As long as the grip is not slippery, I like to have a firm grip. I find the grip lasts almost as long as the strings do and use the $1 sportdiscount.com grips. I don't know how one can use a racquet with several built-up grips so it's almost like a tennis racquet handle. I need the small grip for maneuverability and to easily make small changes to the angle of the racquet face.

As Adz mentioned, playing with string and string tension can reduce that vibration so you may not need a vibration dampener. Funny thing, I just saw a college match yesterday where our guy won match ball in the fourth because the opponent's vibration dampener fell out of the strings!

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I think that thickness plays an important part as well as firmness. I've been changing my grip over the past 3 months due to changing my strings and the feel of my racquets. I used to use a vibration dampener as the feedback from the strings was pretty harsh. At the same time I would use 2x Karakal PU Super grips and 1 Wilson overwrap grip which felt slightly spongy but a good thickness. Over the past 3 months I've changed this thickness considerably by making it thinner and thinner, to the point where I now only use 1 Wilson overwrap grip (as an underwrap), and 1 Karakal PU Super grip on top. This feels very firm, but coupled with the Ashaway Supernick XL Pro strings, gives a very nice feedback and touch to the racquet and has certainly improved both my accuracy under power and my touch play.

During this 3 months I've also experimented with perforated grips, the PU Kushy grip, ripple grips and many others. I've ended up back with a plain old simple Karakal PU Super grip.



Adz

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