This is actually a good point, and one of the most overlooked one. Grip plays a big role in how one feels / handles a racquet , which in turn influences shot execution. It's always been a bit baffling that major brands do not all use a pallet system, allowing to change both the size and the shape of the grip.
As a one hander, i'm much more comfortable playing using the square grip. The flat side of rectangular grip feel it hard to get some stability when hitting one.
@Robert Langlois rectangular grip with thick overgrip could also feel comfortable. But with thick grip, it hinders my forehand and serve. That's why for me the best grip would be the thin and square grip... Just curious, with your grip, if you freeze on contact point and try to push the racket head, doesnt it feel unstable? In case of finding the grip, i don't really have problem with that. I don't have much trouble in finding grip quickly. For me, it's just the stability.
Been thru several generations of pro prestiges and that's the grip I like; with a semi-western grip on the forehand side I can get more strength and stability through the contact point all because of the hand being fully behind the flat part of the grip.
Now I have three brands at the same grip size. The Head has enormous butt cap. It is 1 cm in diameter bigger than Yonex and Babolat. These two feel like there is nearly no butt cap. Therefor the Head grip feels like it is a size bigger than yonex which feels smallest of them. The big butt cap is blocking wrist action. I use semi-western grip.
For me, grip shape is priority when choosing a racquet. The one this that’s almost impossible to customize or tweak myself. I’ve had handles professionally reshaped, I’ve bought head pallet replacements, I’ve ordered 3D printed pallets.... I wish every brand would give grip shape options.
I play with both a HEAD Prestige Youtek IG and a first edition Gravity. The Prestige is that flatter traditional HEAD grip, but the Gravity is a little more squared off. I'd say the Gravity is somewhere in between the rectangular HEAD grip and the Wilson style grip.
Yes! Thats it! I am used to HEAD, began with 41/2 Grip with 10 too (but no overgrip then;) I'm more familiar playing with my rectangular grip thus knowing my position when choosing my eastern g (e.g forehand) or change to.a continentalgrip (e.g.volley, backhand slize) but feel I am slower changing from one grip to another. Like always, you cant have it all! I play a rather thick rectanglegrip 45/8 What do you think. If I change to 41/2 I wouldprobably find a compromise of these two worlds. Still have my rectangular more stable grip position which I am familar with but also could change easier my grip. (But of course thinner makes grip less stable too)
I feel the head speed is still much more rectangular compared to a babolat or a yonex. I switched from these to a head speed and found my control improving overnight. All because of the grip shape.
I use semi-western forehand and have played with Wilson since forever, similar with Prince and Dunlop. Have a head radical racquet, cant play with it, feels bigger due to rectangular shape (great for eastern grip). Babolat and Yonex feels bigger than Wilson.
groovejusmood I absolutely agree with you. While watching this vid, I took out all my racquets (POG, Pure Aero, Blade and Radical liquid metal). And I have to say that only now I realize why I had an absolutely bad time with the radical. Absolutely bad with my single handed backhand. Of course I’m sure my technique had something to do with my bad experience, but I just wanted to give my feedback and saw how similar our experience was. Cheers On another note, I’m looking to buy the speed MP and I’m glad that I saw this video first (because I did rally know the grip shapes were different between other brands and head). So I’m glad that speed has a squared off grip shape thanks Tennis Spin, you definitely put a spin on my decision
Every time I change my overgrip I feel like I have to start again all over to get used to racquet. I keep changing overgrip brands frequently, may be it the reason
I have some Prestige Pros from like 1988 that are almost exactly the same as my Prestige Classic Mids but the Prestige Pros have a much rounder grip like a wilson vs the squared off grips from the Classic Mids. They both play about the same TBH. The Twaron Composite material is pretty cool even in 2020
The round shaped grip is the best because it FILLS your palm up. Doesn't matter if you are Eastern/semi-western.... in order to get a stable solid impact and swing path.... you need that handle to fill up your hand so that there are no weak spaces between your hand and the grip... allowing it to be locked in. Prince in my opinion have the best grips (better than the TK82S from Head).
Just changed the TK82S grip pallets of my Head Exreme into a TK82. I'm a reasonable flat hitter but it makes so much difference because of the more natural contact of the grip. I'm loving it!
Head rackets use a pallet system where you can switch between the square or rectangular system and switch the grip size as well. Kinda tough to find in the US and ordering from eBay or EU makes it pricey
Great insight thank you! I’m old school playing with a lot of Wilson rackets, however the Yonex grips for me are the most comfortable. They are unique...now I’m spending a fortune in customising my RF 97 with the Yonex shape and they are not the same as the Wilson grips, there is a difference.
The traditional Head rectangular shape made sense when only the Continental grip was used (think McEnroe) for all shots. It is awkward for a modern backhand where you are contacting the ball well forward of the body.
I started with Wilson, then switched to babolat with Aeropro Drive, and Pure Aero Tour, the handle on those feels rectangular compared to Wilson, now I switched to Angell and used the Wilson type grip.
yonex has one of the best quality control so most of their racquets compared to other companies are within similar weights. The strings are very good as well. I think that the one thing they are not good at is the price and marketing. The price is higher compared to other companies and they have great products but not as well known and buried behind other companies such as their string lineup
@@kingnike12 You do realise that there is an actual cost for a higher quality control, don't you? In any event, their price is about the same as Wilson, whose QC is awful. That tells me that Wilson operates at higher margins than Yonex.
I dont know why you are being aggressive with your comment haha. I agree that wilson makes more money but wilson has most racquets with the exception of the clash at lower than the 200 dollar range when yonex racquets all retail for 220ish. Yes there is a price for quality control but for the average tennis player who doesnt know much about racquets, price matters which means that the price point can be a downside
Head makes great racquets, but they have that crazy grip shape I could never get used to. They should give you the option of one or other. If they did I would likely have chosen the radical MP
One of my friends told me that our local racquet shop adds a strip of material to the wider sides of the grip to square it off for him and make it like Wilson. Not sure what the material is, but now I'm curious so I'll ask.
Head now does have some lines that have the square grip shapes like the head gravity and speed line. Also, head racquets are pallets, which means you can swap them for the square ones. I did that for my pro tour 2.0
I completely agree with being able to find the bevels easier on a "rectangular" grip, or maybe I'm just used to it since it's the only type I've played with. I also find that it helps with knowing the angle of the face through contact and it provides torsional stability for off center shots. In which, the Pros don't have this issue since they're always hitting the center of the bed, and so that split second difference of being able to rotate a square grip makes all the difference to them. Anyway, if you find yourself adding weight to 3 and 9 for stability, maybe try a rectangular grip. It will probably help. Great video and discussion as always.
I have a few gravity rackets and both of their grips buttcaps where the end of the racket increases in circumference( this is hard to explain), but they are like inconsistent in size and they are both different. It drives me crazy
I grew up playing with Wilsons - KFactor, NCode, etc and most recently the blade till 2013, after that I switched to a head prestige pro and using it for 7 plus years, now I cannot go back to Wilson's squared off shape. Maybe my palm has stopped growing and set for life and head grip shape suits perfectly.
@@BorisBecker1872 the head sticks have an oval shaped grip z where the bevels are kind of rounded off. the feel of the bevels are not obvious. Volkl has a true rectangular shaped grip, so the forehand to backhand grip changes are more precise. also, it's easier to have a feel for the exact direction your racket face is pointing when there is no ambiguity in the feel of the grip, where the bevels are, etc.
Yonex grips from my experience feel smaller compared to equivalent grip size from other manufacturares. EDIT: I've owned different models from various brands (Prince, Dunlop, Babolat, Fischer, Yonex, Volkl and Wilson) but never actually owned or hit with Head racquets.
Too right. Virtually none of the top players are actually using commercially available frames, they all use heavily customized pro stock frames. I think only Fed actually uses an actual RF97 autograph, but given the Wilson QC, they must go through literally hundreds of frames to find 20 or 30 whose specs are close enough, and then customise them to get a perfect match. Doesn't prevent Joe Blog to think he's actually getting the same racquet as those top pros. It's a bit of a scam, for which some racquet companies got sued for, and are now saying that a player "endorses" a particular frame rather than pretend he actually plays with it.
Hi Harry, Donnay grips were relatively square but my memory may be skewed. Did you ever stock Donnay & do you know recall the Donnay WST (Wide Section Technology) range? Like the Kevlar, Cobalt, Mica, Devil, etc. Used to play with these as a Junior.
Harry- I have a question. For players who use a hybrid string setup, have you dealt with requests from those who want to keep say, the main strings, but want to restring only the cross strings? Here in Malsysia, most stringers refuse to entertain such requests and will tell you to restring the entire racquet. What is your take on this? Thanks and greetings from Malaysia. You have a following here too!
Just watched the video on the tennis balls quality etc.. So made in China, Thailand and Philippines ? Only question is about Slazenger Wimbledon balls, have you ever played with them ? They are pretty famous here in England, but I'm not sure where they are made though...
@tennis spin. Harry love your reviews and your channel! Learned so much about history of Prince racquet company the other day. Okay so this doesn’t have to do with the shape of the grip per say, but almost 9/10 Head racquets that I have used in the past. I’ve always had issues with buttcap of the racquet making squeaky noise as it is about to come off. It hasn’t come off but super annoying especially on a brand new racquet that I paid over $200 for. I do grip little lower than most of the players but I don’t have this issues with other brands except Head. I do really love their frames but because of this buttcap issue it prevents me from buying Head anymore. Have you heard of the same issue from other players Harry?
I find Yonex, new Prince sticks, the Pure Strike, Clash and Ultra Tour all have a third shape which is in between Head TK57/82 and Wilson. It’s more of a block. The Clash is nowhere near the Pro Staff line shape. Prince is no longer as truly square as it used to be. That to me was the easiest for finding the SHBH. Fills the palm. All companies should switch to the pallet system because foam moulding is yet another QC problem - grip sizes in the same size same racquet can be quite a lot off.
I never noticed it on my Volkl's until it was pointed out. My forehand does feel more locked in place but I have transitioned into an incorrect backhand grip occasionally.
Hey. Make a video about how to change grip size comletely. Is it possible at all? Is it possible with every racket? How wilson changed their blade for ex. so it is way more difficult now. Thanks
Eric Shine yea but I'm talking about completely changing it. Let's say u want different shape or smth. I mean more like ripping off old handle and putting a new one. For ex, I really like my dunlop handle and I got two h19 rackets with another different grips. As far as I get it, it's quite hard to replace grips but still possible. I wonder how hard it is :)
@@GavReelov Ahhhh. Roger that. Yeah... I don't know a ton about that, other than I think it's called a pallet? And yeah, I would think it's not the easiest job. :-)
@@GavReelov Search on RU-vid "Replacing Pallets on a Head tennis racquet". It might get you started. I just found a video but didn't want to post it on Mr. Spin's video. :-)
I need my rectangular head racquet back, i miss that rectangular grip, been looking in stores but seem to not find one, even the ones i find they are more of round one, can any one recommend?
Firstly, the grip that Mr. Tennis Spin shows as a continental is NOT a continental grip; it is a traditional eastern grip (e.g., the forehand grip of Chris Evert) though now some refer to it as an "easternental" because it is between the continental and full eastern (e.g., the forehand grip of Roger Federer) grips. The grip is determined by where the base of the palm of your hand is, not the knuckle of your index finger. The flatter "rectangular" Head handle shape is usually preferred by players who use Eastern grips, that is, where the palm of your hand falls on the larger/flatter bevel. The flatter handle shape adds stability so that the frame twists less in your hand and makes it easier to tell where your hand is on the handle because you can tell where it is by touch. The rounder (he calls it square) handle shapes are better, in my experience, for players using western and continental (now used rarely on the forehand, e.g., McEnroe) grips because the bevels where the palm of your hand lies is larger. Because on the semi-western and western grips the palm of your hand is mostly under the racquet handle, the player's hold of the handle is more secure which results in less twisting of the racquet in the player's hand (as well as more topspin on the forehand) and sometimes a preference for smaller grip sizes. With the eastern and continental grips, the palm of the hand is more on top of the handle resulting in less inherent stability and the need for a larger handle size to prevent racquet twisting. Head seems to be switching over to the rounder handle shape. My old Radicals have the flat handle but the newer ones have the rounder handle shape. The change reflects the decreasing popularity of players using eastern forehand grips. I always thought that Dunlop, Babolat and Volkl handle shapes were more rectangular while Wilson, Prince and Yonex were rounder. It is also worth noting that the different brands also have different butt cap shapes. Yonex butt caps tend to be smaller than the other brands and that will also affect how the handle feels when a player holds it.
My question: is Angell 'Standard' same as Head and Angell "Even Standard" same as Wilson? Angell racquets have 3 different shapes as I was checking - Rectangle, Standard and Even Standard... www.angelltennis.com/racket-config/configure/5092/
I bought an Angell racket a few weeks back with the "head" shape grip yet it's different to my head prestige MP 360+. I think head have changed their grip shapes and Angell haven't responded. (After much research I think Tk82s not tk82 for the new prestige btw)
@@kingnike12 thanks for your feedback. And that's where my confusion came in :). Rectangular one seems altogether different from any shapes on the market as it purely looks rectangular (almost 4 sides)...that's why I was wondering between shape B or C, and leave out A. Don't you think so?
@@antonywalker9730 Yes, older Head Prestige is a bit different than the current Speed/Instinct, but not sure about current Prestige. So, which Angell shape did you get, B or C? or was it A?
There are numbers to the bevels, you just need to state, there is a smaller width between bevel 3 and 7. Technifibre has this issue also, probably to accommodate the limp French wrist and their girly man hands😂. Hate both grips, feels like narrow pieces of junk.
@@also-dannythebozo I don't think it's a joke. You could look at it as either being a rectangle or oval... especially if you look at the Head butt cap. The trap door is an oval. :-)
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