OOAK Table Tennis Forum

https://youtu.be/X_KEpwVopN0?si=SxzeFOuoKK0mOtop

This match between Danny and Eric is the best example the we might get of the difference between their styles of play. It is a little fuzzy but I think we can see the differences in grip and certainly style between the two.

On a few occasions I have tried to persuade players that were holding their racket with their thumb on the back of the racket to switch to the "Seemiller" grip. I also tried to give them a little understanding between Danny's grip and Eric's. I also stressed that the switch to a Seemiller grip would allow them to hit a stronger more consistent forehand.

I think that it's important to stress that the Seemiller grip is a modified shakehands grip with the thumb wrapped around the handle just like in the traditional shakehands grip. The only time the thumb goes behind the blade is for the push stroke. The thumb is returned to wrap around the blade after each push.

The difference between Danny's and Eric's grips are that Eric rotates the blade more so that it is easier to hit a strong backhand punch and use the anti. Danny's grip is rotated only as much so the racket face can be vertical when hitting backhands. They both wrap their index finger around the edge of the blade but Danny is just barely wrapped (maybe one knuckle) while Eric wraps his finger much more (maybe to the end of the second knuckle). Danny's finger is up higher on the blade while Eric's is down closer to the handle.

Its obvious from the video that Danny wants to hit forehands and Eric is the more all around player and he clearly wants to use his backhand more. It's easy to see that Eric twiddles a lot more and uses the anti effectively. They both use anti on one side.

I hope that this will be a big help to anyone that is thinking about using the Seemiller grip.