penhold or shakehand ?

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Hi guys !

I were playing shakehand during 2 years ago and I am testing the penhold grip . What do you think ?

My style of play : I am an offensive and agressive player who likes counter-topspins and topspins to topspins .

With shakehand : I have a good backhand and a better forehand and medium serve and return .

With penhold : I have a really better forehand and return and my serve is like shakehand but backhand ... I can do blocs fliks and return but topspins only if I know were go the ball so I have to move my legs a lot .

Do you think I have to play penhold or shakehand ?
 
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says http://cinemagr.am/embed/148758536
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Hi guys !

I were playing shakehand during 2 years ago and I am testing the penhold grip . What do you think ?

My style of play : I am an offensive and agressive player who likes counter-topspins and topspins to topspins .

With shakehand : I have a good backhand and a better forehand and medium serve and return .

With penhold : I have a really better forehand and return and my serve is like shakehand but backhand ... I can do blocs fliks and return but topspins only if I know were go the ball so I have to move my legs a lot .

Do you think I have to play penhold or shakehand ?


Rather stay on shakehand, if you don't have good coach for penholder it would be too hard to learn
 
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Agree, need a very good penhold coach, or rather footwork coach.
I personally don't feel the necessary to teach my student Cpen. SH 2 wing play is still superior over Cpen at the higher level.
If you are playing for fun or want to be different, sure go with Cpen, but make sure your footwork is up to the challenge too (it is more demanding on the body than SH)
Good luck and have lots of fun
 
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Sorry I dont agree with this. Even though there ain't many penholders around, the ones at the top like Wang Hao and Xu Xin are still competitve. The reason why there are so few penholders are:
1. Traditional penhold with 1 side is not suitable for moderm table tennis, Transfer from traditional Penhold to penhold with RBH is very hard due to the habbit of using traditional backhand.
2. Penhold with RBH is harder to learn than SH. The risk of failure after long time learning penhold put off many young players.
3. Good penhold coaches who can teach you RBH are very rare. Only some in China but not much anywhere else. This is why you no longer see penholder in Korea and Japan, as they don't have good coach for RBH.

However, I still believe Penhold with RBH is probably the most powerful holding if a player can take the challege of learning it. Wang Hao has better backhand than most SH players in the world. Xu Xi's forhand is a dream. Play Penhold with RBH is very cool for amatures too.

Agree, need a very good penhold coach, or rather footwork coach.
I personally don't feel the necessary to teach my student Cpen. SH 2 wing play is still superior over Cpen at the higher level.
If you are playing for fun or want to be different, sure go with Cpen, but make sure your footwork is up to the challenge too (it is more demanding on the body than SH)
Good luck and have lots of fun
 
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The head coach at my club is from China and is a pen hold player, but he refuses to teach kids pen hold and only teaches shake hand. By the way his shake hand is also amazing.

There was a Chinese pen hold player that joined our club who easily beats a few of our coaches. These coaches are at least 2500 each and still lost. That guy was really good and was really boasting about how pen hold is so much better. Our head coach caught wind of this, came out, and easily beat him using shake hand, even though pen hold is the head coaches original style.

I'm not saying that one style is better than the other, but unless you work super hard to get as good as Wang Hoa or Xu Xin, concentrating on shake hand is the way to go.

I really like both styles and can use both, but I do prefer shake hand because I'm able to get my back hand on par with my forehand.
 
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Sorry guys I am too lazy to write in english. I basically think that shakehands is not as good as penhold.

Bon, vu que tu es français, je me fais pas chier à écrire en anglais. Je pense sincèrement que la prise porte-plume est supérieure à la prise shake hands. En effet, la prise porte-plume éloigne la raquette de la main, ce qui fait que, toutes choses égales par ailleurs, la raquette va plus vite au moment de frapper la balle qu'avec une prise shakehands. De plus pour le revers, si tu apprends à maîtriser cette prise correctement, tu peux avoir une bien plus grande amplitude de poignet, et gagner ainsi de la puissance et de l'effet, beaucoup même. Le service est bien meilleur également. Le seul désavantage de cette prise, c'est qu'on peut faire pas mal d'erreurs en touchant avec le doigt ou la tranche. Mais, globalement, je pense que c'est plus efficace. Cette prise de raquette disparaît, simplement parce que, à part Wang Hao, aucun joueur porte-plume n'a jamais véritablement appris à maîtriser les deux côtés de sa raquette depuis l'enfance. Du coup, on pense que c'est moins bon, mais c'est juste mal exploité.
 
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Sorry I dont agree with this. Even though there ain't many penholders around, the ones at the top like Wang Hao and Xu Xin are still competitve. The reason why there are so few penholders are:
1. Traditional penhold with 1 side is not suitable for moderm table tennis, Transfer from traditional Penhold to penhold with RBH is very hard due to the habbit of using traditional backhand.
2. Penhold with RBH is harder to learn than SH. The risk of failure after long time learning penhold put off many young players.
3. Good penhold coaches who can teach you RBH are very rare. Only some in China but not much anywhere else. This is why you no longer see penholder in Korea and Japan, as they don't have good coach for RBH.

However, I still believe Penhold with RBH is probably the most powerful holding if a player can take the challege of learning it. Wang Hao has better backhand than most SH players in the world. Xu Xi's forhand is a dream. Play Penhold with RBH is very cool for amatures too.

Its okay if you don't agree. Maybe if I said higher level is a level that the forum members here will achieve, not levels of 2 penholders out of thousands in China can achieve.

And I do believe penholder has been doing outstanding to occuply 2008, 2004, 1996, 1988 Olympics compared to SH of 2012, 2000.
But the future is different. Xu Xin (best Cpen for 2016/2020) might not even make it to the Olympics.

1) RBH is incorrect, it is called RPB -> reverse penhold backhand. TPB still has it advantages - watch Ma Lin and Xu Xin, and other cpen players. Changing from RPB to TPB is not a problem in the world top level (since you are comparing with the best 2 CPen in the world)

2) Penhold with RPB is not harder to learn than SH(not sure why you say it is.....), it is the same when you start from 6 or 8 years old. Risk of failure is equal between any styles or grip - the best player will move up the ladder, the weaker ones will be filtered out. To become the best player, one needs to be allround, and for Cpen to be allround, it requires outstanding footworks. So that is the main failure part for Cpen, and another token, solid Backhand play (also a reason for Ma Long's failure, so this isnt just a Cpen problem)

3) Many penhold coaches chooses to teach Shakehand, due to it being more difficult to train a Cpen player that can compete in the top. As Cpen requires more footwork and body. Hence the life span of penholders are shorter than SH players - go and look in the past 20 years and see how many Cpen players can still compete in the top 3 at age 30. Its a sad thing to be honest. Ma Lin for example, has slowed down so much after the age of 28. Speed glue ban also hurt him, as now he needs to generate more power from his body etc.

As a Cpen player, I would love Cpen to be alive. But as a coach, SH is more superior in almost all aspect where Cpen has advantages.
In the levels of players I coach in, I can train SH players more than enough. And I reckon for me to do it in Cpen, will not be a wise move. There is even a saying in China that Chiense are just better with Cpen because we use chopsticks.

Yes, for fun, go Cpen (as I said), be different, it can be to your advantage against your club mates.
OP can decide what he wants, but most important - have a coach that can teach you how to train for it.
 
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You should try cricket grip!!

Cricket bat.jpg
 
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