How to put grip on squash racket (with pictures)

Here is a detailed instructional article about how to put a grip on a squash or tennis racket. Wrapping a replacement grip or an over grip around the handle of your tennis or squash racket can sometimes become something you just cant wrap your head around.

This short article will break down the process of applying a grip to a racket the correct way. If you would rather watch a video about it, you can watch it on the beyond nothing .com youtube channel explaining the same thing. If you want to learn about which grips are best for squash, read this article.

Unwrapping the grip

A standard squash grip comes with the grip itself and a small piece of finishing tape. Start by detaching the finishing tape from the grip and unroll the grip all the way. Save the finishing tape for later.

Remove the Lamination from the overgrip

Find the tab at one of the ends of the grip and use it to carefully peel away the plastic lamination to reveal the fresh tacky grippy side underneath. The lamination allows the grip to stay soft, fresh, and tacky till the time to use it comes. Not having a plastic lamination will cause the grip to dry up and become brittle or all crumbly in your hands. Sometimes the little tab breaks off so you will have to use your nails to peel the plastic lamination away.

Find the sticky end of the grip

On the underside of a standard grip there is always one end that has a small sticky tape. Find that end and remove the tape to reveal the sticky tape to reveal the small section of adhesive underneath. Note that this end of the grip is usually tapered.

Wrap the overgrip around the racquet

Hold the squash racket downwards from the grip, and start from the butt end of the racket . Hold down the sticky side of the grip with your left thumb and gently, very gently, stretch the grip as you wrap it around the butt of the handle. Wrap slowly and carefully to avoid any wrinkles WITHOUT working your way down. Complete the wrap until the point the taper of grip begins.

Work your way down the racket handle

Rotate the squash racket in your left hand and keep stretching the grip gently with your right hand, following the angle of the taper. Trust it. Dont try to force the angle of the taper unless you want heavy or no overlaps. When working your way downwards, try to have some overlap of about 3 millimetres so that the grip does not slip out of position while playing. Note that if you do this correctly, the logo printed on the grip will be visible between overlaps and oriented correctly. Continue wrapping downwards the top of the handle. Grips are usually long enough to cover the length of the handle. If you run short, undo some and reduce your overlap. If you have too much, you may cut the grip with scissors.

Apply finishing tape to the overgrip

While holding the unfinished grip in place, peel one end of the finishing tape (not all the way) and attach it to the grip. The finishing tape is stretchy, so pull it gently as you wrap it around the top of the handle over the grip. Do not stretch it too much or else it would break. Peel the finishing tape as you stretch and wrap it around the top of the handle until you run out of it.

Overgrip installation complete

The handle is now properly gripped. Enjoy! If you need any more detailed instructions, check out the youtube video below for another angle. Watch a perfect grip replacement video or a tennis racket or squash racket.