Put it into practice: The grip with Lee Drew

Lee was a top professional player in his day, and he has gone onto become one of the leading coaches in the England Squash system, where he’s currently heading up the English junior academy programme.

Bringing with him one of the finest analytical minds in the game, we’re thrilled to have Lee join us again to break down one of the absolute most important fundamentals of the game. While anyone can just pick up a racket and swing it, taking the time to learn how to properly optimise your grip can make a huge difference to your touch and feel, and benefit your play at whatever level you compete at.

In this interesting and insightful series, we take a tour through exactly how the grip can help you with certain shots, why it’s important to be adaptable, and the effects of different racket face angles. We also delve into the subtleties of tension, wrist position, and using the strings to impart spin on the ball. There’s then some more advanced discussion around the benefits of actually adjusting your grip position even within the midst of a rally, and the advantages that this can bring.

Don’t make the mistake of dismissing the grip as something that’s just for beginners to think about – you only need to take a look at two of the finest English players of all time in Nick Matthew and Laura Massaro, and how they made significant changes to their grips well into their professional careers while seeking to gain an extra edge over their top-level rivals. While we can’t guarantee you’ll go on to become world champions like they did, we can confidently say that better understanding the how’s and the why’s of the grip will definitely help elevate your game!

The aim of this blog is to give you some ideas of drills and practices you can use to start exploring the variations and key fundamentals of the grip and help you really start adding to your control and ball placement.

We’ve put together a selection of brand new solo and pairs sessions for you to try, built around the main technical points that Lee discusses. Watch through the videos from the playlist and then click through the links to the sessions below to check them out, and see how some back to basics focus on the grip can really enhance your play.

Put it into practice

Solo session

This session is structured around some individuals drills and routines you can work on, to start adjusting and testing different grip mechanics.

Partner session

This pairs session consists of a series of routines and games to attempt with a partner, to get you thinking about using your grip to better control your racket in a rally situation.

Related content

Getting to grips, with the squash grip

David Pearson shows you the correct technique for a finger-based squash grip that allows you to hold & control the racket with ease & dexterity on both the forehand & backhand.

Zero to Hero: The grip

Jesse explains how to hold the racket and highlights the difference between a clubbed and V shape grip.

Let us know how you get on with the sessions, we’d love to hear your feedback!