Long Pimples on Reverse Penhold Backhand?

So, I'm playing table tennis with a penhold grip (reverse backhand) Wang Hao's style, with both inverted rubbers.

Today a guy in my club told me to use Long Pimples on backhand, ''nobody expects that and you can easily win because your opponents won't know how to react'' he said.

At first I thought that was crazy, but the coach of this dude was twice national champion playing this setup.

I will try it next week and tell you guys how does it work.

What do you think about this style?
 
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I think that this style can be very interesting to play. A guy in our club plays with it. But I wouldn't set the expectations too high, especially about "easy" winning. Seasoned players have seen all sorts of weird styles with different funky rubbers and they do know how to adjust.
 
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One of my practice partners used to play c-pen with Greass D-tecs on the back side. It wasn't that hard to play against if you know how to play against LP. My practice partner switched to inverted on the back side. His inverted RPB drives and strong back spin pushes are much more troublesome than the LP.
 
I used to use LPs on my RPB (Joola octopus) the main reason why I stopped was because I wanted to generate spin on the backhand and speed. I think that using LP on RPB is good if you are starting out using the RPB as u won't be affected by spin so you can practice your technique


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I was thinking about it again and I think that penholders playing this style have a little advantage, because with shakehand you only can chop or block with the LP backhand. With penhold you can use the traditional backhand attack as well.

BTW: Which is the best LP rubber for this style?

Thanks :)
 
But if u have long pimples on your backhand for penhold, you lose a lot of your attack potential in strong flicks and looping.
It probably won't do you good in the long run but if you want to just have fun in table tennis I guess that's fine.
The flicks will be the same, exept they won't have spin anymore. The forehand looping will be the same. The backhand looping will dissapear, I think that will be main problem.

The general play style will be something similar to Ryu Seung Min (Olimpic Champion 2004) but insted of blocking with the backhand, I will be able to chop, block or even traditional backhand attack.
 
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In the end, with anything you choose, or even before choosing it and after choosing it and using it, you have to decide how you want to play. What you practice and do well or have a love for plays a role. I mean I can't put short pips on my BH anymore. I once considered it. But now I loop too well on my BH to do it and rely on said loop too much.

If you don't have a serious RPB, it gives you more options. And you probably don't as RPB is a high level technique for most penholders. But if you do, RPB gives you more serve attack options that devastate the opponent. But there are LP advantages in serve receive as well.

As always, how you want to play counts the most.
 
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If you know how to flip your paddle to switch around the FH rubber, such that suddenly flip the LP as FH rubber before receiving/blocking, it will become a very strong weapon. There is a period where some C-pen players do this, even our coach showed us.

Few months ago I also met one player who doing this, it would requires the opponent's full concentration and fast reaction to know which side of rubber he is going to use.
 
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If you know how to flip your paddle to switch around the FH rubber, such that suddenly flip the LP as FH rubber before receiving/blocking, it will become a very strong weapon. There is a period where some C-pen players do this, even our coach showed us.

Few months ago I also met one player who doing this, it would requires the opponent's full concentration and fast reaction to know which side of rubber he is going to use.

I guess getting a twiddle blade would solve the problem but there would be a very high learning curve.
 
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So how did it go? Old topic, new answer?:D

I have tried LP with sponge on RPB and it worked surprisingly well - flicking a long serve and attacking underspin were the main advantages = negated the main disadvantages of traditional penhold play and even some pushing and blocking works.

Yes, RPB with inverted is the ultimate style, but that is sooooo difficult to master - a penhold player is FH dominant, once you start BH-topspinning, you find yourself playing too many backhands, which is exactly the opposite what a penhold or any FH dominant player wants.
 
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I am 60 yrs old now, I have played a lot of tournament, in Europe and other countried. I played Penhold for 20 yrs , changed to Shakehand for 6 yrs and back to Penhold now. I have experience of playing different style. Put Long Pimple to your back hand has advantage and disadvantage .
advantage : you can use long pimple to confuse your opponent, one more way to defence. If you can turn your bat round and use the long pimple to attack suddenly, then it is very good.
Disadvantage: you almost can only rely on your forehand to attack, unless you can play back hand with old Chinese style. If you want to use European style back hand with Penhold style, it is almost 100% impossible. You have to turn your bat , using the normal invert rubber to attack. It is not easy and turning the bat again and again will not be possible.
Also using your back hand to block or chop with Long Pimple need a lot new training.

Long pimple without attack is not so good unless you are professional player, train yourself a lot. If you want to play long pimple at your back hand, try use the long pimple to attack also not only defence.

I have one bat with long pimple at the back but I only use it because I can suddenly change to play Shakehand as I play both style quite well.

I am happy to discuss with you anytime.
 
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Why twiddle? That changes you into an at-the-table-defender...

You can play the traditional penhold RSM-style and use the pimples just to attack long pushes, flip short balls and flip long serves.

e.g. opponent plays long into your BH - you flip/flick with long pips, now:
- opponent plays safe= a low quality shot and you can attack
- opponent plays fast and you can use your TPB and use his pace to attack fast
- opponent plays slow and spinny - you have more options and can e.g. dropshot with pips.

With shakehand you do not have the advantage of playing the backhand with two rubbers without the time-consuming twiddling so you can only attack the first ball to your backhand with pips and later are on the passive side unless you twiddle.
 
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So I've played this style a number of years. Here's my thoughts on it. Just like anything, there's pluses & minuses.

Some players will struggle with it... Mostly newer players. And most experienced players don't have a problem with it but you'll occasionally find one who it slows down some. Just a mixed bag here.

Do you have a strong, consistent RPB? If so? Don't switch.

If you're RPB stinks and you're better off with TPB, then you might consider it considering that other side is just sitting there doing nothing for you.

Do you plan to twiddle? If yes, you become that much more trickier. However, your muscle memory progress is delayed since you have to learn feeling for both things.

If no, then I can only assume you're playing the LPs on your RPB full time. That's fine but keep in mind that you simply will use it sparingly. Off the table RPB chop? Sure. Bump or swipe vs backspin? Sure. RPB Chopblock vs topspin? Can be done but awkward. In that case you're probably better off aggressively punching with your TPB. For the record, I don't think it's a bad idea not to twiddle. It becomes very easy to twiddle and swipe with LPs on a backspin ball on your forehand (because it's easy) vs looping that with inverted. In short, if you twiddle, there's a trap into getting too passive with slow play.

Just don't get the impression that you'll be RPB flipping all that often with it and the naturally closed angle of shot.

Here's my video on twiddling & sample of some of the things you can do with LP play.

 
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What about short pips? You can produce your own spin, you can distract the opponent with dead blocks and you can hit through spin easily like Ma Lin did with his RPB. If you have a good TPB then long pips with thicker sponge or medium pips might be better for greater difference, but if you're playing RPB then short pips isn't a bad idea.
 
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