says
1-sided penhold is cool
says
1-sided penhold is cool
Member
He would play with a much more effective attacking style. In addition to being really cool, I think there are a number of reasons to think this is a good idea.
1. Felix's backhand is already his main looping weapon, and he tends to only hit with his forehand when he is forced to. When Felix is forced to play a forehand shot, he is often out of position and needs to move quickly to get a good hit. Playing with pips will shorten the wind-up time for his forehand shot, and with the correct training, could result in a deadly flat-hit counterattack.
2. Felix takes the ball early, and almost never loops from below the table. If he was playing like Xu Xin, then pips has a disadvantage when taking the ball late. But Felix does not take the ball late. He takes the ball right off the bounce, and relies on surprising his opponent. Pips does a much better job of surprising the opponent than inverted rubber. Returning a fast topspin drive from inverted rubber isn't so hard, but it's very difficult to return a fast hit from pips because pips don't give spin for you to close the racket on.
3. Playing a TPB block with pips will help Felix to cover his middle, which is one of his biggest weaknesses. Because Felix uses RPB topspin almost 100% of the time, he neglects one of the main advantages of penhold: not having a crossover point. TPB pips will help him cover his middle, and it will be a fast active block.
4. Felix knows how to serve with RPB, so he will still be able to create very spinny serves. He could also change which side he uses to serve, and be deceptive up until the last instant. Currently, he does not take full advantage of his ability to deceive with the serve, because he has the same rubber on both sides of the racket. With pips on one side, he can add another dimension of deception with extremely fast pip serves.
5. Liu Guoliang has already demonstrated how to play this style at a high level. Mattias Falck demonstrates that this can be done in the modern game. Felix would be in a much better position than Liu Guoliang because his RPB is extremely strong, and he would be in a much better position than Falck because he plays with penhold grip (much better for playing FH pips than shakehand grip).
The only disadvantages I see from this are:
1. Obviously there would be a learning period, during which Felix would drop in skill and lose a lot of matches
2. Felix will never learn how to play the Xu Xin-style game, taking the ball late and low, and looping with sidespin onto the table. During his match with Lin Yun-Ju this olympics, he was playing lower and farther from the table than he usually does, with lots of forehand sidespin, and I think this was a decisive factor in Felix's victory. I think Felix realized that mid-distance game was his weakness, and worked to improve on it. Maybe the correct direction for improvement is for Felix to develop a mid/far-distance looping game, instead of learning to hit with pips. But learning to play mid/far-distance would be a stylistic change, whereas pips would enhance his current style of quick hitting.
Thoughts? Are there any reasons I'm missing, pro or con?
1. Felix's backhand is already his main looping weapon, and he tends to only hit with his forehand when he is forced to. When Felix is forced to play a forehand shot, he is often out of position and needs to move quickly to get a good hit. Playing with pips will shorten the wind-up time for his forehand shot, and with the correct training, could result in a deadly flat-hit counterattack.
2. Felix takes the ball early, and almost never loops from below the table. If he was playing like Xu Xin, then pips has a disadvantage when taking the ball late. But Felix does not take the ball late. He takes the ball right off the bounce, and relies on surprising his opponent. Pips does a much better job of surprising the opponent than inverted rubber. Returning a fast topspin drive from inverted rubber isn't so hard, but it's very difficult to return a fast hit from pips because pips don't give spin for you to close the racket on.
3. Playing a TPB block with pips will help Felix to cover his middle, which is one of his biggest weaknesses. Because Felix uses RPB topspin almost 100% of the time, he neglects one of the main advantages of penhold: not having a crossover point. TPB pips will help him cover his middle, and it will be a fast active block.
4. Felix knows how to serve with RPB, so he will still be able to create very spinny serves. He could also change which side he uses to serve, and be deceptive up until the last instant. Currently, he does not take full advantage of his ability to deceive with the serve, because he has the same rubber on both sides of the racket. With pips on one side, he can add another dimension of deception with extremely fast pip serves.
5. Liu Guoliang has already demonstrated how to play this style at a high level. Mattias Falck demonstrates that this can be done in the modern game. Felix would be in a much better position than Liu Guoliang because his RPB is extremely strong, and he would be in a much better position than Falck because he plays with penhold grip (much better for playing FH pips than shakehand grip).
The only disadvantages I see from this are:
1. Obviously there would be a learning period, during which Felix would drop in skill and lose a lot of matches
2. Felix will never learn how to play the Xu Xin-style game, taking the ball late and low, and looping with sidespin onto the table. During his match with Lin Yun-Ju this olympics, he was playing lower and farther from the table than he usually does, with lots of forehand sidespin, and I think this was a decisive factor in Felix's victory. I think Felix realized that mid-distance game was his weakness, and worked to improve on it. Maybe the correct direction for improvement is for Felix to develop a mid/far-distance looping game, instead of learning to hit with pips. But learning to play mid/far-distance would be a stylistic change, whereas pips would enhance his current style of quick hitting.
Thoughts? Are there any reasons I'm missing, pro or con?
