Just curious how many Penholders are on TTD?

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Dang qiu is the first european born European champion so that's a pretty cool win for penhold play and one of the greatest young talents in felix lebrun is a penholder too.

Do you think those two guys will revive the penhold play in china a bit? Not saying they will go back to ph now but I'm sure they would hate it if a non chinese won a world title with the "chinese grip".

What's also interesting is that dang and felix don't use the black side at all for any backhand balls, not just loop but also block and even pushes are played with the red side.

Should modern Penholders even learn tpb or just play every ball to the backhand side with the red side? Does learning TBP impair learning RPB? Some modern PH players took quite long to have a good RBP but lebrun had a great backhand since he was 12 or so so maybe just learning RPB accelerates the learning?

In my personal opinion TPB is too hard to master haha. I found it difficult to block correctly and have the correct game plan for it.

My coach suggested that perhaps having both tpb and rpb is a good idea, but as of right now my focus is getting my RPB consistent with looping as well as power looping.

I think the reason why the younger players including myself can adapt to rpb is that bh loop a-la-shakehand style is everywhere! There's not a lot of pros anymore that favor tpb (unless traditional) over rpb. But also since shakehand is so prevalent and they naturally have a bh loop, I feel like it's a bit of monkey see, monkey do; Penholders see fzd ripping backhands and they also want to copy it.

 
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In my personal opinion TPB is too hard to master haha. I found it difficult to block correctly and have the correct game plan for it.

My coach suggested that perhaps having both tpb and rpb is a good idea, but as of right now my focus is getting my RPB consistent with looping as well as power looping.

I think the reason why the younger players including myself can adapt to rpb is that bh loop a-la-shakehand style is everywhere! There's not a lot of pros anymore that favor tpb (unless traditional) over rpb. But also since shakehand is so prevalent and they naturally have a bh loop, I feel like it's a bit of monkey see, monkey do; Penholders see fzd ripping backhands and they also want to copy it.


Imo.

The problem for TPB is there is only 2 attacking methods.
one is fast block/hard block, the other one is looping the ball.

looping the ball is too slow to be continuous, the action is too big.
So back in the day, players mostly hard block more, but that was 38mm days... speed glue days.
The ball will shoot like a bullet and TPB block was a great threat.

40+ days, the ball is no longer a bullet, a slow train at most, so the threat is too little.
Spin variation is also required a lot more with the bigger ball and with 40mm then 40+ It has showed that RPB with spin advantages, on a smaller stroke is much favorable.

 
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fellow penholders out of curiosity, how do you yourself deal with slippery fingers? recently i realised that my true enemy as an amateur penholder is not a shakehand player with a strong backhand, but rather grip stability. my cork on the back side of my jpen blade got too worn and slippery due to sweat and it got to a point where playing topspin got too difficult. nothing that sandpaper can't fix but it is not a 100% solution (it is better to just replace the whole cork). recently i experimented with thin foam and sponges and although it solved the grip issues i didnt quite like the extra thick feeling to the blade the sponge/foams give. sweat also seemed to degrade the sponge/foam. slippery fingers is part of the reason why i stuck to jpen after a brief cpen phase too.
 
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fellow penholders out of curiosity, how do you yourself deal with slippery fingers? recently i realised that my true enemy as an amateur penholder is not a shakehand player with a strong backhand, but rather grip stability. my cork on the back side of my jpen blade got too worn and slippery due to sweat and it got to a point where playing topspin got too difficult. nothing that sandpaper can't fix but it is not a 100% solution (it is better to just replace the whole cork). recently i experimented with thin foam and sponges and although it solved the grip issues i didnt quite like the extra thick feeling to the blade the sponge/foams give. sweat also seemed to degrade the sponge/foam. slippery fingers is part of the reason why i stuck to jpen after a brief cpen phase too.

Use the side of your fingers instead of the tips which produce oil and sweat. I talked about finger slipping in my grip video

https://youtu.be/oraRAxlU54A?t=300

im not sure if i understood the question.

 
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A number of options I have tried:
  1. Glue a small piece of TACKY rubber on the back
  2. Glue a small piece of long pip on the back
  3. Anti slip backside sold on Iruiru
wouldn't the pieces of rubbers/pips make the blade thicker?

Use the side of your fingers instead of the tips which produce oil and sweat. I talked about finger slipping in my grip video

https://youtu.be/oraRAxlU54A?t=300

im not sure if i understood the question.

my grip uses the side of my fingers, unfortunately it still feels like its not enough.

maybe the only solution is to wipe my hand on the table much to the chagrin of my opponent

 
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wouldn't the pieces of rubbers/pips make the blade thicker?

my grip uses the side of my fingers, unfortunately it still feels like its not enough.

maybe the only solution is to wipe my hand on the table much to the chagrin of my opponent

Not by much. Just get a off cut H3 and glue a square on the back. Very grippy.

 
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Would it make sense to use a rubber gap on the backhand side too for RPB?

If you use "pointed" backside fingers the fingertips will touch the rubber like 3-4 cm above the handle so why not leave 1 or 2 cm of a backhand gap and save some weight?

Most rpb players seem to only have a gap on fh side.
 
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Would it make sense to use a rubber gap on the backhand side too for RPB?

If you use "pointed" backside fingers the fingertips will touch the rubber like 3-4 cm above the handle so why not leave 1 or 2 cm of a backhand gap and save some weight?

Most rpb players seem to only have a gap on fh side.
That 2cm gap will move the centre of gravity towards the head, significant enough to affect your wrist power.

 
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Would it make sense to use a rubber gap on the backhand side too for RPB?

If you use "pointed" backside fingers the fingertips will touch the rubber like 3-4 cm above the handle so why not leave 1 or 2 cm of a backhand gap and save some weight?

Most rpb players seem to only have a gap on fh side.

yes I make a gap of 3cm on my RPB, to make the head heavier while reducing the total weight to 5-7gr. I often buy used, shakehand rubbers, so that fits me as they are a bit smaller

 
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Hello everybody ! I am not Cpen player but my son is just moving to this way ! With the performances of Félix Lebrun here in France and Qiu Dang in Germany, I think many young players will try this way of playing.
My son is 10 and he plays since he was 5. He is not going to be a champion but he loves the game and Cpen grip seems to be really fun for him.
I just received his new blade from OSP Blades (hungary brand). It is wonderful ! This brand makes wonderful blades and it can adapt to any special order.
 
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Hello everybody ! I am not Cpen player but my son is just moving to this way ! With the performances of Félix Lebrun here in France and Qiu Dang in Germany, I think many young players will try this way of playing.
My son is 10 and he plays since he was 5. He is not going to be a champion but he loves the game and Cpen grip seems to be really fun for him.
I just received his new blade from OSP Blades (hungary brand). It is wonderful ! This brand makes wonderful blades and it can adapt to any special order.

sounds promising ! can you post a picture of your son's blade ?

 
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