Fundamental badminton grips

Beginner grips:

Basic grip

This should be your default way of holding a badminton racket. It is good for many different situations, including forehand overheads.

This grip is often called the forehand grip or shake hands grip. Lee Jae Bok calls it the neutral grip.

Panhandle grip

Use this grip for forehands when the shuttlecock is well in front of you and above net height.

This grip is sometimes called a frying pan grip. Lee Jae Bok calls it the forehand net kill grip.

Thumb grip

This grip is good for backhands when the shuttlecock is in front of you.

This grip is often called the backhand grip. Lee Jae Bok calls it the backhand net kill grip.

Intermediate and advanced grips:

Basic grip

This should be your default way of holding a badminton racket. It is good for many different situations, including forehand overheads.

This grip is often called the forehand grip or shake hands grip. Lee Jae Bok calls it the neutral grip.

Panhandle grip

Use this grip for forehands when the shuttlecock is well in front of you and above net height.

This grip is sometimes called a frying pan grip. Lee Jae Bok calls it the forehand net kill grip.

Thumb grip

This grip is good for backhands when the shuttlecock is in front of you.

This grip is often called the backhand grip. Lee Jae Bok calls it the backhand net kill grip.

Bevel grip

This alternative to the basic grip is good for many backhands, and especially for overhead backhands.

Other names for this grip include universal grip, multipurpose grip, and corner grip.

Forehand and backhand grips?

You may have expected to see forehand grip and backhand grip in that list.

The teaching has changed. Teaching one forehand grip and one backhand grip is highly misleading. For more information, read about what happened to the old badminton grips.

You may notice that some Badminton England resources, such as badminton.tv, still use the old names of forehand grip and backhand grip. This is simply because Badminton England have not yet completed their transition to the new teaching.

This page was last updated on 8 February 2008 (article update log).