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PostPosted: 20 Jun 2020, 05:35 
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Hello, everyone!
I have a quick question for all of you.
How do you go about closing the angle on your forehand topspins or blocks when the ball comes near the body?
Everywhere I see the common advice of putting pressure on your thumb and I completely agree, but only to a certain extent.
Due to the way we hold the racket we have about 45 degrees less freedom of forearm rotation compared to shakehand (when closing the face of the blade).
This is not an issue when you take shots away from the body, as you can compensate with the shoulder quite easily, but when you get a little closer to the waist it seems next to impossible without making yourself look like a chicken :D .
If it is not clear what I am talking about, do this:
1. Hold your elbow next to your side;
2. Try to close the face of your blade with penhold and after that with shakehand.

See what I mean?
Is this just a situation you deal with by preventing it?
Is it a me problem or is this something inherent with penhold?
I would like to hear your thoughts about it!
PS: Sorry if this question has already posted by someone else.


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PostPosted: 20 Jun 2020, 10:26 
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Learn to move more so you don't have to make that shot. If you can't move in time, shift your body weight so you get more space. Worst case scenario, do a chicken wing backhand or "mud flap" instead of forehand.

You can also try squatting lower.


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PostPosted: 21 Jun 2020, 18:03 
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Mind you, the big advantage of penhold is supposed to be the middle (there's a smooth transition to the backhand side since the same side is used for forehand and backhand). If your middle is weak then you're missing on the big advantage.

Iskandar


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PostPosted: 21 Jun 2020, 18:35 
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iskandar taib wrote:
Mind you, the big advantage of penhold is supposed to be the middle (there's a smooth transition to the backhand side since the same side is used for forehand and backhand). If your middle is weak then you're missing on the big advantage.

Iskandar


You can "window wipe" across forehand and backhand, but for some areas, there's not much to do but block. Penhold has a switchover point too, just a little wider.

With classic grip penholders, they can do a forward flick from the elbow area (Ma Lin does that a lot). But with the "modern" breed RPB'ers, the switchover is even wider than shakehanders.


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PostPosted: 23 Jun 2020, 17:22 
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With shakehands you have a point where you switch from one side of the racket to the other. With penhold you cover the entire forehand and middle and backhand with one side of the bat. The drawback, of course, is the "backhand" side (which really isn't a "backhand side") is somewhat limited in reach and is cramped, which is why they invented RPB. The way I see it, though, RPB is only really useful on the far backhand, and for topspin shots. The traditional backhand is still very much in use, even by RPB players.

As for not being able to close the bat in the middle.. Hmm, I'll have to try it myself to see (since I don't play penhold).

Iskandar


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PostPosted: 23 Jun 2020, 22:27 
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Well, I kinda changed my grip a little to fix that.
Also, I found that if you sand the back portion of the jpen to make it sit more in line with the wrist also helps.
The change in grip also works with cpen from what I can tell. It might have just been that my finger proportions weren't compatible with the grip I was using (I would also get middle finger pains from my old grip).
Now I don't get this problem and I can also relax my grip a tad more. :)


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PostPosted: 24 Jun 2020, 07:11 
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As a 100% RPB player, still a beginner and in a country almost without penhold players, not to mention about RPB, all I can say is that the best way to block is to counter-loop or play with agressive block like Harimoto, no matter if that's with your forehand or backhand.

What I'm trying to do is not to defend myself in the wide backhand playing with my forehand but staying in the centre of the playing angle which is not always on the middle of the table while trying to defend myself by hitting of the bounce in the heavy loopkills and staying a step backwards when the opponent hits long and spinny.

As for the angle, your blade and rubber also have a big role. Passive blocking looks easier with ESN rubber & carbon blades on forehand by simply closing the angle and applying some presure in the backside while it's a bit difficult with tacky rubbers, especially against flat hits when the ball doesn't reach event the net if you don't have some body involvement, but active blocking and counter-looping is the best with chinese tacky rubbers for me.

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PostPosted: 24 Jun 2020, 17:14 
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lasta wrote:
Learn to move more so you don't have to make that shot. If you can't move in time, shift your body weight so you get more space. Worst case scenario, do a chicken wing backhand or "mud flap" instead of forehand.

You can also try squatting lower.
Im tpb penhold sp user, Yeh i agree with lasta, in tpb penhold you must move fast and must have a good foot work to be effectictive, but it gets harder to do as you age or even have minor injury to your foot, you.slow down as you age, your foot.work will be lesser effective, try to find a set up that is forgiving even if your out of position to execute the shot you want.

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PostPosted: 25 Jun 2020, 04:10 
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I agree that with penhold, if you have a question, the answer is 50% of the time to get better footwork. This is one of the main challenges when playing like this.
Of course, this depends on your playing style.
We trade our backhand side for more feeling on our shots, more wrist usage, a (possibly) stronger forehand, and a smaller cross-over point (for one-sided players).
In the case of RPB players, they sacrifice contact area on the backhand and, as such, make their margin of error a lot smaller and also introduce a cross-over point.

At first sight, the tradeoffs seem minor in comparison with the benefits, but most penhold players can confirm that they get heavily punished for a sloppy forehand on the pivot or by being forced to play a passive shot with the backhand, for example. I don't have that much experience with RPB (looking forward to it in the future though). I wouldn't say that Penhold is particularly weaker than Shakehand, but it takes a certain combination of abilities to make the most out of it, in addition, the learning curve and methods are completely different. The first few balls are even more important to be able to set you up for a good forehand. They are different in many ways.


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PostPosted: 29 Jun 2020, 23:22 
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if the ball is sent too close to my body and i cant move my legs fast enough, i normally just lightly tap the ball forward (or "touch" for the lack of a better word) onto the table.

in such a cramped position it is really awkward to deliberately close the angle of your blade, so i wouldnt suggest it

tapping the ball is no quality shot that will put your opponent in a difficult situation, but better than nothing.

alternatively just TPB push the ball, that is miles better than trying to block such a ball with the forehand.


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PostPosted: 08 Aug 2020, 21:48 
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my most consistent response to that kind of ball is just a backhand block, just hold the racket firmly and let the ball bounce back,


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