Padel Grips and Overgrips

Every padel racket leaves the factory with a base grip, sometimes called the replacement grip or undergrip. It is thicker, usually 1.5 to 2mm, glued or taped directly to the handle, and it sets the shape and the baseline size of the handle. You replace it rarely, perhaps once a year, or when it has compressed flat and lost its cushioning. Most players never replace it at all.

An overgrip is the thin tape, around 0.4 to 0.7mm, that wraps over the base grip. It is the layer your hand touches, it is the layer that soaks up sweat, and it is the layer you change every few weeks. When people search for padel grip tape they mean overgrips, and when a racket comes with a free grip in the box it is almost always an overgrip. Everything on this page except where we say otherwise is an overgrip.

The practical difference is cost and effort. A base grip takes ten minutes, a heat gun or hairdryer helps, and you need to get the finishing tape tight. An overgrip takes a minute, needs nothing but the tape that comes in the pack, and if you get it wrong you unwind it and go again.

Padel overgrips come in three finishes and the right one depends on your hands, not your level. A tacky overgrip has a slightly sticky surface that locks the handle into your palm. It feels fantastic for the first few sessions and suits players with dry hands, indoor players and anyone who struggles to keep the racket from twisting on off-centre hits. The HEAD Padel Pro overgrip is a good example: 0.6 mm, tacky, and made for padel rather than borrowed from tennis. Its weakness is sweat: once a tacky grip is wet it turns slippery and the stickiness never fully comes back.

A dry overgrip has a matte, almost chalky surface that absorbs moisture. It never feels as glued-on as a fresh tacky grip, but it stays consistent as you warm up and it is the right choice for heavy sweaters, summer outdoor courts and long sessions. Pair it with a long terry band, such as the Bullpadel wristband pair, and far less sweat reaches the handle in the first place. Perforated overgrips are usually a dry or semi-tacky base with holes punched through for ventilation. They feel grippier in hand because the holes give your fingers edges to hold, and they wick well, but the holes are also where the grip tears first, so expect a shorter life.

The honest answer for most UK club players, who play indoors in winter and on outdoor courts in summer, is to keep both: tacky for the cold months and a dry or perforated grip for July and August. At £6 to £9 for a pack of three that is not a big decision.

Padel handles are small. No brand publishes a handle circumference (the FIP rules only cap the handle at 50mm wide and 50mm thick), and plenty of adult hands find a stock handle thin. The fix is not a new racket, it is an extra overgrip. Each wrap adds roughly 1 to 1.5mm to the diameter and 3 to 5mm to the circumference, and two overgrips take a thin handle to something most hands find comfortable.

The test is simple. Hold the racket in your playing grip and slide the index finger of your other hand into the gap between your fingertips and the base of your palm. If the finger fits snugly, the size is right. If there is room to spare, add an overgrip. If the finger will not fit, you have gone too far and the handle will tire your forearm.

There is a cost to stacking grips. Each overgrip weighs about 4 to 5g by the brands' own figures and all of it sits in the handle, so two overgrips add 8 to 10g and move the balance point a few millimetres towards your hand. On a diamond-shaped power racket that is often welcome, because it tames a head-heavy feel. On a round control racket it is barely noticeable. Three overgrips is the practical limit; beyond that the handle turns round in cross-section, loses its edges, and you lose the feel of where the racket face is pointing.

Players coming from tennis also arrive with a habit of gripping tightly. A slightly thicker handle lets you hold the racket more loosely, which is what padel wants, and it is one of the simplest fixes for the forearm ache that new players put down to the sport rather than the grip. The beginner racket guide covers this alongside racket choice.

An overgrip goes on in about a minute once you have done it twice. The only rule that matters is to start at the bottom of the handle and wrap towards the head, overlapping each turn by a third to a half, with the tape kept under light tension the whole way. Most packs include a short strip of finishing tape and a small adhesive tab for the start.

Change an overgrip when it stops gripping, which happens before it looks worn. The signs are a shiny, smooth patch where your thumb and the base of your palm sit, a grip that feels slick within ten minutes of starting, and a racket that twists on mishits that it did not twist on before. Dark overgrips hide the wear; white and pale ones show it, which is the one argument for buying white.

No maker publishes a change interval, so treat what follows as guidance from our own play. For UK club players: playing two or three times a week in summer, change it every one to two weeks. Once a week in winter, every three to four weeks. Head suggests a fresh grip at least every two months as an absolute floor, and that is about right for someone who plays occasionally and does not sweat much. Competitive players often change before every match, which is why cases of 30 exist.

The base grip underneath lasts far longer. Replace it when it has compressed so the handle edges feel sharp through the overgrip, or when the handle has visibly shrunk from a year of overgrips squeezing it. If the base grip has gone hard and slippery, no overgrip will fix the feel.

Padel is played with the racket strap, the lanyard, around your wrist. It is in the rules of the game for a reason: rackets fly, and in a 10 by 20 metre court with glass walls and three other people, a loose racket is a genuine hazard. Most UK clubs will stop a game if a player is not wearing the strap, and the LTA's padel guidance for venues says the same.

That has a knock-on effect on your grip. Because the strap is there to catch the racket, you can and should hold the handle more loosely than instinct suggests, especially on volleys and the bandeja. A loose hand is where feel comes from. A good overgrip supports that by giving enough hold that you do not need to squeeze; a worn one makes you squeeze, and a squeezed grip is slow. If you find yourself gripping hard to stop the racket twisting, the answer is a new overgrip or one more wrap, not more force.

Check the strap itself when you change grips. The cord frays where it passes through the butt cap, and a frayed strap is a strap that will go mid-rally.

Hesacore is a moulded silicone sleeve with a hexagonal pattern that slides over the handle under the overgrip and replaces the base grip. The idea is that the hexagons lock your fingers into position and absorb vibration, so you can hold the racket more loosely and still have control. Players either love it or take it off after a session. Retailer listings put it at about 14 to 15g, and because it replaces the base grip the net change is smaller than that; it makes the handle noticeably thicker and more angular, and it suits players with elbow or wrist trouble and anyone who struggles with a twisting handle on power shots.

There are also simpler shaped and octagonal undergrips that keep the handle edges more defined than a worn base grip does. They are worth trying if you keep losing track of where the face is pointing. For most club players a decent base grip and a fresh overgrip do the job, and the money is better spent on balls. When the base grip itself has gone flat, a replacement such as the Bullpadel GR-1210, two to a pack, brings the cushioning back.

The two overgrips we stock are the ones we would buy ourselves. The Bullpadel GB1200 is a thin, absorbent overgrip in packs of three, in white, black and yellow, and it is what you will find on most Bullpadel rackets in the shop. It is a good all-rounder, slightly thicker than some, and the white version shows wear honestly. The 4on overgrips are made by a padel-only accessories brand and come in packs of three in a drier, more absorbent finish that suits summer and sweaty hands. Both land at £6 to £8 a pack. 4on also sells the SwiftGrip, a base grip and overgrip pack for a handle that needs more than a fresh top layer, and two sprays, TotalDry for sweaty hands and TotalGrip for a slippery handle, if tape alone is not cutting it.

Among the brands we do not stock, Head's Padel Pro overgrip is a tacky grip sold in threes and in boxes of 30, and it is the one most UK clubs sell at reception. The Wilson Pro padel overgrip is the benchmark tacky tennis grip and works perfectly well on a padel handle; Wilson now also sells padel-length versions (Profile Padel, AbsorbX Padel and Pro Padel packs). Tourna Mega Tac is the stickiest grip on the market and the one to try if nothing else holds; Racquet Depot sells the padel version in the UK for about £7, and the Decathlon listing is a marketplace one. Siux and Nox sell their own overgrips, usually a rebrand of a tacky standard grip, and they are fine. Grip quality across the major brands is close; the finish you choose matters more than the name on the pack.

Overgrips are consumables and there is not much to maintain, but a few habits stretch them. Dry the handle after a session rather than leaving the racket in a sweaty bag; the thermal pocket in a padel bag keeps the core of the racket stable but it also keeps the handle damp. Do not leave a racket in a hot car, where a tacky grip turns to glue. Wipe a dry grip with a slightly damp cloth to lift chalk and sand; do not wash a tacky one, it never recovers.

Colour matters more than it should. White and pale grips show dirt and wear, which helps you change them on time and looks tired within a week. Black and dark grips look clean for months and hide the fact that they stopped gripping weeks ago. If you tend to forget, buy white. If you are disciplined about changing every fortnight, buy whatever matches the racket.

If you play twice a week, a pack of three lasts a month and a box of 30 lasts most of a year. The per-grip price roughly halves in a box, so once you have found a finish you like, that is the way to buy. We can supply boxes of 30 of either stocked grip; email us for the price. For a club or a coaching bag, Bullpadel's Comfort Dry tub of 50, half black and half white, is already listed, and so is an all-white GB1616 box of 60. Keep a spare pack in the bag at all times, because the day you need one is the day the old one gives up in the warm-up.

Grips ship with everything else on a tracked service and arrive in 3 to 4 working days. On their own they fall under the free delivery threshold, so add them to a racket, shoes or balls. Full details are on the delivery page.

Unopened packs can come back within 30 days under our standard returns policy. A grip that has been fitted is used, so pick your finish from the table above rather than by trial, or buy one pack of each the first time.