OOAK Table Tennis Forum

Over the last few months since I started using RPB, I got really perplexed why my RPB stroke improved so fast and at the same time my forehand (loop) deteriorated. Before using RPB (with Violin RH), I was using single-side Jpen which was of course all forehand. 6 months ago I was a shakehander, so I can't say I have a lot of experience with penhold forehand loops anyway.

I tried using my old Jpen again a couple of weeks ago and immediately my forehand was better. Still at that time I was clueless why.

Then I analyzed the slight difference in grip I'm using with the Jpen and with the RPB blade. With the Jpen, I had my 3 back fingers splayed out straight and all touching the blade. With the RPB blade (Jpen reversible), I was half-curling my back fingers, primarily so that I have more hitting area on the RPB side. With the forefinger hooked around the cork in the FH side, this makes only 1 finger -- at most 2 -- in the back touching the blade, with the pinky never touching the blade on any stroke.

Today I looked at my forehand stroke in the mirror -- I don't know why I didn't do this earlier -- and I realized, wow! I'm really lifting my elbow when I do a forehand loop/drive stroke. My coaches have told me before not to lift my elbow, but I guess they are not very good coaches, because they did not diagnose WHY I do this. I had to figure it out on my own.

It seems the reason I end up lifting my elbow is because I grip the blade so that my blade face is not in the same plane as the plane of my arm motion when doing a forehand stroke. I'm hooking my finger so much around the cork that I'm actually ending up with my elbow out of the blade plane, so that to sweep the blade along its plane in a closed angle I am forced to raise my elbow. With the single-side Jpen it was not a problem because I was touching all three fingers in the back to the blade. You can only touch all 3 fingers to the blade comfortably if you don't hook the forefinger around the cork too much, and by doing so you end up with a more natural closed blade angle and also the more relaxed grip puts the blade face, elbow, and arm motion all in the same plane.

So the formula it seems is: when doing forehand loops consciously touch the pinky to the blade and everything falls into plane! Now I'll have to put this theory to the test and see if it actually works.

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Galaxy K-4/ Xiom Vega Pro/ Xiom Vega Pro

I hear splaying your fingers out is a no-no for jpens.

Anyway, instead of consciously touching your pinke to the blade why don't you just push down with your thumb? Blade angle is controlled by the thumb and finger, not your pinke.

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Chasse Patate

Actually I'm just mildly splaying, but why is it a no-no?

I was going for a mental aid with the pinkie, you'll have to push with the thumb anyway to get the pinkie to touch. But yeah you're right I could just push with the thumb and keep my pinkie up in the air, like when holding a wine glass.

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Galaxy K-4/ Xiom Vega Pro/ Xiom Vega Pro

Switching from Japanese penhold to Chinese penhold with RPB it took me awhile to get the same stable feeling on my forehand as I used to have.

Cupping my fingers on the backhand and locking them over each other while pushing with the thumb did it. If you splay your fingers, you'll have to change your grip to block, which is not something you want to do.

If you look at the top penholders, both Chinese and Japanese style, none of them splay their fingers on the back of the blade. Fingers are generally on top of one another, with the pinky not touching the blade.

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-- Andrew

Spintech All Around Penhold blade
Spinlord Keiler II 1.5 black
Nittaku FastArc G1 red

729 all around blade
Tibhar Grass D-Tec S Red
Nittaku FastArc G1 black

perhaps, something like this !??
i have since then shaved off more wood so that index finger rests more flatly,
other than that, this's how i hold my j-pens for drives & looping...

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Hurricane King 655
Tenergy 25
Narucross EX

Yep, Yuna has it right there.

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Jpen: Galaxy 982 juniper 8mm- Darker Provine Tension-50 2.2 or Tibhar Torpedo Soft 2.2
Shake OFF: Galaxy T8 ST- FH: Darker PT-50 2.2, BH: Juic Varites 1.5
Shake DEF: modified Joo- FH: Reactor Corbor 2.2, BH: Globe 979 1.5

Yuna, I'm doing same thing with my single-sided Jpen too. Although nobody taught me how, it was just the natural way I found to close the forehand, especially with my back fingers more extended.

I think the RPB setup needed more conscious effort to close the angle. Maybe the thickness of the Jpen hinoki (9mm) facilitated easier closing since you don't need to push your thumb as much, i don't know. I also shaved my Violin more so maybe that helped too.

Anyway, since I have started consciously pushing my thumb to close the angle, my forehand has improved. I no longer lift my elbow up! Thanks Silver and everybody who contributed good advice!

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Galaxy K-4/ Xiom Vega Pro/ Xiom Vega Pro

Ur Welcome, Dude.....

hmmm... haven got the chance to play with u in singapore yet ....
have u register at sgpingpong already ??
didn't see ur posting much, if any ......

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Hurricane King 655
Tenergy 25
Narucross EX

You forgot I am Joolalah at sgpinpong. We almost played yesterday.

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Galaxy K-4/ Xiom Vega Pro/ Xiom Vega Pro