pickleball backhand grip. Hold the paddle like a hammer, with the base knuckle of your index finger on the top right bevel for a right-hander. It works for backhand dinks, blocks, volleys and slices without changing grips, which matters in a game this fast.
The backhand grip is how your hand sits on the handle for backhand shots, and one grip covers nearly all of them.
What is the continental grip?
The hammer hold. Grip the paddle as if you were going to hammer a nail with its edge, base knuckle of the index finger on the narrow top-right bevel for a right-hander. The face sits square to the net without any wrist twisting.
The continental earns its place because it is neutral. Forehand volley, backhand volley, dink on either side, overhead: one grip plays them all. At the kitchen line, where exchanges arrive too fast for grip changes, neutral wins.
Why does the grip matter so much on the backhand?
Because the backhand has no spare time and no second hand to rescue a bad face angle, unless you add one. A grip rotated too far toward the forehand side opens the backhand face, so balls float long. Too far the other way closes it, so dinks find the net.
The test is simple. Hold your normal grip, put the paddle face flat against a wall on your backhand side, and look at your wrist. If the wrist has to bend awkwardly to square the face, the grip is wrong for that shot.
Do any shots want a different backhand grip?
A few, at the margins:
- Heavy topspin drives. Rotating slightly toward an eastern backhand closes the face a touch and makes the low-to-high brush of topspin easier
- The two-handed backhand. The bottom hand usually stays continental while the top hand does the work. The full grip stack is in the twoey guide
- Slice returns. Continental already suits slice, one reason it is the default
The mistake is optimizing for one shot. A grip that adds five percent to your drive but costs you the fast exchange at the line is a bad trade in a sport where the fast exchange decides most rallies.
How tight should you hold it?
Loose, around a three or four out of ten between shots. A death grip slows your hands, kills touch on dinks, and radiates strain up the forearm. Firm up through contact on drives, then relax again.
Players who arrive from tennis tend to squeeze; players from ping pong tend to hold it about right. If your forearm burns after an hour of play, the grip pressure is the first suspect, before the paddle or the schedule.
How do you know your grip is the problem?
The ball tells you. Consistent misses in one direction are a face-angle problem, and the grip sets the face:
- Backhands floating long: face too open, grip rotated too far forehand
- Backhand dinks into the net: face too closed
- Volleys popping up weakly: gripping too tight to absorb pace
- Late on everything: possibly changing grips mid-exchange, which continental eliminates
Fixing the grip feels terrible for exactly one session. Most players adjust within a week of deliberate reps, and the improvement to the backhand as a whole is permanent. A useful drill while it settles: rally twenty soft backhand dinks without regripping once, then twenty volleys. If the paddle face stays square through both without wrist gymnastics, the grip is right.
FAQ
What grip should I use for a pickleball backhand?
Continental, the hammer grip. It keeps the face square on both wings and never needs changing during fast exchanges.
Is the continental grip good for both forehand and backhand?
Yes, that is its main virtue. One neutral grip covers volleys, dinks, blocks and overheads on both sides.
Should I change grips between forehand and backhand?
At the kitchen line, no. There is no time. From the baseline some players make a small rotation for topspin drives, and that is the only common exception.
What grip for a two-handed backhand?
Bottom hand continental, top hand roughly an eastern forehand for the non-dominant hand. The top hand supplies the swing.
How tight should I grip the paddle?
Three or four out of ten between shots, firmer through contact on drives. Tension is the enemy of touch and of your forearm.
Why does my backhand keep going long?
Usually an open paddle face, and usually the grip is what opened it. Check that the face sits square when your arm is relaxed.
Ten minutes with a coach fixes a grip faster than a month of guessing. The coaches in our directory can spot a face-angle problem from the first three balls.
Written by the Pickler Junction Team.
