More Extreme, or less Extreme.
Hi All. First time posting here.
I have a question about my forehand grip.
But first I'll give you some background. I play high level comp in Australia, and spent two years assistant coaching (just to give you an idea of my standard).
I used to have a 2HB and an extreme grip on my forhand, with the V between my thumb and forefinger sitting directly on top of the grip if the racquet were lying on the ground. I used to pretty much stand in the backhand corner and hit off forehands, doing most of the damage with my forehand. My backhand was very solid but not really a weapon. This is when I was about 16-20 year old.
Then my forehand went to crap (too short and sometimes not even making the net!!!). Not sure if it's because I got taller or what. So I adjusted my grip to semi western and things got better for a while. But my forehand never got back that weapon stage where I could hit the ball as hard as I wanted.
Because of this, I started coming to the net more and my volleys really improved. I'd say I have much more of an all court game now. I also switched to a single handed backhand, which now feels much more natural.
My backhand feels very solid. Not really effected by pace and I can flatten it out or hit with topspin and hit some big winners if the situation arises. I use the standard "eastern" bh grip. My shots feel "heavy" even though I'm not trying to whack the cover off the ball.
Now I want my forehand to feel equally solid. So my delema is this.
Do I go to an eastern forehand grip and hope that this works on my forehand like it does on my backhand? Or do I go back to western, which worked so well when I was 16-20? I loved being able to hit the ball as hard as I wanted, and the semi-western/western grip feels much more natural to me. But I want the solidarity of my backhand. So not sure what the hell to do!?
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Also, theoretically I'm still a little confused about western versus semi western (after all these years). Is western essentially an eastern backhand grip used for the forehand? Or is it a little less extreme than that?
Geez I've written an essay! Thanks for all who read it all!