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There's many different ways to hold the shakehold grips in terms of pressure and finger placement, and I want to discuss one that isn't mentioned a lot. Normally, in the shakehand grip, your forefinger rests on the backhand side of the rubber. In general, if the forefinger is more extended beyond the rubber, it's a more forehand oriented grip and the opposite for a backhand oriented grip.
The "Swedish" grip, which doesn't have an official name, is a forehand oriented grip that wraps the forefinger around the throat of the handle (the exposed wood wing of the blade where the rubber isn't attached.) However, in practice, it's actually fairly neutral and has some interesting pros and cons compared to the standard shakehand grip.
There's 5 notable pro players (3 of whom are Swedish) I see that use this grip:
Stellan Bengtsson (Swedish legend who likely started this grip, he trained both Persson and Waldner)
Jorgen Persson
Aleksandar Karakasevic (Look at his amazing backhands)
Fang Bo (on the backhand side)
and Truls Moregard
_________________________
Effects of this Grip:
Your crossover point becomes slightly more towards your backhand and hitting crossover forehands is slightly easier because your index finger isn't restricting your wrist turning. However, your backhand loop is thrown more from the hip then in front of you.
Your backhand becomes more flat and throwing backhand punch shots becomes more powerful. All of the pro players (besides Karakasevic, maybe) have flatter shots.
Backhand smashes are much easier: just look at these crazy swats from Persson: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVHXZjaHwnM
Some negatives are that you do lose feeling because your forefinger isn't resting on the backhand rubber. Resting your finger on the wing may not be comfortable depening on the blade and the person.
Additionally, doing banana shots and backhand flips in general is difficult. As you can see from Fang Bo's last picture, he changes his grip to a standard shakehand for his flicks. Forehand flicks, however, do feel easier.
_________________________
The "Swedish" grip is an interesting alternative to the standard shakehand grip. There's even variance in how high up each of pro players hold it, Bengtsson is fairly high up, while Truls is very very low. Your forefinger controls the angle of the blade face so there's a lot of pressure on it, but I felt pretty comfortable trying this grip out. In practice, it's really not too difficult to adjust from a standard shakehand grip.
Curious to hear if anyone else has seen this grip be used in person.
Here's some forum posts about it:
http://mytabletennis.net/forum/truls-moregard-grip_topic81138.html
https://www.tabletennisdaily.com/forum/showthread.php?10576-Fang-Bo-Backhand-Grip
The "Swedish" grip, which doesn't have an official name, is a forehand oriented grip that wraps the forefinger around the throat of the handle (the exposed wood wing of the blade where the rubber isn't attached.) However, in practice, it's actually fairly neutral and has some interesting pros and cons compared to the standard shakehand grip.
There's 5 notable pro players (3 of whom are Swedish) I see that use this grip:
Stellan Bengtsson (Swedish legend who likely started this grip, he trained both Persson and Waldner)
Jorgen Persson
Aleksandar Karakasevic (Look at his amazing backhands)
Fang Bo (on the backhand side)
and Truls Moregard
_________________________
Effects of this Grip:
Your crossover point becomes slightly more towards your backhand and hitting crossover forehands is slightly easier because your index finger isn't restricting your wrist turning. However, your backhand loop is thrown more from the hip then in front of you.
Your backhand becomes more flat and throwing backhand punch shots becomes more powerful. All of the pro players (besides Karakasevic, maybe) have flatter shots.
Backhand smashes are much easier: just look at these crazy swats from Persson: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVHXZjaHwnM
Some negatives are that you do lose feeling because your forefinger isn't resting on the backhand rubber. Resting your finger on the wing may not be comfortable depening on the blade and the person.
Additionally, doing banana shots and backhand flips in general is difficult. As you can see from Fang Bo's last picture, he changes his grip to a standard shakehand for his flicks. Forehand flicks, however, do feel easier.
_________________________
The "Swedish" grip is an interesting alternative to the standard shakehand grip. There's even variance in how high up each of pro players hold it, Bengtsson is fairly high up, while Truls is very very low. Your forefinger controls the angle of the blade face so there's a lot of pressure on it, but I felt pretty comfortable trying this grip out. In practice, it's really not too difficult to adjust from a standard shakehand grip.
Curious to hear if anyone else has seen this grip be used in person.
Here's some forum posts about it:
http://mytabletennis.net/forum/truls-moregard-grip_topic81138.html
https://www.tabletennisdaily.com/forum/showthread.php?10576-Fang-Bo-Backhand-Grip
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