I have actually just thinned my grip down, I used to put a karakal PU grip over the factory grip but played last night with jsut the factory grip as the overgrip was worn and I took it off and thought I could still grip the racquet well and decided to try playing with it, i found it surprisingly easy to play with and am planning to continue with it for a while to see how it all goes.

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An easy way to check the gap for grip size (the space between the heel of your hand and the fingers) is to use the tip of your middle finger (opposite hand of course!) in the space/gap, and then. at the same time, give the handle of the racket a squeeze. What then?  If the tip of your middle finger will not fit, the grip is too small; if the tip of the middle finger does not close up the gap, the grip is too big. Of course, the further you hold the racket up the handle the smaller the shaft of the racket becomes.  Once this was referred to as "choking the racket". I am not saying not to shorten the grip, however, where you hold the racket will affect the grip size as well.

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• I am only saying the grip should have a space of about enough to put the top of your third finger between the fingers, and the heel of the thumb, as shown above. The joints in the fingers have to sort of mould around the handle of the racket handle.
• If the grip is too small you cannot hold it tightly enough and it strains the muscles to hold the racket. This can cause a sore elbow/arm.  The racket then can slip around, or slip out of the hand too.
  
• If the grip is too large it can feel cumbersome, and in fact hard to keep the correct grip.
• For juniors, they usually comprimise by holding the racket handle shorter, which in turn gives better racket head control, and shortens the lever....makes it easier to keep the racket head up, etc ...that is ok.  Look at Rodney Martin (when he was tops) he shortened the grip and sort of started a bit of a fashion then a few years ago.
• In fact for juniors there is no harm to cut off an inch or so to make the grip/handle smaller, and they can then hold it without the end of the handle sticking out and digging them into the ribs.

• Wear a sweatband to stop the perspiration running into the hand.
• Do not hold the racket handle right on the end, as that tends to cause more wrist movement and friction when holding the racket.
• Try not to strangle the racket and twirl it around.  Treat it softly and friendly.
• Use all the fingers to grasp the racket, except the lst finger, and keep holding it firmly. Hit and Grip.
• If you try all of this and the grip still does not work (especially at $8 a piece) I would be looking at putting on a towelling grip, or an overlay of towelling.  Got an old towel or nappy to give it a try!.  You can easily make one yourself, and it will stand water, and washing and will fluff up.
  
• Why would any manufacturer want a grip to last too long?.  Towelling was very durable.

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This is a contoversial topic in my club with the juniors at the moment. It's certainly true that a slightly thicker grip does everything listed in your original post Rippa, but from personal experience, having a grip that's too thick can cause a player to lose that extra bit of touch.

To give a bit of visualisation to this: I have a handspan of 25cm with a height of 20cm (base of palm to tip of middle finger). My preferred grip is a single Karakal PU super grip over the original factory fitted grip that comes with the racket. I've tried to go for thicker options (but lost touch) and thinner ones (hurt my elbow), and so settled on the option listed above.

Now my main problem is that I seem to be going through a grip every 3 matches (approx length of 1 hour per match). I've tried drying out the grip after use (seems to lose tack), washing the grip (did nothing!), putting it straight back in its case (went spongy and slick). Nothing seems to work - Any suggestions?

Adz

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