How to hold a pickleball paddle

The short answer: use a continental grip, hold it loosely, and hold it in your fingers rather than your palm. That combination handles forehands, backhands, dinks and volleys without changing grip mid-rally, which is what pickleball's short distances demand.

Finding the continental grip in four steps

1. Shake hands with the paddle. Hold the paddle edge-on, face perpendicular to the ground, and shake hands with the handle. That is roughly it already.
2. Check the V. The V shape between your thumb and index finger should sit along the top edge of the handle, or very slightly to the left of it for a right-handed player.
3. Spread your index finger slightly. A small gap between index and middle finger — the "trigger finger" position — gives you far more paddle control.
4. Relax. Your grip pressure should be about a 4 out of 10. More on that below, because it matters more than the grip itself.

Why continental, and not something else

In tennis you switch grips between forehand and backhand, because you have the time to. In pickleball, the kitchen line puts you about fourteen feet from your opponent and exchanges happen in a fraction of a second. There is no time to switch.

Continental is the compromise grip that works for both wings without changing anything. It is also the natural grip for volleys, dinks and the overhead, which between them cover most of what you actually do. That is why nearly every coach teaches it as the default.

The other grips, and when they matter

Eastern

Rotate slightly from continental toward the face — the V moves a little further round the handle. This closes the paddle face slightly, which helps drive forehands and add topspin. Some players use eastern for forehand-heavy singles play. The cost is a weaker backhand without a grip change.

Western

A much more extreme rotation, giving a very closed face and heavy topspin on the forehand. It is genuinely poor for volleys, dinks and backhands, and it is rare in pickleball for exactly that reason. If you have arrived from a heavy-topspin tennis background, this is the grip to consciously move away from — the tennis converts page covers the other habits worth unlearning.

Two-handed backhand

Perfectly legal and increasingly common, particularly among tennis converts. The non-dominant hand adds stability and power to the backhand drive. The trade is reach — one hand covers more court — so most two-handed players use it selectively rather than always. A slightly longer handle helps.

Grip pressure: the thing that actually changes your game

On a scale of 1 to 10, most beginners hold the paddle at about an 8. It should be around a 4.

A tight grip does three bad things. It makes the paddle face rigid, so incoming pace bounces straight back off it — which is exactly why beginners pop dinks up into an easy smash. It kills touch, because you cannot feel the ball through a clenched hand. And it loads the forearm, which is a leading cause of the elbow complaints covered in our elbow support roundup.

The one exception: firm up momentarily for a hard volley or an overhead, then relax again. Good players are loose by default and tight only on demand.

Grip size matters as much as grip technique

You cannot hold a paddle well if the handle is the wrong size. A grip that is too large prevents the wrist movement dinks and resets need and forces a tense hold. A grip that is too small makes you squeeze to stop the paddle twisting — which is why undersized grips are, counterintuitively, the more common cause of a sore forearm.

Measure yours properly with our grip size guide. If it is slightly small, an overgrip builds it up for a few dollars — see the overgrip roundup. If it is too large, there is no fix; that is a different paddle.

The four mistakes to stop making

1. Choking up on the handle. Gripping high, close to the paddle face, kills reach and leverage. Your hand belongs at the bottom of the handle, near the butt cap.
2. The frying-pan grip. Holding the paddle face-up like a spatula. It feels natural, works for exactly one shot, and makes backhands impossible.
3. Palming it. The paddle should sit across the fingers, not clamped in the palm. Palm grips have no touch.
4. Changing grip mid-rally. There is not time. Pick continental and stay there.

How to make it stick

Grip changes feel wrong for two or three sessions and then feel normal. Two ways to speed that up: check your grip before every serve (a habit that costs nothing), and drill dinks against a wall or a rebounder — soft shots expose a bad grip immediately, where hitting hard hides it. Our drills guide has the practice routine.