How to hold the right badminton grip

A good foundation for becoming better at badminton starts with learning the correct badminton grips. How you're holding the badminton racket is essential for optimal shot technique, whether it is your forehand or backhand, or an overhand or underhand stroke.

In our opinion, there are three main types of grips: The forehand grip, the backhand grip and the pan grip.

The forehand grip - How to do it

A correct forehand grip can be explained by saying "hello" to your grip. So you hold the racket in your hand with the opposite hand, strings pointing to the sides, and you say "hello" with a handshake to the racket.

It is important that you hold the grip loosely, i.e. the grip of the racket should not touch your palm but rather the tip of your fingers.

Backhand grip - How to do it

If you have a good forehand grip, you also have a good starting point for the backhand grip. The difference is that in the backhand grip you put your thumb on the edge of the racket's grip, so the racket gets twisted slightly to the right (If you are right-handed).

Once again, the backhand grip should relax in the fingers, and it's the thumb that generates the most force in your backhand strokes.

These two grip types are your starting point and your foundation. Forehand grip for forehand shots, backhand grip for backhand shots. This applies to both overhand and underhand strokes.

The pan handle - The alternative

However, as mentioned earlier in the post, there is also the so-called pan handle grip.

The pan grip consists of grasping the badminton racket as if it were a frying pan. When you hold it, the strings point upwards and downwards, whereas in both your forehand and backhand grip, the strings point to the side.

This grip can sometimes be useful for quick racket exchanges at the net or for hitting the short deep backhand. Check out our videos on YouTube where we explain how to hit a good backhand.

With practice in your grip change, it should become possible to become proficient at switching between your forehand and backhand grip.

We would highly recommend you to watch this video, which gives you both some exercises to train your grip but also an explanation and view of how to do it.
In the video you also see how to switch between the grips.

Have fun!

Help finding the right badminton racket?

... If you have read this post, and maybe you are in the process of figuring out which badminton racket to choose, Morten Frost has made a good video explanation that takes you through all the considerations you need to make.

Watch the video on choosing the right badminton racket here.