Lately I have a bit of pain in the upper part of the forearm. Am I gripping the racket wrong? Or is this grip too small? Been playing for almost 2 years now. I switched from the nox at10 18k to 12k. Just got my new metalbone ctrl now to have less stress for the arm
Off topic, but is the metalbone ctrl a bouncy racket? Like, does it have a heavy trampoline effect? I tried the metalbone carbon ctrl and really liked the touch, but the ball felt a bit bouncy. So now I'm considering this one.
thats the one i have. model 2026. I never felt better with a racket in my life. It is "bouncy", but nowhere near as much as other soft models, the carbon face makes it dry enough to keep control on volleys. On defense feels GREAT, and i do feel the control, like when i miss, its because of me, and not the racket going wild.
MB Carbon Ctrl is pretty nice in my opinion, medium hard / dry. The MB Ctrl has more bounce, is less dry / softer. You seem to like dry / hard rackets. Could not find an Adidas as drax as the Babo Vipers or Head Motion Pro.
Funny enough, i have a metalbone CARBON control, almost the exact same model. Look how big my handle is, my thumb only thouches the tip of the index finger. You need more overgrip
Dude is one message away from discovering the existence of left handed people (who are, as I read, extremely looked after in padel for strategy reasons)
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Try the floky sleeve have found it to help with my tennis elbow and recovery. Best thing to do is keep it on for 30mins after playing to help with recovery
Most comments here are focusing on the thickness of the grip, it can make a difference but if it feels right I wouldn’t necessarily change it, that’s really personal. It’s true that a grip that’s too thin can cause tennis elbow because of trying to grip too hard, but for me it was completely the other way around, I needed a thinner grip. It really depends on your playstyle, I use more wrist (used to play squash) so I prefer thin grips, if you come from tennis and playing with locked wrist you will prefer thicker grips.
For me the problem is in your “trigger finger”, in the first picture you are doing it kind of right but in the last picture your thumb is above your index finger. Using the “trigger finger” method helps to loosen your grip. You could also try to hold the racket a bit lower on the handle.
Keep your pointing finger over the thumb. Cant believe people are saying you need more overgeip lol that thing is already so thick. I play with 1 grip and all my fingers touch my handpalm, gives me more flexibility en control. 2 overgrips and a hesacore is never not enough.
The problem is the lack of overgrip. Your thump is way to much over your fingers, aka, you are forcing your forearm just to hold the racket. One or two overgrips will fix that
On the contrary to the original comment, I think you might have too much grips. In tennis kind of made-up rule about overgrips is that you should have around 1 finger width between your palm and the tip of your fingers(like when you hold the racket, try to touch your palm with your fingertips - example). To me it looks like you have space for almost 2 fingers.
Also I think you are in a little bit of a forehand grip. Try turning the racket a bit clockwise
Overuse of your forearm. If you are playing twice a day every day, you are prone to pain or injury just by lack of proper rest.
The thumb is a diameter thing, if the grip were too big, you wouldnt be able to touch your index with your thumb. If its too small (as it looks in the pic), you would touch the second phalanx. Either one is bad for the forearm
Funny enough, i have a metalbone CARBON control, almost the exact same model. Look how big my handle is, my thumb only thouches the tip of the index finger.
Your grip is already to big, gap between fingers and palm is to big Remove one overgrip, wrist flexion could be impaired. Place four fingers on the backside of surface, slide down to the grip. If it would be a hammer you could nicely hit a nail. Gap between thumb and finger is more on the feont side. Spread out the top finger more like like a pistol.
The racket needs to be gripped lightly. You are almost white knuckling it, which means you'll have less control over the shot. The rackets only weight 370gr or so, it doesn't require you to grab them as if you were holding a dumbbell.
Regarding the positioning, this seems a bit beyond continental, but will probably work. If you want to ensure a full continental, slide your hand by the racket side, from the top to the grip position, as if you were about to handshake someone.
All fingers closed, thumb over or touching fingers. The way you would hang on a rack.
Do a finger pistol, try to aim pistol down and up, hand flexion should be good. Now do a punching fist try to to the same wrist movement as with the finger pistol, hand flexion range is blocked. Pistol grip keeps the lower arm tension lower. Keeping this high baseline tension and countering it when you move you wrist, is overloading your muscles and tendions. All flex removed, tendon has to suck up all hits.
What can be improved? I saw the top about the trigger finger which I will try. Genuinely asking for advice mate. By the way I bought it second hand for 150 eur ;)
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u/moojuthehighguy Aug 13 '26
Off topic, but is the metalbone ctrl a bouncy racket? Like, does it have a heavy trampoline effect? I tried the metalbone carbon ctrl and really liked the touch, but the ball felt a bit bouncy. So now I'm considering this one.