Basic question about RPB blade

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Hi,

What shape of blade is required/recommended to play RPB?

I'm pretty sure this has an obvious answer but I havent managed to find it online, so any advice would be appreciated. I see that there is such thing as a penhold blade, but I haven't been able to figure out if these are just for traditional one sided penhold play, or is that also the type recommended/required for RPB.

The background of my ignorance: I've always played shakehand but after seeing so many ridiculous Xu Xin shots, I want to try out RPB for a while. I've tried it just using an old flared shakehand blade and had some issues, and so I'm trying to decide if I should get myself a special penhold blade to give RPB a fair shot. Generally I found it very hard to find a comfortable grip that I could stick with. Also I have a bit of wrist and thumb pain today after trying. So I'd like to know how much of these issues could be due to the blade, or will I just not be able to do RPB.

Thanks
 
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Penhold grip requires a lot of work from fingers. I believe it is common for penhold players to feel pain in their fingers because you use your fingers and have them in a strange position while holding the racket. So, this issue may not have to do with the fact that you are using a shakehand racket with a flared grip.

But, if you wanted a blade that is good for using the RPB, then get any blade that is CPen (Chinese Penhold) not JPen. CPen will look like a shorter version of a shakehand handle. A JPen blade will have a shaped handle where the two sides are different.

They do make JPen handles these days that are designed to have rubber on both sides. So, theoretically you could use one for RPB but I believe most people who do RPB are using a CPen blade/handle.
 
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Most C-pen(Chinese penhold) blades that have been released in the past 20 years are designed with RPB in mind, with a longer, squarish head. The "industry standard" is Yasaka, namely the Ma Lin series.

The one with the shortest handle is C-pen. https://www.yasakajp.com/performance_racket/
 
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From exp I can tell you get any Cpenhold blade and get a lighter one around 80grams if you feel wrist pain also I play rpb from the start and I don't feel any wrist pain or finger pain only when I have a training session more than 3 hours then my fingers feel funky so you should look into your warmup before playing.
Also make sure you have the correct grip for rpb RPB - YouTube Here Chen Bowen explains it really good how the grip works for service and for rpb and forehand loop and where to apply pressure on the racket. And a little tip when getting rubber for rpb make sure its around medium to high trow it makes a huge difference believe me I find rakza 7 to be very good for me now it really helps me on those hard balls in games specially serves many good people when they see you are playing penhold will serve on your backhand and you need that control.
 
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Played RPB for years and my conclusion is use anything you have whether it'd be a brand new CPEN, modified Jpen or an old spare SH blade you might have lying around.
To be quite honest ST handle might be the best. Light on wrist, balanced setup, a nice big thumb/forefinger rest for you to really hook your hand in and let it rip.
I will say this tho. BE PREPARED FOR HEAVY SANDING. Once you've decided to play penhold whatever blade you decide to use loses all its resale value. It's especially harder for me being left-handed. Maybe I wanna spend a few $$$ just to try then sell that blade for a lower price later? Nope. That money I spent? Gone. It might be a different story if you're right handed as you may find a few players wanting to dabble in Penhold to unload your equipment if you decide the style isn't for you.
 
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Hey just want to say thanks to all the very helpful replies here.The forum wouldnt let me reply initially to them for some reason, and I still can't see how to give the thanks/thumbs up thing
 
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Hey just want to say thanks to all the very helpful replies here.The forum wouldnt let me reply initially to them for some reason, and I still can't see how to give the thanks/thumbs up thing
I think I freed you from pergatorio (the TTDaily spam/suspect user software). The lower level of detection sometimes catches regular people who just happened to use a public wifi where others have done things that are suspect.

Liking and posting links: those will happen after you have more than 5 posts. You will see the like option appear in the lower right hand corner of posts.

 
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It is a good thing to try different grip. It doesn't make your shakehand play worse, and it makes you understand more about another side of table tennis.

Prepare for two things that a shakehand player has never experienced:
1, Sanding your blade to make your finger comfortable (Don't do heavy sanding now, because you will change your grip later. see the next point)
2, Trying to find a suitable grip for you (There are only two different grips for shakehand, deep or flexible. But there are 20 or 30 different grips for penhold! You never know anything about it until you have tried it.)
 
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Sorry. I tried to let this go....but I couldn't. While the significance of your post is good, Penhold is more complicated as a grip and you need to do things to protect your fingers while holding penhold, there are more than 2 shakehand grips.

There are BH oriented grips, there are FH oriented grips, there are deep grips, there are shallow grips.

I play shakehand and I hold about 20 different ways depending on the shot. I don't try to change my grip. But the way I hold, when my wrist moves for a particular shot, the whole grip changes.

But, still, the import of the fact that you have to modify your blade when playing penhold to accommodate how your fingers are holding. For shakehand, your fingers don't wrap around the wings the same way, so, shifting of grips is fairly straight forward and does not cause your fingers any issues when you switch grips.

I sand down the wings on my blades because of how I hold and shift grips. I am not sure most people do. But, I do it because it makes it feel better. Not because I would end up with raw spot on the inside of my index finger if I didn't. With penhold, your fingers may hate you if your blade is not sanded to your needs. And, as Lycanthrope says, if you do that before your grip is really fully set, you may regret it later.

So, overall, good advice. I would simply say that there are different considerations for penhold than shakehand because in shakehand, regardless of how many different ways to hold there are, (thousands, really--if you look at every major pro, they all have slightly different grips) you are always holding with parts of your hand that are used to holding and facing out. With penhold, parts of your fingers that usually will not face outward are doing a lot of the work of holding. And with subtle shifts of grip, you will expose new parts of the insides of your fingers. :)
 
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I think I freed you from pergatorio (the TTDaily spam/suspect user software). The lower level of detection sometimes catches regular people who just happened to use a public wifi where others have done things that are suspect.

Liking and posting links: those will happen after you have more than 5 posts. You will see the like option appear in the lower right hand corner of posts.


Thanks Carl, for freeing me and for the explanation :) .

I think unless I come across someone practically giving away their old penhold bat I'm just gonna stick with shakehand for the moment

 
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