Just curious how many Penholders are on TTD?

OldschoolPenholder · Apr 3, 2018

suds79 said:
(we discussed this earlier in posts above with videos)

As i embrace RPB more, I am rereading parts of this thread as time permits. If you look at some of my older posts, i didn't think it possible for me to pick up the rudiments of the RPB lol

suds79 · Apr 4, 2018

OldschoolPenholder said:
Good question suds!

I generally don't lob/fish - i am mostly a half step to a step and a half off the table. I have practiced FH fishing from time to time, only with partners that i want to help their flat hit/smash. I am somewhat comfortable with FH fishing but am not good at it.

Yeah I hear ya. Same.

In matches, I play about the same distance. In practice, I generally play at least another 4ish feet back and it's amazing how much more time you have to react and it kinda develops into a loop to loop battle. I'd like to play this style more but learning how to transition into that type of point in my actual matches is something I don't really do. I'll probably sooner or later just play a match, practice it, and be willing to accept that I'll probably end up losing given I don't really know how to play that style yet... But that's how you learn. Just have to pull the trigger.

OldschoolPenholder · Apr 4, 2018

suds79 said:
In matches, I play about the same distance. In practice, I generally play at least another 4ish feet back

my friend and fellow TTDer '42andbackpains' brought it to my attention when i got back into TT after the long break. during practice i'm 2-3 steps, maybe 4 back and looping like crazy and yet he knew my game is close-to-the-table ... i have come to terms with the short stroke/close to the table looping and have been working on it for a few months ... but that old muscle memory, always winding up like a discus thrower and the old dinosaur long stroke loop rears its ugly head LOL

Good luck in your fishing game! Another tool for the toolbox!

genrel001 · Apr 4, 2018

Hi everyone. Good to be back.

One quick question.

I am currently playing one side SP (Impartial XS) on a round 5+2 Jpen (Yinhe 986). And I am having trouble receiving side undercut/topspin serves on the BH side. How do I receive it without ending up getting caught on the net or making the ball pop ready for an attack?

Thanks!

suds79 · Apr 4, 2018

genrel001 said:
Hi everyone. Good to be back.

One quick question.

I am currently playing one side SP (Impartial XS) on a round 5+2 Jpen (Yinhe 986). And I am having trouble receiving side undercut/topspin serves on the BH side. How do I receive it without ending up getting caught on the net or making the ball pop ready for an attack?

Thanks!

Feel like a little more info might help. Played short pips for years but I'm left handed and that has it's own distinct differences in playing controlled, directional angled shots which is how I approached SP play since I found it harder to win on pure speed/spin alone.

I take it you're right handed and the majority of players you're facing are right handed?
I also assume you stand in the back corner leaving most of the table open to your FH? Well the good news is that there's a small window to serve to your BH. Most serves you should be able to take with your FH. However, sounds like they're targeting your TPB on serve so lets talk about that.

So it's side/under & side/top serves that are getting you on the BH right? I assume pendulum serves.

Gosh I remember when I played SPs that taking service was easier and that I could be a little more aggressive somewhat attacking balls more often than I do with inverted now. I think I remember unless I read heavy pure backspin, I would either FH or TPB punch the ball where I want.

But here are some tips I'll say because this simply sounds like a reading spin issue that you'll have to work on. Have to be able to know what's on the ball.

- Are the players you're playing have good variation? Most players at my club can vary their serve but primarily use one time. Try to figure out who likes what.
- On short serves, service a side/top serve short is really hard. Most people can't do it. So you can somewhat safely bank that on slow, short serves it's side/back. Little plus I liked about Short Pips. This is so fun. If someone gives you a short serve. Seriously try to very lightly tough or push the ball just barely back over the net. Your aim should be to almost hit the net. Sure doing this you'll every now & then put a ball in the net but the touch game with SPs allows you to drop the ball just barely over the net and vs less athletic players, a lot of them can't reach that ball.
- Most serves that are long and particularly fast typically have side or side/top. Hard to serve a side/back serve fast because then it'll be kinda floaty.

Ultimately you'll just have to work on reading serve. By watching their blade, watching how the ball flies through the air after the serve and watching the speed of the serve. Good amount of really fast serves have some form of top.

Here's a video of a single sided SP player/coach I recently discovered named Ju Mingwei. He's only 3x the player I could ever hope to be.

Hope you get some inspiration from him. It's one thing to get tips from people online. It's another to actually see how something is done. That's largely what I do. I find players with styles I like or parts of their games I want to emulate and I add them to my database so I don't forget to reference them every now & then.

suds79 · Apr 4, 2018

RPB training:

So OSP came across interesting drills last night.

As we talked earlier, in wanting to develop greater feel on my RPB so I can play a greater variety of shots and not just topspin drive/loop, I started with the basics. I took the ball and bounced it up & down on my RPB over & over. Just like how people practice doing on their FH side as a kid learning how to bounce the ball. Sadly, this was tough for me compared to my FH side.

I could do it indefinitely oh my FH side. That's nothing new. But on the RPB side, first few attemps were around 10ish hits before an error. But it got better quickly. Will continue to work on it.

Also, and more importantly, I've wanted more practice vs no-spin balls for years and having a one wheeled robot, which I hate because all those must shoot some kind of spin, I never practice against it unless I play a hardbat player or possibly newer player. Both of which i have to adjust my feel against.

Anyways, can't remember where I got this tip but I took a bucket of balls, brought over a stool I have that goes up to about my knees. (there's carpet in my basement and even if it was hardwood floor, I'd really have to to throw the ball down hard into the floor to get it to bounce up somewhere around my waste so a stool works good here.

Anyways, simply bounce hold the ball up around my head height, drop it on the stool, bounces around waste height (you could vary this height for training) and boom. You're practicing a soft loop vs a pure no-spin ball.

So with the FH, I found this easy. No problems there. With RPB, no joke I whiffed the first 5 or so. But with practice, started to get it more & more. Making contact but missing. Then making contact and getting it in. It's interesting how my technique adapted for the soft loop. I wasn't planning on this but just like my FH soft loop when I discovered this years ago, I naturally found that I like coming up on the side of the ball vs coming up on the back of the ball on my RPB side. I've felt for years that a side-spin loop with being contacted on the side takes significant speed or forward momentum off the ball allowing more time for spin & gravity to do its thing and bring that ball down on the table. This is essentially what I'm going for on soft loops. An added bonus is that these balls typically have a lot of side kick after the bounce on their side.

But all in all, I'm excited to at least have one new drill vs no-spin so I'll keep working on it. I think it'll help my feel game on my RPB side.

OldschoolPenholder · Apr 4, 2018

Welcome back genrel001!

genrel001 said:
Hi everyone. Good to be back.

One quick question.

I am currently playing one side SP (Impartial XS) on a round 5+2 Jpen (Yinhe 986). And I am having trouble receiving side undercut/topspin serves on the BH side. How do I receive it without ending up getting caught on the net or making the ball pop ready for an attack?

Thanks!

I used pips for maybe 6 months to a year ages ago when I started playing TT. But since then I switched to inverted. I don't have specific comments based on SP experience. Will make general comments which may help or not. I know suds has a lot of SP experience and he'll probably chime in later.

I'm a righty. When I played TPB (one-sided) any strong sidespin/sidetop pendulum serve from a righty to my BH will be problematic for me as I did not have a TPB BH stroke/smash - I only push/block/punch. Sometimes I'm not fast on the 2nd ball pivot to use my FH when the serve is long or when it's short, slow to move to FH flick.

Sidedown

If I think the serve is sidedown (side undercut), i would push back. If I net the return, it's either because it's a heavier spin than I thought or it's a no spin serve. After getting on this forum 2 or 3 yrs ago, I've learned from NextLevel's posts about no spin serves. It never entered my mind prior as I thought the name of the game is spin and all serves have spin. With no spin serves, as you thought it was sidedown, you have overcompensated with blade angle.

The other factor I can think of with sidedown serves and I net the return is that I'm returning the serve too early. The serve has heavier spin than I thought. Only less than a month ago, i made a new friend who is a coach. He helped me understand that my timing is TOO fast, or more properly, I don't know the correct timing on when to hit the ball depending on context. I had a 30+ yrs break from TT and either don't remember what I learned as a kid or I never learned properly as a kid.

On serves, his advice which he repeatedly drilled into my pea brain, you can always wait just a tad longer. This gives you time to read the serve as well as let the spin die out a bit, so it's not as strong.

If a righty's pendulum sidedown serve comes to my short FH, I look to flick or i would push/touch/float it back to their FH. If i popped it up, i misread either a no spin or sidetop serve as a sidedown serve.

Sidetop

If it's a slow serve, i look to 2nd ball attack. If it's a fast sidetop serve, I just angle my blade to his FH side.

If i popped up my return, again it is either heavier spin than i expected or it's a no spin serve. If it's heavier than i thought, take a tad longer to return the ball.

-----------

How long have you been playing with the SP? With SP, it negates spin somewhat, many SP players I've faced were able to BH flick/stroke/smash downspin serves, especially JPenners for some reason. With sidetop/topspin serves, they were able to attack easily.

To sum up:

1. Watch for no spin serves
2. Wait a tad longer to return serve

Hope this helps genrel!

~osph

OldschoolPenholder · Apr 4, 2018

suds79 said:
RPB training:

So OSP came across interesting drills last night.

As we talked earlier, in wanting to develop greater feel on my RPB so I can play a greater variety of shots and not just topspin drive/loop, I started with the basics. I took the ball and bounced it up & down on my RPB over & over. Just like how people practice doing on their FH side as a kid learning how to bounce the ball. Sadly, this was tough for me compared to my FH side. I could do it indefinitely oh my FH side. That's nothing new. But on the RPB side, first few attemps were around 10ish hits before an error. But it got better quickly. Will continue to work on it.

When i wait for my turn on a table, i usually shadow stroke be it the FH flat hit & short stroke loop, RPB stroke & loop. I also shadow pendulum serves and twiddle despite not currently using a twiddling setup. As i have a new setup, from your posts yesterday, you reminded me of the simple basics ... just bounce the ball. I'm not used to the tensor rubbers, so last night in addition to my strokes, i started to add bouncing the ball to stuff to do while i wait. As discussed, I tried bouncing the ball on the RPB. Like you, it wasn't as easy as bouncing on the FH side. But after a while i got it.

Ah yeah, cool drill with the no spin/stool! I don't have the luxury of doing that at home. I played a match against a member last night who knew I was trying to learn the RPB. 2nd game, he served mostly to my BH, to help me under matchplay conditions use my RPB. I had mostly soft loops. Once I realized during the 2nd game that he was serving to my BH, i found it easier to use RPB and not have to fight my TPB punch/push urge. However, after i won that game at 21-19, he mixed it up again and won 3-1. Those other games, I had a split-second decision of deciding between RPB and TPB, but I was able for the most part override my TPB muscle memory last night. I have to keep at it. He showed me i could do it despite him making it easy for me to do it. "Success breeds confidence, confidence breeds success."

p.s. great insight on the SP, thank you suds!

genrel001 · Apr 5, 2018

suds79 said:
Feel like a little more info might help. Played short pips for years but I'm left handed and that has it's own distinct differences in playing controlled, directional angled shots which is how I approached SP play since I found it harder to win on pure speed/spin alone.

I take it you're right handed and the majority of players you're facing are right handed?
I also assume you stand in the back corner leaving most of the table open to your FH? Well the good news is that there's a small window to serve to your BH. Most serves you should be able to take with your FH. However, sounds like they're targeting your TPB on serve so lets talk about that.

So it's side/under & side/top serves that are getting you on the BH right? I assume pendulum serves.

Gosh I remember when I played SPs that taking service was easier and that I could be a little more aggressive somewhat attacking balls more often than I do with inverted now. I think I remember unless I read heavy pure backspin, I would either FH or TPB punch the ball where I want.

But here are some tips I'll say because this simply sounds like a reading spin issue that you'll have to work on. Have to be able to know what's on the ball.

- Are the players you're playing have good variation? Most players at my club can vary their serve but primarily use one time. Try to figure out who likes what.
- On short serves, service a side/top serve short is really hard. Most people can't do it. So you can somewhat safely bank that on slow, short serves it's side/back. Little plus I liked about Short Pips. This is so fun. If someone gives you a short serve. Seriously try to very lightly tough or push the ball just barely back over the net. Your aim should be to almost hit the net. Sure doing this you'll every now & then put a ball in the net but the touch game with SPs allows you to drop the ball just barely over the net and vs less athletic players, a lot of them can't reach that ball.
- Most serves that are long and particularly fast typically have side or side/top. Hard to serve a side/back serve fast because then it'll be kinda floaty.

Ultimately you'll just have to work on reading serve. By watching their blade, watching how the ball flies through the air after the serve and watching the speed of the serve. Good amount of really fast serves have some form of top.

Here's a video of a single sided SP player/coach I recently discovered named Ju Mingwei. He's only 3x the player I could ever hope to be.

Hope you get some inspiration from him. It's one thing to get tips from people online. It's another to actually see how something is done. That's largely what I do. I find players with styles I like or parts of their games I want to emulate and I add them to my database so I don't forget to reference them every now & then.

Thanks for the tips and the video! It's hard to find vids with SP penhold players on youtube these days. The only ones I can find are either from He Zhi Wen, Wang Zengyi or Shan Xiaona. But not of them really ressembles my game. HZW is almost a pure flat hitter, but my game is more of an all-rounder (counter-drive, flat and fish). WZY has RPB which I don't have (but thinking about trying it out again, maybe I'll be more patient this time. hehe). And SXN is more of a block and swipe type pf player.

Back to my question, thanks again for the tips. Maybe you're right my problem may be not be how I receive the ball but how I read it (or probably both). My opponent doesn't use pendulum serves, he's a hooker (lol). Hook serves like Miu Hirano, I rarely encounter players with this kind of serves, maybe that's why I find it hard to read plus the nature of the serve itself (it would be much easier if I still play with my LP-inv set up). Another thing that always gets me is his half long serves, not too short to confidently push but not too long to attack. This makes me having second thoughts on how to receive it in the middle of the game. This made me contemplate to add RPB back to my game thinking that maybe I could just flick it.

genrel001 · Apr 5, 2018

OldschoolPenholder said:
Welcome back genrel001!

I used pips for maybe 6 months to a year ages ago when I started playing TT. But since then I switched to inverted. I don't have specific comments based on SP experience. Will make general comments which may help or not. I know suds has a lot of SP experience and he'll probably chime in later.

I'm a righty. When I played TPB (one-sided) any strong sidespin/sidetop pendulum serve from a righty to my BH will be problematic for me as I did not have a TPB BH stroke/smash - I only push/block/punch. Sometimes I'm not fast on the 2nd ball pivot to use my FH when the serve is long or when it's short, slow to move to FH flick.

Sidedown

If I think the serve is sidedown (side undercut), i would push back. If I net the return, it's either because it's a heavier spin than I thought or it's a no spin serve. After getting on this forum 2 or 3 yrs ago, I've learned from NextLevel's posts about no spin serves. It never entered my mind prior as I thought the name of the game is spin and all serves have spin. With no spin serves, as you thought it was sidedown, you have overcompensated with blade angle.

The other factor I can think of with sidedown serves and I net the return is that I'm returning the serve too early. The serve has heavier spin than I thought. Only less than a month ago, i made a new friend who is a coach. He helped me understand that my timing is TOO fast, or more properly, I don't know the correct timing on when to hit the ball depending on context. I had a 30+ yrs break from TT and either don't remember what I learned as a kid or I never learned properly as a kid.

On serves, his advice which he repeatedly drilled into my pea brain, you can always wait just a tad longer. This gives you time to read the serve as well as let the spin die out a bit, so it's not as strong.

If a righty's pendulum sidedown serve comes to my short FH, I look to flick or i would push/touch/float it back to their FH. If i popped it up, i misread either a no spin or sidetop serve as a sidedown serve.

Sidetop

If it's a slow serve, i look to 2nd ball attack. If it's a fast sidetop serve, I just angle my blade to his FH side.

If i popped up my return, again it is either heavier spin than i expected or it's a no spin serve. If it's heavier than i thought, take a tad longer to return the ball.

-----------

How long have you been playing with the SP? With SP, it negates spin somewhat, many SP players I've faced were able to BH flick/stroke/smash downspin serves, especially JPenners for some reason. With sidetop/topspin serves, they were able to attack easily.

To sum up:

1. Watch for no spin serves
2. Wait a tad longer to return serve

Hope this helps genrel!

~osph

Thanks! Really helpful advice. I'll try it.

I started playing SP with my first PH set up but I had an LP on the other side which I twiddled to the FH and use it to receive serves. So I've never really mastered receiving with SP. Then as I started to get accustomed with LP Fh so I ditched the SP and replaced it with Inv and placed it on the RPB side. Then my opponents started getting accustomed to my style so I tried experimenting with SH, one side inverted jpen, etc.. You can say I'm still in an experiment stage at the moment but this time I really want to stick with it for good. The reason I chose it is for practical reasons (not really the best reason) as SPs are are almost indestructible and can lasts for years if taken care of properly so I don't have to replace it after 3-6 months like Inv rubbers. Also I see it best for my style playing close to the table and counter-driving/blocking/hitting the ball before or during peak of the bounce and relying my game on controlling the direction of the ball rather than overpowering the opponent. But I'll take your advice, I'll wait a little longer for my shots this time.

Der_Echte · Apr 5, 2018

OSP said:
The other factor I can think of with sidedown serves and I net the return is that I'm returning the serve too early. The serve has heavier spin than I thought. Only less than a month ago, i made a new friend who is a coach. He helped me understand that my timing is TOO fast, or more properly, I don't know the correct timing on when to hit the ball depending on context.

OSP, another thing to consider is how you stepped in to meet the ball, maybe more importantly, how loose your grip was at impact. Being too firm grip before impact will make ball react a LOT more off your rubber.

Taking the ball early with a loose grip, or on the bounce with loose, then increasing grip pressure during impact with add a lot more control to the return.

When you step in, you see the ball better and you act better.... at least a lot of the time.

genrel001 · Apr 5, 2018

Der_Echte said:
OSP, another thing to consider is how you stepped in to meet the ball, maybe more importantly, how loose your grip was at impact. Being too firm grip before impact will make ball react a LOT more off your rubber.

Taking the ball early with a loose grip, or on the bounce with loose, then increasing grip pressure during impact with add a lot more control to the return.

When you step in, you see the ball better and you act better.... at least a lot of the time.

1. Take my time and don't rush the shot.
2. Loosen grip until impact.

Got it! Thanks!

OldschoolPenholder · Apr 5, 2018

Very cool Der, Thank you! Thinking back, generally grip is relaxed, but on serves I think are heavy spin I may tense up

Thank you!!

suds79 · Apr 5, 2018

genrel001 said:
Thanks for the tips and the video! It's hard to find vids with SP penhold players on youtube these days. The only ones I can find are either from He Zhi Wen, Wang Zengyi or Shan Xiaona. But not of them really ressembles my game. HZW is almost a pure flat hitter, but my game is more of an all-rounder (counter-drive, flat and fish). WZY has RPB which I don't have (but thinking about trying it out again, maybe I'll be more patient this time. hehe). And SXN is more of a block and swipe type pf player.

Yeah. When I was playing SPs, I didn't like to watch old 38mm ball era SP play. Sure there was a ton of video out there and I suppose you can still get technique tips but the differences in how the ball plays from 38mm celluloid to now 40+ plastic is too different.

For that reason, I started a youtube playlist of SP penholders only featuring 40+ era ball being played. Hope this helps give you some inspiration and/or tips of how to play certain balls. A lot of different players featured here. Some you mentioned, some not mentioned. But 30 videos on there. Hopefully you can get something good out of there from the various players.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMz7hl_U1y0&list=PLKqSWJv6VSgzW6BL5a2_FoLQo3OkhAcAb

OldschoolPenholder · Apr 5, 2018

Last night I went to my new club and hit with a 2200 PH. His FH is over the table, meet the ball earlier and 70% hit/30% spin. He was structurally faster than me as I wait for the ball to be near the end of the table and hit a little above my hip. When we hit BH to BH, i tried out my RPB against his. I am not steady enough to RPB block/punch. Was able to RPB with a fuller stroke and able to RPB smash some high balls better than block/punch. The time I spent learning the SH BH stroke, ~6 mos, probably is a factor in this. Rewind to a little over 2 yrs ago when I didn't ever think i would even attempt trying to learn RPB. LOL at me

Hit with a lady who is becoming a regular training partner when i go to the new club. Her FH is like the 2200 PH's FH i described above - structurally faster than mine. My friend who is a coach at the new club has tried to get me to hit this way, but muscle memory is hard to override. Need more time. I unintentionally 2nd ball RPB slow spinny brush loop.

Slowly getting used to RPB and my new setup

OldschoolPenholder · Apr 9, 2018

Copied and pasted from the Daily Table Tennis Chit Chat thread:

Oh My Guoyuehua!

I met forum member songdavid98 when I went to meet up with 42andbackpains this past Saturday night. Originally I was to go meet up with 42&bp last Thursday, but I couldn't make it.

I hit with 42&bp for about an hour. He had to leave. I then hit with songdavid98. They both were gracious in their time with me and helping/teaching me RPB. They also had advice on my FH loop.

Unedited video

https://youtu.be/04uDPbLmoS8

0:00-1:20 - TPB punch with 42andbackpains
1:21-1:36 - trying to RPB punch
1:36-2:57 - I hit SH BH
2:58-8:18 RPB add spin, songdavid giving tips
8:19-end I RPB with songdavid98 and throughout he is giving pointers and correcting my stroke

Highlights

~9:07 NextLevel mention!

~15:42 member wants to play songdavid98
~20:11 i'm rushing throughout - slow it down and keep the same rhythm - strive for high quality shot
~23:45 songdavid98: "I pretend my BH is my FH"
~24:10-24:30 can do it slowly; "I like this. Everything is you."
~25:19-25:23 42andbackpains: "Your BH looks better than your FH." LOLOL

KEY POINTS OF RPB SPINNING

* Elbow high
* Add spin to each shot
* Shots should have an arc

Afterwards, I got to drill with songdavid98 (no video):

1. He FH loop to my TPB block/punch ... he noted I was not consistent with my stroke ... I was trying just to return his shots via TPB block/punch, and didn't use proper stroke 'cos i was lazy with footwork to get into proper position and trying to get used to the new setup

2. One to his FH and one to his BH

3. He pendulum served sidedown and I was to push back to his BH and he did whatever on 3rd ball ...my only comment is that his serve was incredible for me to witness! It seemed to bounce within 1 cm of the net on his side and then 1 cm from the net on my side and almost all of them were close to the edge. Pretty much perfect placement! If i was slow in stepping in, I would not be able to push back. OK i may be exaggerating a little, but it is not far from what happened!!

4. I then serve whatever and he 2nd ball whatever. I served some pendulum sidedown to his FH ... my serves were first bounce in the middle of the table, and some of the 2nd bounce very close to the net on his side. As well as I placed some of the serves, he showed why he is 2300... super fast footwork and smooth and fast FH loop, many of which were smoked past me!
--------------

Sunday night, i went to my new club. I hit with my friends P and "Mommy". Still trying to get used to the Tenergy 25. Then I had serve practice with the lady that has become a regular partner at the new club. As much as I tried to override my TPB punch down the line and use RPB, i cannot get it out of muscle memory. After a rocket serve to her BH, she BH to my BH and I TPB punched down the line. She didn't expect the speed of the punch so fast down the line.

She served pendulum side down and i pushed to her FH to help her FH loop out, she loops to my BH and I TPB angle block to her BH. She sometimes was caught.

I like training with her, as I mentioned before her FH is structurally faster than mine and I have a lot to learn from her on that. She has a punch/hook serve to my FH that catches me flatfooted. Some of my pushes bounced too high and off the table. Haven't gotten used to feel/touch needed with T25 for my pushing game.

I then RPB flat hit with my friend who is a coach. He wants to help me build the RPB up, instead of having me spin, he wanted to me get the flat hit first.

KEY POINTS OF RPB FLAT HITTING

* do not hit the ball at the top of the bounce
* wait a bit longer and let it drop before flat-hitting it back

https://youtu.be/71YLQ76Qtqg

After hitting RPB, i FH flat hit and looped with him. My balls bounced off too much. Still not used to it. I officially gave up on the T25 and changed to Donic Bluefire M1 Turbo on my FH. Still using Xiom Vega Pro on my BH. After glue dried, I tested the new rubber. I seem to have better control on my FH than with T25, although I know there were many shots my skill level couldn't have returned but the T25 did all the work and returned it. It's Yin-Yang though using T25, good that i make the shot back, but bad, it's not me, it's the rubber.

Deepest gratitude to songdavid98 and 42andbackpains!

OldschoolPenholder · Apr 13, 2018

Hello Penholder Brothers!

For the past month, I have tried to update my game by learning and practicing RPB much more than I have in the past ~3 yrs since my 30+ yrs break from TT.

Since I was an oldschool penholder, I played with only one side and used to the weight of one rubber. I used a curled fingers grip.

After about a month of RPB practice, I have noticed discomfort in my hand. I have tried to use RPB with curled grip but am not steady in my shots. I have extended my fingers and used all 3 touching the rubber as well as only the middle finger touching the rubber. For now, the most comfortable is all 3 touching the rubber for me.

As I am not used to the extended fingers grip on FH and serves, I sometimes go back to the curled fingers grip. I noticed my hand hurts a little when using a curled grip as i hit. Using extended fingers my hand doesn't hurt while playing. However, when i get home, i noticed continued discomfort.

I wonder if it's because I have weak hands? ~40 yrs of using a computer keyboard and possible carpal tunnel syndrome-related?

I continually make a fist and extend my fingers. I sometimes press my fingers into the desk and stretch them. Also, i have all my fingers touching each other, in martial arts, this called a crane's/stork's/chicken's beak, and wrap a rubber band around my fingers and trying to open my fingers. Resistance from the rubberband seems to help for now.

Just wonder if some of the older RBP players have noticed discomfort/pain in their hands.

~opsh

Ranger-man · Apr 13, 2018

Traditional penholder here. I play both Cpen and Jpen but the latter is my favorite because I am very forehand dominated. I move as often as I can to turn every attacking opportunity into a forehand. Having said that I can attack quite well or block with traditional Cpen backhand as well. And it is my first day on this forum.

OldschoolPenholder · Apr 13, 2018

Ranger-man said:
Traditional penholder here. I play both Cpen and Jpen but the latter is my favorite because I am very forehand dominated. I move as often as I can to turn every attacking opportunity into a forehand. Having said that I can attack quite well or block with traditional Cpen backhand as well. And it is my first day on this forum.

Welcome to TTD and this thread Ranger-man! Cool to have another traditional PH. I couldn't get the BH smash and always had problems on strong serves to my BH, so I finally am trying out RPB.

~osph

songdavid98 · Apr 13, 2018

OldschoolPenholder said:
Hello Penholder Brothers!

For the past month, I have tried to update my game by learning and practicing RPB much more than I have in the past ~3 yrs since my 30+ yrs break from TT.

Since I was an oldschool penholder, I played with only one side and used to the weight of one rubber. I used a curled fingers grip.

After about a month of RPB practice, I have noticed discomfort in my hand. I have tried to use RPB with curled grip but am not steady in my shots. I have extended my fingers and used all 3 touching the rubber as well as only the middle finger touching the rubber. For now, the most comfortable is all 3 touching the rubber for me.

As I am not used to the extended fingers grip on FH and serves, I sometimes go back to the curled fingers grip. I noticed my hand hurts a little when using a curled grip as i hit. Using extended fingers my hand doesn't hurt while playing. However, when i get home, i noticed continued discomfort.

I wonder if it's because I have weak hands? ~40 yrs of using a computer keyboard and possible carpal tunnel syndrome-related?

I continually make a fist and extend my fingers. I sometimes press my fingers into the desk and stretch them. Also, i have all my fingers touching each other, in martial arts, this called a crane's/stork's/chicken's beak, and wrap a rubber band around my fingers and trying to open my fingers. Resistance from the rubberband seems to help for now.

Just wonder if some of the older RBP players have noticed discomfort/pain in their hands.

~opsh

Is the pain in your fingers, your palm, or your wrist? I used to feel burning in my palm when I used to do multiball; maybe it's because my hands are weak.

I do let go of my racket a lot to relieve my hand. And I do stretch my hand against the table after I've been playing for a few hours.

The grip should be comfortable, in a way that you can tighten your grip and play for long periods of time. You can try experimenting by changing how left or right, up or down you place the tip of your middle finger.

Just curious how many Penholders are on TTD?

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