I’ve always been a penhold player and recently (3 months now) I started getting coached. After about 6 sessions, my coach said I should try switching to shakehand. We gave it a try and I’ve taken to it in lessons pretty well. Forehand and backhand have more power/spin, starting to get better at pushes, but need to get a lot better with the basics (serving, blocking, chopping, etc).
Now here’s the dilemma -
Although it’s been great in lessons, I’ve been TERRIBLE playing shakehand in games and matches. I just don’t have the touch and feel that I do with penhold. I’ve been playing so poorly and getting so frustrated that now I feel like I’ve regressed overall. It’s worse playing singles but even with doubles, I revert back to penhold mid-match to give my team the best chance at winning.
I feel in the long run, sticking with shakehand will improve my game more so than with penhold. However, trying to relearn the basics of shakehand has been really frustrating to the point where games and matches are not fun.
What do you guys think I should do? Stay with penhold or continue on with shakehand?
Your collective expert wisdom is much appreciated!