How to put on a tennis overgrip

What you need, and what you do not

You need the overgrip, which comes with a small piece of finishing tape in the packet, and scissors. That is the whole list. You do not need to remove the replacement grip underneath - an overgrip goes over it, which is the entire point of the product. If you are not sure which layer is which, our overgrip vs replacement grip guide sorts it out in a paragraph.

If there is an old overgrip on the racket, peel it off first. It has no adhesive except at the finishing end, so it comes away in one piece. Wrapping a new overgrip over an old one adds a full grip size and produces a lumpy, uneven handle.

The seven steps

1. 01Unroll and identify the ends. One end is tapered to a point or a diagonal; the other is square and comes with the separate finishing tape. The tapered end starts at the butt cap.
2. 02Start at the butt cap. Lay the tapered end flat against the handle at the very bottom, with roughly half of it overhanging the butt. Hold it in place with your thumb.
3. 03Make the first turn around the butt. Wrap once around the bottom of the handle, folding the overhang down over the butt cap edge. This first turn anchors everything, so pull it snug.
4. 04Wrap upward with a consistent overlap. Rotate the racket with one hand and feed the grip with the other, overlapping each turn onto the previous one by about a sixteenth of an inch. Consistency matters more than the exact figure.
5. 05Keep light, steady tension. Pull just hard enough that the grip conforms to the bevels of the handle without stretching thin. If you can see the material narrowing, you are pulling too hard.
6. 06Stop below the throat and trim. Wrap until you are about an inch below where the handle meets the frame, then cut the grip at an angle so the end sits flush rather than leaving a step.
7. 07Secure with the finishing tape. Wrap the supplied tape over the cut edge, one full turn, and press it down. That tape is the only adhesive in the whole product.

Wrapping upward from the butt cap is not arbitrary. It means each turn overlaps in the direction your hand slides under load, so the edges tuck away from your palm rather than catching against it. Wrapping downward from the throat produces a grip that peels at the edges within a session.

The three mistakes that undo the job

Pulling too hard

This is the most common error and the least obvious. Overgrip material stretches, and a stretched grip is thinner, less cushioned and under permanent tension, which is why it starts unravelling at the butt within a couple of sessions. Firm enough to conform to the handle bevels is the whole requirement.

Inconsistent overlap

If some turns overlap heavily and others barely meet, you get a handle with thick and thin bands. Your hand reads those bands as bevels that are not there, and it makes finding the right grip by feel harder - which matters, because that is how every player locates a continental or an eastern grip without looking.

Starting at the wrong end

Starting at the throat and wrapping down to the butt reverses the overlap direction. The grip will feel fine for ten minutes and then the edges will start lifting under your palm. It is an easy mistake to make because the square end with the tape looks like the natural starting point - it is not, it is the finish.

When to do it again

An overgrip is a consumable and the replacement signal depends on which type you are using.

• Tacky grips go shiny and smooth as the tack transfers to your hand and the surface compresses. Visible shine means the grip is done.
• Dry grips darken as they saturate and stop absorbing. Once they are uniformly dark they have nothing left to take up.
• Either type should be replaced if the edges have started lifting, because a lifting edge will roll under your palm mid-rally.

For a player on court three or four times a week, that is realistically every few sessions, which is why overgrips are sold in packs of ten and twelve. For a once-a-week club player, every few weeks is normal.

The three grips below are the ones we would wrap. They cover the two categories - tacky and dry - and the thin option for anyone who does not want the handle growing.

How this guide was put together

We do not run a test lab and nothing here is written as though we did. This guide is built from the published specification sheets and retailer listings cited at the foot of the page, plus the physical reasoning that connects them. Where a figure is not published we say so rather than estimating it.

The picks below are drawn from our product registry, so every one carries a cited source and a verified listing. Our full selection criteria set out the method and the editorial policy covers corrections. No price is written into this page as a recommendation - the figure on each buy button is the live one.