Just curious how many Penholders are on TTD?

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Very high ! The blade is very good, the better limba I never played. I am not penholder but I play OSP since years.
 
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Anyone have any good references or tips to improving traditional blocks and transitioning grip (cpen or jpen welcome)?

I’ve learned RPB from the beginning and now I’m curious to learn TPB and see if it could be utilized anywhere in my game.

A few key points here:
  1. TPB relies on the index and mid fingers. All other fingers must be relaxed
  2. Contact as early as possible
  3. Utilise your arm to push
  4. Turn your torso to add more force, hence your left foot should be in front of your right foot (if you play with your right hand)
 
says former JPEN, now CPEN
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good news folks, i fixed my grip problem

the answer may surprise you 😉 all i did was to adjust my grip a little.

while it was kind of silly because the answer to my problem was simpler than i thought it would be, i did discover new things. i pasted a cut of rubber on the back of my JPEN blade as SFF_Lib suggested. i didn't really like it because as mentioned earlier in the thread, it made the blade feel quite thick.

however, the glue residue on the backside of my blade once i took out the rubber proved to be useful in providing some little friction for my fingers to be able to press onto the blade during strokes. as short lived the glue residue were due to sweat and constant rubbing, it did give me what i want. but since ive altered my grip, i have no need for modifications to accommodate my fingers on the back of the blade.

i have to say this though, hooking your index finger on the cork of the JPEN handle proved to be more counter-intuitive than i thought it would be. i believe suds79 have the same opinion as i do in regard to this matter. the only time it proved useful is when you're doing TPB techniques.



grip topic aside, i slathered baby oil on my Rasanter R50. it was in the state of rigor mortis after 3 months of hitting with it, so why not try and boost it up? it came back to life a wild beast, couldn't control it until the third day. topspin was nothing special, it wasn't potent unless i use more wrist, but the blistering speed made up for it and the rubber feels good too.
 
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good news folks, i fixed my grip problem

the answer may surprise you 😉 all i did was to adjust my grip a little.

while it was kind of silly because the answer to my problem was simpler than i thought it would be, i did discover new things. i pasted a cut of rubber on the back of my JPEN blade as SFF_Lib suggested. i didn't really like it because as mentioned earlier in the thread, it made the blade feel quite thick.

however, the glue residue on the backside of my blade once i took out the rubber proved to be useful in providing some little friction for my fingers to be able to press onto the blade during strokes. as short lived the glue residue were due to sweat and constant rubbing, it did give me what i want. but since ive altered my grip, i have no need for modifications to accommodate my fingers on the back of the blade.

i have to say this though, hooking your index finger on the cork of the JPEN handle proved to be more counter-intuitive than i thought it would be. i believe suds79 have the same opinion as i do in regard to this matter. the only time it proved useful is when you're doing TPB techniques.



grip topic aside, i slathered baby oil on my Rasanter R50. it was in the state of rigor mortis after 3 months of hitting with it, so why not try and boost it up? it came back to life a wild beast, couldn't control it until the third day. topspin was nothing special, it wasn't potent unless i use more wrist, but the blistering speed made up for it and the rubber feels good too.

Photo?

 
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says former JPEN, now CPEN
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throughout the rest of 2022 though ive come to realise that maybe its not the grip that's troubling me but rather my technique.

i realise that i've been relying too much on my arm for the forehand and i've also been gripping my blade too hard and tight.

ever since i started to use my legs and core more for forehand topspin, the grip slippage problem went away. my grip is now looser than before, but it is still a firm enough grip for my blade to not fly out of my hand. rather than using my arm and forcing my wrist and such, i just let my body control the arm for me, if that made sense.

anyway i'm trying out a new rubber, rakza 9. its not a really popular rubber so i had second thoughts on buying it but i figured that it wouldn't really hurt that much to give it a go. so far, its pretty good.
 
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hey, guess who's back from the dead

i've been busy with life for a while so i couldn't get back to you

anyway here's pictures of my current grip. pretty conventional grip to be honest.

View attachment 24299View attachment 24300
pretty similar to my grip, but I don't press the thumb, I let the thumb loose to loosen my wrist more, and my racket angle more open. Letting the index finger guide the racket, I find my FH much more stable in all the shots, but my RPB loose some power but that's fine.

I've tried Rakza 7, 9, X and I find X seems to be most suitable for FH. 9 is between, easy to play but not so powerful.
 
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throughout the rest of 2022 though ive come to realise that maybe its not the grip that's troubling me but rather my technique.

i realise that i've been relying too much on my arm for the forehand and i've also been gripping my blade too hard and tight.

ever since i started to use my legs and core more for forehand topspin, the grip slippage problem went away. my grip is now looser than before, but it is still a firm enough grip for my blade to not fly out of my hand. rather than using my arm and forcing my wrist and such, i just let my body control the arm for me, if that made sense.

anyway i'm trying out a new rubber, rakza 9. its not a really popular rubber so i had second thoughts on buying it but i figured that it wouldn't really hurt that much to give it a go. so far, its pretty good.

I am glad you've found the solution. Yes locking your shoulder to minimise arm movement is the way to go. It also helps speed up recovery between strokes.

But in the old days when Ma Lin and RSM did the "give-it-all" FH power loop, they used their entire body and arm to attack. A pleasure to watch
 
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says former JPEN, now CPEN
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im considering mingling with CPEN again

i'm fine with JPEN, but sometimes i find it annoying that you need to be precise in your shots or else the ball flies somewhere else or dives into the net, with the sweet spot of your conventional rectangular 1-ply blade being tiny and all.

fine and dandy when you got the time to loop, not so enjoyable when you're defending against fast loops and put the ball somewhere undesirable because it hit the tip of your blade and not the center.

so....... any recommendations for a CPEN blade? carbon or allwood welcome, im thinking of going for a yasaka myself, maybe a YEO or a goiabao 5:ROFLMAO:
 
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Got a cheap used Yinhe 982 to play yesterday. I must say I play better with JPEN grip vs FL.. I dont know why.. but my returns are better controlled.
 
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A few key points here:
  1. TPB relies on the index and mid fingers. All other fingers must be relaxed
  2. Contact as early as possible
  3. Utilise your arm to push
  4. Turn your torso to add more force, hence your left foot should be in front of your right foot (if you play with your right hand)
Precisely.

Look like you want to do a traditional penhold block.

1. Agree. You should be able to perform the stroke with thumb tangling. In fact with the index finger pressing on the paddle, you can technically turn the racket angle parallel to the table (so you can block heavy heavey top spin loop coming your way easily).

2. Yes, with traditional penhold block, you are always "borrowing" the force so you want to contact the ball as early as possible.

3. Yes, your forearm and your upper arm at the elbow area should form a 90-degree angle. So use your arm to push foreward.

4. Again when you want to add more and more power then you need to turn your waist and explode, along with your arm to generate as much power as possible. But that really only works if the ball coming at you is high and you are trying hit it back hard and fast. Unfortunately at the higher level, this shot does not show up very often.

5. Traditional penhold block, one advantage is chop block.

6) another advantage is the ability to block the ball over the table and back to the opponent at very wide angles so placement is the key.
 
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hey, guess who's back from the dead

i've been busy with life for a while so i couldn't get back to you

anyway here's pictures of my current grip. pretty conventional grip to be honest.

View attachment 24299View attachment 24300
0470110000022.jpg

Armstrong grip sheet (269 yen) may solve your problem, but it is hard to find outside of Japan
0.jpg

Wang Hao' racket
He actually sanded down the rubber on the back to have better grip

0 (1).jpg
0 (2).jpg

I have seen Chinese people used a random plastic sheet and cut open a rectangle area, and sand down the area that is not covered.
 
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Hello all, my story is:
  1. Started as shakehand (pimples in)
  2. I've seen Ryu Seung Min approx 14 years ago and decided to change to jpen. Funny, lot of footwork, nice 1 ply hinoki blades, Donic Desto F1: topspin, topspin, topspin, ...
  3. Approx. four years ago I changed to cpen to start hitting. Rutis Revo J, Goriki Kaisoku, easy and similar a bit to short pips.
  4. During covid lockdown I changed short pips. This is the most difficult change. I tried few blades and rubbers. Blades 7 ply wood: tibhar force pro (blue edition), rosewood 7. Rubbers: Joola express ultra max and spinfire max. My topspin is nice, the serve is still good, but too many mistakes on hitting (bad technique and blades too much topspin oriented). With short pips have a fine topspin is ok, but you cannot win matches if you fail the hitting ball that comes next.
  5. Very recently I bought avx p700 and I started using Victas spinpips d2 max. This combination helps me a lot in hitting. p700 is easy to use with the back fingers close to the handle, first racket I feel it stable with fingers close to the handle without needing to do too much force. I plan in the near future to use d2 2.0 to have more control. Note when you test d2 for the first time is very hard and sinks a lot. 3-4 training sessions later it's more elastic and feels so nice and controlled. I also have joola cwx ox on the back for receive some serves (I do not twiddle the racket, I just change wrist angle).
 
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says former JPEN, now CPEN
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Member
Aug 2019
226
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458
0470110000022.jpg

Armstrong grip sheet (269 yen) may solve your problem, but it is hard to find outside of Japan
View attachment 26932
Wang Hao' racket
He actually sanded down the rubber on the back to have better grip

View attachment 26933View attachment 26934
I have seen Chinese people used a random plastic sheet and cut open a rectangle area, and sand down the area that is not covered.

ahh that was a long time ago

ever since i switched to cpen i scratched the place where my middle and ring finger will meet (exactly like wang hao) and it works well
 
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