Most players don't think twice about which grip they use when serving in pickleball. According to Shea Underwood, this is a big mistake.

In his video – Stop Making These Serving Mistakes and You'll Win More Points – he discusses how most pros, including Ben Johns, use a completely different grip when serving the ball versus when taking other shots on the court.

Yet, most amateurs just stick with one grip, usually a Continental grip, the entire match.

Get a Grip: The Different Ways You Can Hold Your Pickleball Paddle

Unless you have a background in racquet sports, you might not realize that there are various paddle grips. We run through the options and help you determine which is right for your game.

The Dink PickleballJason Flamm

While this is fine, the Continental grip is a neutral grip that favors the backhand, which doesn’t provide any advantage when hitting a serve. Instead, two other grips are worth considering if you want to add extra spin and power to your serve.

Those grips are the Eastern forehand grip and the Semi-Western grip.

What is the Eastern forehand grip?

The Eastern forehand grip is when you place your knuckle on your index finger over the third bevel on the paddle handle.

What is a semi-Western grip?

A semi-Western grip is also known as a pancake or frying pan grip.

Pickleball’s Most Dangerous Grip: The Riley Newman Pancake

On last week’s PicklePod episode, Newman explains how he landed on his grip and how it changed his play style. Newman changed the game with his grip and the pancake shot. Newman’s grip allows him to protect his chicken wing with his forehand.

The Dink PickleballThe Dink Media Team

You can accomplish this by laying your paddle flat on the ground and picking it straight up, leaving the paddle face downward. Your index knuckle should be over the fourth bevel.

The extra flatness of the paddle face in both of these grips, combined with an upward swing path, helps you maximize your topspin during your serve.

Why adding more topspin helps your serve

Topspin (when you make the top of the ball rotate away from you) causes the pickleball to arc high but then dip as it approaches your opponent. This allows you to keep a strong drive inside the baseline, and it causes the ball to hop quickly into your opponent after it bounces.

Tips and Drills To Enhance Your Pickleball Serving Strategy, Spin and Speed

Every point in pickleball starts with a serve. Our resident pro Eric Roddy shares some advice and tips to help you enhance the effectiveness of your serves.

The Dink PickleballEric Roddy

If the person returning isn't prepared for this sudden change of pace or has already started to advance toward the kitchen, they're in trouble and will have difficulty making a strong return, which sets you up for a stronger third shot.

You can see Shea explain these different grips and how the pros use them for better serves in this video:

Which grip should YOU use when serving?

To get maximum spin, try the semi-Western grip first. However, you may struggle since this is the more extreme of the two grips. If it’s not working, switch to the Eastern forehand and dial that in with a few dozen practice serves.

You’ll be happy you did.