Hi All,
I have an older model of the Sanwei pistol grip and find it to be very comfortable and natural to play with. The review here shows the player holding the bat with his index finger through the hole. Having checked the Sanwei website I see they suggest two ways to hold the bat, the most control comes from having your index finger on the rubber and your middle finger through the hole. Otherwise it's like playing shakehand without your index finger on the rubber (a completely different feel and less control).
This pistol grip bat is capable of incredibly powerful shots, if the reviewer had not bought the cheapest option he would have realised this. The backhand in particular has much more flexibility than shakehand, and feels somewhat similar to the RPB. You can hit a backhand harder and faster (with more sidespin too) than a shakehand backhand. It also gives you slightly further reach as the bat is longer.
My only issues are the forehand drive and serving. The forehand is tricky only because the bat angle is quite different to shakehand, so it takes time to adjust your point of contact. Serves are entirely different, you may need to invent some new ones! The pendulum serve is still very effective, as is a fast topspin serve, but many serves are simply not feasible.
I have been using this for five years as a secondary bat. I can not use mine in competition because I cut the rubber (Joola Tango) into pieces to fit it how I wanted on the blade. I see Sanwei has now made custom rubber for this set up, which is good!
The pistol grip bat has a lot of potential and I'd love to see a generation of juniors using these, to see how far they get. Let's not forget Daniel Seemiller from USA who made it into the top 30 players in the world playing his unusual style in the 70s and 80s. Let's also not forget penhold was not an original style of blade, and even after it caught on it would be more than 50 years until players started using the RPB. Innovation is always happening.
-ttGuru