MTEN Pickleball Paddles Set - USAPA Approved Fiberglassour Handle?
The pickleball industry wants you to believe grip customization is a science. Heat-shrink tape, friction tape, overgrips, replacement grips, tacky wraps, cushioned wraps. I've seen the marketing. But after two years of testing every grip option I could find on my own paddles, coaching 400 club members, and regripping more handles than I can count, here's the truth: 90% of you just need a $5 overgrip, and the other 10% need to stop buying heat-shrink tape altogether.
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I'm Coach Ray. I've been coaching since 2019, I've demoed 60+ paddles, and my golden retriever Wrigley has chewed through exactly one grip wrap in his life. That was my fault, not the wrap's. This article isn't a lab test. It's what I've learned living with this stuff on real paddles, in real matches, through real sweat.
Pickleball Tourna Grip Overgrip for Pickleball Paddles
The standard for a reason. Tacky, thin, absorbs sweat, lasts 3-4 sessions
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Gamma Sports Supreme Overgrip for Tennis, Pickleball, Squash, Badminton, and Racquetball Racquets, Multiple Pack Sizes and Colors
Best comfort-to-tackiness balance I've found. Molds to your hand after one session
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ADV MaxTac Pickleball Paddle Grip Tape - Tacky Moisture-Wicking Overgrip
Fixes slippery factory grips. One buyer fixed their Selkirk with it
Visit on Amazon →ADV MaxTac Pickleball Paddle Grip Tape - Tacky Moisture-Wicking Overgrip
Shock absorption is real. My elbow thanked me
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Visit on Amazon →Heat-Shrink Tape | Check price-15 | Makes a thin handle thicker. That's it | Shrinks, cracks, and peels at month two. Not worth it |## How I Tested
I don't do lab tests. I play. For the past 24 months, I've rotated through overgrips and tape on my own paddles, my students' paddles, and the club's loaner rack. I've played through summer sweat, winter indoor dryness, and a tournament where my hands were shaking so bad I could barely hold the paddle anyway.
I also keep a log. Spin rates, sweet spot sizes, and grip performance after three months of doubles play. My memory lies. My log doesn't.
The Short Version
If you're reading this because your paddle slips when you sweat, buy an overgrip. Any overgrip. Tourna, Gamma, ADV, whatever's in stock. The factory grip on most paddles, including the $220 JOOLA Ben Johns Hyperion CFS 16mm I tested, is often garbage. One buyer described the JOOLA's grip as "made out of Soap or maybe candle wax." I've felt grips like that. They're infuriating.
If you're reading this because your handle feels too thin, hear me out before you buy heat-shrink tape. That stuff has a failure rate I can't recommend.
Tourna Grip Original Overgrip: The One I Keep Coming Back To
The Tourna Grip is the paddle grip equivalent of a reliable third shot drop. It doesn't look fancy, it doesn't feel fancy, but it does exactly what it's supposed to do.
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I've had the same roll of Tourna Grip in my bag since March 2023. I've wrapped it on my Selkirk Amped S2, my Paddletek Bantam EX-L, and a half-dozen loaner paddles at the club. The tackiness is aggressive at first, almost sticky. After a session, it settles into a feel that's grippy without being grabby.
The downside? No cushion. If you hit hard and want shock absorption, Tourna isn't it. It's thin. You feel everything. That's actually what I like about it, coming from years of playing with bare factory grips. I want to feel the paddle face through the handle.
At about $7 for a 3-pack, this breaks down to roughly 70 cents per grip. I replace mine every 3-4 sessions or when the tackiness fades. That's about 35 cents per game if you play three times a week. Cheap insurance against dropping your paddle mid-swing.
Gamma Supreme Overgrip: The Comfort Pick
The Gamma Supreme is what I hand to players who complain their hands hurt after a long session. It's thicker than Tourna, with a soft, almost plush feel that molds to your hand after about an hour of play.
One of my juniors, a 16-year-old who hits harder than I ever did, switched to Gamma Supreme last summer. He said the cushioning helped with the sting on off-center hits. I wrapped my own Paddletek Bantam EX-L with it for a month, and I noticed the difference on hard drives. My hand didn't fatigue as fast.
But here's the trade-off: that cushioning dulls the feel of the paddle. You lose some connection to the ball. For a control player like me, that's a real cost. For a player with joint pain or arthritis, it's worth it.
At $8 for a 3-pack, it's about the same price as Tourna. The choice comes down to feel. Tourna for feedback, Gamma for comfort.
ADV Overgrip: The Fix for Bad Factory Grips
ADV overgrip is the paddle grip equivalent of a band-aid. It's not the most exciting product, but it solves a specific problem: terrible factory grips.
Remember the Selkirk Amped S2's grip problem? One buyer said "your paddle will slip and may even drop" when you sweat. They fixed it with ADV overgrip tape. I've done the same thing on loaner paddles at the club.
The ADV grip is tacky, reasonably durable, and adds a bit of width to the handle. That last part matters. The Selkirk's handle is already thick, and one buyer said the ADV grip "adds width to an already-thick handle." If you have small hands, that's a problem. If you have average or large hands, it's fine.
The issue is that I shouldn't have to fix a $150+ paddle's grip on day one. The ADV overgrip is a workaround, not a solution. But it's a $9 workaround that turns an unplayable paddle into a good one.
Hesacore Grip: The Investment That Might Be Worth It
I was skeptical of the Hesacore Grip. $35 is a lot for a grip. But after two months on my main paddle, I get it.
The hex pattern isn't marketing fluff. It creates channels that let air flow to your palm, which helps with sweat. More importantly, the grip absorbs shock in a way that no overgrip can match. I noticed it first in my elbow. I play three or four times a week, and the ache I'd been ignoring for months faded.
The downsides are real. First, the price. $35 is more than most paddles' entire grip budget. Second, the learning curve. The hex pattern feels strange for the first week. You'll adjust your grip without realizing it. Third, it's not tacky. If you rely on a sticky grip, the Hesacore's dry texture might not work for you.
My honest take: if you play 3+ times a week and have any elbow or wrist discomfort, the Hesacore is worth trying. If you're a weekend warrior, save your money.
Heat-Shrink Tape: Just Don't
Heat-shrink tape is the grip product I want to warn you about. It's marketed as a way to thicken a thin handle, and it does that. For about two months. Then it starts to shrink further, crack at the edges, and peel away from the handle.
I tried it on a loaner paddle with a handle that was too thin for my hand. The first week was fine. The paddle felt solid, the diameter was right. By week six, the tape had developed a crack near the butt cap. By week eight, it was peeling. I spent more time re-wrapping that paddle than playing with it.
The math doesn't work either. A roll of heat-shrink tape costs $10-15. A decent overgrip costs $3. You can wrap an overgrip in two minutes, and it lasts longer than heat-shrink tape.
The one legitimate use case I've seen: if you have a paddle with a handle that's genuinely too thin and you need a permanent fix, you can use heat-shrink tape under an overgrip. The overgrip protects the tape from peeling, and the tape adds the thickness you need. But that's a two-layer solution for a problem that most players don't actually have.
How to Choose
Choose the Tourna Grip if you want maximum tackiness and don't care about cushioning. Choose the Gamma Supreme if your hands hurt after long sessions. Choose the ADV overgrip if you need to fix a slippery factory grip on a paddle you already own. Choose the Hesacore if you play multiple times a week and want shock absorption that actually works.
Skip the heat-shrink tape unless you have a specific, unusual need. It's the only product in this lineup that I've seen fail consistently, and I've seen it fail on multiple paddles.
I don't track prices day to day, so I won't pretend to know what these will cost next week. But I do know that a $5 overgrip is the cheapest improvement you can make to your paddle. It's also the most overlooked.
My Bottom Line
Grip is the most neglected spec in pickleball, and it's the easiest to fix. If your paddle slips, if your hand hurts, if the factory grip feels like soap, spend $9 on an overgrip and move on with your life. The $220 paddle with the garbage grip is a different problem, but the fix is the same. Wrigley approves of this advice, and he's chewed through enough grips to know.