The handle

[Quentin]

There's almost many handle type as there's players, i would talk here about my preference (shared by some people here in Geneva).
Manu from l'Equipe introduce me to the "big grip" thing, he's playing Tennis and he love having pretty big thing in his hand (yes haha). Basically he want to have a tennis handle on his mallet.

Tennis racquet are made to be handle with one or two hands, the handle is almost square.
The rule think, and manu will correct me, is that your fingers can barely touch the palm of your hand when holding the handle.

I'm in this, i like having something to hold firmly, something that will absorb in some way the vibrations.
I know some people, like greg from CMD, who likes using golf grip, i can't.
I have pretty big hands and im feeling too tense when the handle is to small.


That being said i have started to mimic a tennis handle, the tricky part is to find a good material to have the same square shape, here's some pictures:
(The material used here is not that good, the cardboard will became pretty round when putting the tube around)

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[Shinscar]

Loads of people in London use hockey tape for their mallet grips heres the way i do mine. I prefer to take my time when doing it as that little bit of care leads to better results.

I use a skewer in the grip to help me locate the ends of the mallet head better i used to use a chopstick but anything will do really. I place the skewer so it faces inwards to my palm my thumb locates itself nicely there.

Its not really difficult but heres a step by step guide.

link to bigger image:
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7069/6835614524_850eb221db_o.jpg

I've used a dead battery from a bike light to cap the end hopefully it wont explode durring play. img462
I guess the important bits is the twist in the tape to create the grip img0467 and crossing over the skewer on a centre so the grip is balanced. img478.

Like I said there's nothing new here but i havent really seen it documented for others.

Shins

[Quentin]

Nice.

Too skinny for my taste, don't you feel to much the vibrations?

I have re-done mine, i use old tube instead of cardboard to shape the handle square (thanks Benji about that).
I fold the tube in two and place it the long of the handle, i made this operation 4 times (for each face).

I'm pretty happy about that, it could be a bit thicker.

[Benji]

cool that it worked for your square grip ! i found this trying to make a "flat" kind of handle , you can do this by only taping inner tube 2 times at oposite.

here is mine





recently added hockey tape around my usual tube grip and feel a lot better with the lacrosse glove palm mesh.

the two "balls" on my habdle are not here to remind  me my gender but to switch from a long reach to short reach and always get the same exact spot.  it could be hard to get use to play with 2 different length but i think if mastered could give me both the pros of a long reach mallet and those of a short one.

i m planning on adding a third "ball" in the middle and maybe switch the inner tube for OLD SOCKS for better confort and drop some weight