Just curious how many Penholders are on TTD?

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Well here it is. The recap of all my singles matches from 8/14. Win or lose. It's in here. What happened? Guess you'll have to watch to find out.

All matches condensed down to a 8:45 video.
PS - Still trying to gain confidence with my RPB. I've been committed to it for probably 2 months not. Most my life prior I've been a TPB guy. I'm sure you'll be able to tell in the video. ;)

With tall body you have the advantage of FH loop. Lower your body and loop with more leg power. You can play like Xu Xin


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Well here it is. The recap of all my singles matches from 8/14. Win or lose. It's in here. What happened? Guess you'll have to watch to find out.All matches condensed down to a 8:45 video.
PS - Still trying to gain confidence with my RPB. I've been committed to it for probably 2 months not. Most my life prior I've been a TPB guy. I'm sure you'll be able to tell in the video. ;)

Hey, you are able to cover the whole table with your FH!😆 If I were you, I would forget RPB and only loop FH, using BH push when needed and loop FH again.

Apparently your RPB is getting better whenever you lower your body further. Sometimes you chose to chop the ball back, but in other similar cases and your body was in a right position, you has successfully used RPB to attack.

 
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Hey, you are able to cover the whole table with your FH!😆 If I were you, I would forget RPB and only loop FH, using BH push when needed and loop FH again.

Apparently your RPB is getting better whenever you lower your body further. Sometimes you chose to chop the ball back, but in other similar cases and your body was in a right position, you has successfully used RPB to attack.

So I've played TPB most of my whole life. Unfortunately I'm 42 and my level of athleticism or movement isn't the same as when I was in my 20s so thus trying to get better at RPB.

Certainly there were a higher % of long serves to my BH which i pushed or chopped where as if it was a club night I would have liked to practice a soft open up RPB loop but in tournaments I believe "Just do what you have to do to win." Not necessarily everything you'd like to do or get to.

And for sure there were some points where I was caught off guard or had say a high ball to my BH and I chickened out on the RPB when I should have. Got to get that confidence & consistency.

So still working with the RPB. It has moments where it's nice. But consistency needs work. I also still stand too upright. Really need to work on that. SFF_lib made a good point in a way eluding to that in reference to using legs more for power. A little bit too much of an arm swinger.

Thanks for checking it out.

 
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I should note that I was really bummed to not beat the last guy. Of the group of 4, only the top 1 advances to the final playoff. The guy who beat me took 2nd in the 41-59 and he got to play the guy who took 1st in A singles. That would have been fun just to have that experience to play him.

Funny enough, he was a single singed penholder with an incredible TPB and super fast FH. And roughly my age. So as much as I say that I need to develop a better backhand for a better all around game, I guess the lesson to be learned is that it's not so much your style as to how good you are at it. Mean after all in my local tournament a guy won it with a style some could call out-dated.
 
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I've been in this website for quite a while now and haven't seen a thread on PHders here on TTD... until now :)

So I am a 16-year old Filipino penholder (residing in Qatar) that started considerably late for a person like me. One reason that I started playing Penhold (I started like any other hobby shakehander) during my first few months of discovering the sport and I saw that this grip would be very fitting for me. Another reason for my quick switch to penhold is that I've watched videos of, as I call it, the "Holy Penhold Trinity" = Xu Xin, Wang Hao, and Ma Lin.

Anyways, I started training last October (almost a year now) after some COVID measures were lifted. I am slowly getting into the ropes of mastering penhold.

It's nice to see lots of other penholders from different parts of the world! And, yeah, hello!
 
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I've been in this website for quite a while now and haven't seen a thread on PHders here on TTD... until now :)

So I am a 16-year old Filipino penholder (residing in Qatar) that started considerably late for a person like me. One reason that I started playing Penhold (I started like any other hobby shakehander) during my first few months of discovering the sport and I saw that this grip would be very fitting for me. Another reason for my quick switch to penhold is that I've watched videos of, as I call it, the "Holy Penhold Trinity" = Xu Xin, Wang Hao, and Ma Lin.

Anyways, I started training last October (almost a year now) after some COVID measures were lifted. I am slowly getting into the ropes of mastering penhold.

It's nice to see lots of other penholders from different parts of the world! And, yeah, hello!

Welcome. So TT is a life-long sport so don't worry about being 16 playing for the first time.

I started when I was in college. Played some buddies there. Then played occasionally in my mid 20s at times. Didn't start playing weekly at a club until I was 30. And all that time prior was shakehand. Only at 30 switched to penhold. Been there ever since.

Anyways, since you're new to it, I'll say this as I wish I would have known when I first started learning. Learn the RPB. Don't bother with TPB. Not that there's anything wrong with TPB but you're young and you can't find a good young penholder today that doesn't already have a good RPB so start early on that. You'll really be thanking me for that advice in a few years.

 
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Welcome. So TT is a life-long sport so don't worry about being 16 playing for the first time.

I started when I was in college. Played some buddies there. Then played occasionally in my mid 20s at times. Didn't start playing weekly at a club until I was 30. And all that time prior was shakehand. Only at 30 switched to penhold. Been there ever since.

Anyways, since you're new to it, I'll say this as I wish I would have known when I first started learning. Learn the RPB. Don't bother with TPB. Not that there's anything wrong with TPB but you're young and you can't find a good young penholder today that doesn't already have a good RPB so start early on that. You'll really be thanking me for that advice in a few years.

Another advantage of being tall is that, your long fingers can provide a firmer grip which is key to a consistent RPB.

 
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Got the ever elusive 3-1 victory on the best young player at our club. This was nice as he will quickly become the 2nd best player at our club in probably less than a year.

Here he had been serving down the line a lot. I was planning on stepping around that down the line serve and forehanding it (a bit of a gamble). But he served wide. :eek: :eek:

Doesn't hurt to be long and I'd like to think for 42 still somewhat quick. ;)

https://media.giphy.com/media/AR9yijrWvc8kFddlVC/giphy.gif
 
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says former JPEN, now CPEN
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Got the ever elusive 3-1 victory on the best young player at our club. This was nice as he will quickly become the 2nd best player at our club in probably less than a year.

Here he had been serving down the line a lot. I was planning on stepping around that down the line serve and forehanding it (a bit of a gamble). But he served wide. :eek: :eek:

Doesn't hurt to be long and I'd like to think for 42 still somewhat quick. ;)

https://media.giphy.com/media/AR9yijrWvc8kFddlVC/giphy.gif
earning that point xu xin style 😎

 
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ive been thinking about something lately

the modern TT game requires the players to have a strong backhand if they wanted to have a high chance of winning the game and it is no surprise to see more and more penholders use RPB exclusively, especially new penholders

imo however i think PH players should think of RPB more as tool or variety in shots rather than a mainstay weapon. not that you can't use it as your main weapon, but i feel like focusing a little too much on RPB made the other aspects of PH weak.

no doubt that having a good RPB is a very advantageous skill to have, and BH flicking backspin balls is also very fun and exciting to pull off especially when it lands. but i cant help but think that with every PH player focusing on RPB, the strength of short game is getting more and more neglected. i feel that the whole forehand game of PH is also getting less focus than it should be.

ofc, why push the ball over the table when you can just flick it and attack on your first move? but i still think that forehand is the way to go with PH even if the PH forehand is not as strong as it used to be due to the plastic ball, and the short game is how you set up for your FH loopkills. for PH players with the exception of wang hao, even if our RPB is powerful we just cant beat the SH players in the BH game in terms of consistency and versatility.

we should strategize more on how to implement the strengths of PH better instead of trying to fight toe-to-toe with shakehander's BH.

what do you guys think?
 
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ive been thinking about something lately

the modern TT game requires the players to have a strong backhand if they wanted to have a high chance of winning the game and it is no surprise to see more and more penholders use RPB exclusively, especially new penholders

imo however i think PH players should think of RPB more as tool or variety in shots rather than a mainstay weapon. not that you can't use it as your main weapon, but i feel like focusing a little too much on RPB made the other aspects of PH weak.

no doubt that having a good RPB is a very advantageous skill to have, and BH flicking backspin balls is also very fun and exciting to pull off especially when it lands. but i cant help but think that with every PH player focusing on RPB, the strength of short game is getting more and more neglected. i feel that the whole forehand game of PH is also getting less focus than it should be.

ofc, why push the ball over the table when you can just flick it and attack on your first move? but i still think that forehand is the way to go with PH even if the PH forehand is not as strong as it used to be due to the plastic ball, and the short game is how you set up for your FH loopkills. for PH players with the exception of wang hao, even if our RPB is powerful we just cant beat the SH players in the BH game in terms of consistency and versatility.

we should strategize more on how to implement the strengths of PH better instead of trying to fight toe-to-toe with shakehander's BH.

what do you guys think?


Yes RPB needs to be executed with versatility, unpredictability and consistency.

In the recent super league we can see predictable, or rigid use of RPB. Xu Haidong and Zhao Zhihao, their RPB are probably on par with SH in terms of power and consistency. Yet they lack the versatility and unpredictability to win a point. I mean they hardly change the pace, trajectory or placement.

Just a side note, Zhao Zhihao has exposed a fatal mistake in modern PH - weak FH.
 
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Yes RPB needs to be executed with versatility, unpredictability and consistency.

In the recent super league we can see predictable, or rigid use of RPB. Xu Haidong and Zhao Zhihao, their RPB are probably on par with SH in terms of power and consistency. Yet they lack the versatility and unpredictability to win a point. I mean they hardly change the pace, trajectory or placement.

Just a side note, Zhao Zhihao has exposed a fatal mistake in modern PH - weak FH.
yep, that is what ive been thinking watching the national chinese league matches

i think the recent match of Xu Haidong vs Liang Jingkun highlights the importance of forehand for penhold very well. in the fourth set Xu played pretty well, 5 straight points in a row, 4 of them he scored with his forehand.

timestamped for convenience

https://youtu.be/lNk9I_9gRcM?t=427

 
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Hi, I've been playing pencil holder for as long as I can remember. I recently returned with a configuration that little by little gives me confidence. Classic reverse game, I will try to learn RPB, although I am 37 years old, but it is never too late to learn. Greetings!
 
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Hi, I've been playing pencil holder for as long as I can remember. I recently returned with a configuration that little by little gives me confidence. Classic reverse game, I will try to learn RPB, although I am 37 years old, but it is never too late to learn. Greetings!

Never too late. Never give up. Go for it Daniel!!

 
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Hi, I've been playing pencil holder for as long as I can remember. I recently returned with a configuration that little by little gives me confidence. Classic reverse game, I will try to learn RPB, although I am 37 years old, but it is never too late to learn. Greetings!

I started playing again 3 months ago after 30 years away so a good bit older then you. Its been tough but its great fun learning RPB! Just hope my fingers hold up. Now that I have gotten a grip and learned not to hold the blade that tightly, Its been much more gentle on my fingers.

Just curios how are your fingers spread out at the rear? Slight curve with middle and 4th finger touching only or all spread out like in Jpen?

 
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I changed from the shakehand grip to modern penhold grip with 3 fingers at the backhand, very fun and flexible on the wrist movement, in our school team I'm the only one :(.

😏 Every penhold grip has 3 fingers at the backhand unless you're missing a finger 😎

 
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Kuang Li turning 16 this year, keeps the penhold style alive!! Very entertaining to watch especially his BH serve seems to create some troubles for Yan An.

In the last set Li won 6 points in a row. For a 15yo this really shows a strong mentality. He could be the only one that can counter the genius Harimoto in the future?

Read this old post by coincidence. I wonder what happened to him? Was good as a junior but really nothing about him the last two years.

 
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I started playing again 3 months ago after 30 years away so a good bit older then you. Its been tough but its great fun learning RPB! Just hope my fingers hold up. Now that I have gotten a grip and learned not to hold the blade that tightly, Its been much more gentle on my fingers.

Just curios how are your fingers spread out at the rear? Slight curve with middle and 4th finger touching only or all spread out like in Jpen?

Hello, personally I am trying to imitate Wang Hao's grip, it accommodates me since it has the same grip for both FH and RPB (the 3 fingers somewhat curved on the back of the racket and the thumb and forefinger separated)

 
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Hello, personally I am trying to imitate Wang Hao's grip, it accommodates me since it has the same grip for both FH and RPB (the 3 fingers somewhat curved on the back of the racket and the thumb and forefinger separated)

Do you adjust your 3 fingers when you do FH looping?

 
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