OOAK Table Tennis Forum

I have watched many TT instructional videos from Tang Jian Jun (唐建军) and I've learned a lot from him. I just want to share this valuable TT resource with you. His videos are useful for beginners to more advanced players. There are just too many videos to post here. If you want to watch more, you can google his name: 唐建军. Videos are in Chinese though.

I'll just post 2 videos here. The first one is on basic shakehand and penhold (Chinese PH, including RPB) grips and techniques. I personally find a correct CPen grip very important to execute the strokes properly and to avoid potential injury to the wrist and fingers. The second video is on receiving serves. I hope you'll find these and many of his videos useful.

"shaolinTT" Thank you,
Like you I found both of these videos interesting & also an instructional benefit for me

_________________
Setup 1: Blade: TSP Trinity Carbon | Joola Golden Tango black 1.8mm FH & Tibhar Grass D.TecS acid green OX BH
Setup 2: Setup 2: Blade: TSP Trinity Carbon | Joola Golden Tango PS black 2.00mm FH & Tibhar Grass D.TecS red OX BH
Setup 3: Blade: TSP Trinity Carbon | Joola Golden Tango black 1.8mm FH & Spinlord Gigant anti-spin red BH
See the ball, be the ball...

ShaolinTT, can you give me a conclusion about what he said in min 25-29 on video 1 (grip of penhold on backhand and forehand side)? Are there 2 types of grip?

Thank you.

My Mandarin Chinese is quite limited. But I'll try. My comments, not the video's, are in parentheses "()".
In summary, the grip he recommends has the characteristics:
25:00-a relaxed grip.
26:05-Front of blade. Second section or middle section of index finger is AT THE EDGE of the blade. (This is one characteristic of the "traditional CPen grip". The second or middle section of the index finger would be ON the blade in a JPen or KPen grip when the index finger wraps around the cork handle).
26:33-Front of blade. First section of the thumb just onto the blade, but not too deep. You can bend the first joint of thumb a bit.
27:30-Back of blade. Curled but not stacked. End of BOTH middle and ring fingers supporting the blade. 2 fingers give stability doing FH, ease and accuracy doing RPB, as opposed to just using the middle finger, "curled and stacked".
Minutes 29-30...not that useful... just variations of the grip.

Again, my Chinese is limited. Others can help with better translation.

I have to stress that Tang's videos are for both SH and PH teachings, not just PH.

Thank you for the explanations. Did he mention how the fingers should be on the backside of the blade when doing TPB? I actually have no problem doing RPB. It's TPB that I want to learn.

He stressed the importance of a relaxed wrist when doing RPB.
(My comments. Notice this grip has NO "extended" finger joints, so should not cause pain or injury unless the set up is too heavy. For TPH BH (Chinese style), the trick is in the index finger. Remember to put the middle section of the index finger at the edge of the blade. You may need to smooth the edge of the blade a bit for comfort. Relax the thumb. TBH is hit with wrist, index finger, and middle finger. I know it may be a bit confusing but give it a try. Let me know how you do. )

In the grip part he talks about two possibilities for finger on front of blade:

1. deep grip with fingers more spread
2. shallow grip narrower spread

I have a pretty decent RPB (very natural like shakehand). From my own experience the shallower is better for RPB since deep tends to push the fingers on the back too far down the blade, and it's better to learn by forming a loose "loop" with thumb and index around the neck of the handle (better control over relative angle of the fingers). You'll need to shave down where the index meets the blade significantly.

Also talks about two possibilities for fingers on the back:

1. Traditional stacked/curled fingers
2. More modern two fingers against the rubber (3rd and 4th) for rpb and FH loop angles

#2 is obvious what you want for RPB. You can also curl a bit more than he does in the video, which not only blocks less of the rubber but also allows the side of the first digit of the middle finger to rest on the rubber (more comfortable).

In the section right before the grip section it was pretty funny when he didn't always use his own recommended rpb backside grip for the BH flip. I suspect like many penholder he learned proper rpb quite late and isn't used to #2.

> Thank you for the explanations. Did he mention how the fingers should be on the backside of the blade when doing TPB?

TPB is done with type #1 fingers on the back (curled). The middle knuckle should be against the rubber. I wouldn't recommend trying to do both with the same grip. Ma Lin changes his grip somewhat when playing from a more traditional stacked for FH and TPB, and extends them to get that second finger on the back for RPB. His RPB is kind of ugly.

Thank you for the insights. I downloaded several videos that teach how to do fancy TPB loop(smash?) like Ryu Seung Min or Kim Taek Soo, but so far failed to do so. At most, my TPB can only do push (I guess every penhold players find it easy to do this), and block, which is not my original intend, since my TPB block also inferior to RPB block. My fingers on backside is #2, but with 3 fingers press against the rubber on the backside, and it's comfortable for RPB (loop, push, and chop), and for me to do FH strokes. Agenthex wrote that it's not recommended to do both type of BH with #1 type of BH fingers, and I tend to agree. This statement give me enlightment why I always feels awkward when doing TPB with my usual grip, because my backside fingers are strugling to press the rubber.

> I downloaded several videos that teach how to do fancy TPB loop

The fancy TPB loop is best done with the j-pen handle that you can hook the index finger around. You also have to to turn the body sideways, right shoulder towards front.

It's kind of an awkward technique even for high level jpen players, and IMO not recommended unless you play single side jpen.