Among all the sports that include table, rackets or bats, table tennis is a unique one. This is because it has a variety of grip styles compared to other racket sports.
There are various table tennis grip types to practice in order to master the sport. Today, in this article I will show you different styles on how to hold a ping pong paddle.
Table Tennis Grip Types
Professional players have verities of ways to grip their racket. The rules of playing Table Tennis will not enact the way in which you grip your racket. But there are a lot of variations exist in the gripping style.
All the different styles of ping pong grips can be divided into two major categories. The first one is called the “Penhold Grip” and the second one is called the “Shakehand Grip”.
But there is another style known as the “Unusual Grips”. However, I have shared details about all of the ping pong paddle holds below.
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The Penhold Grip
The table tennis Penhold grip style has some intrinsic weaknesses on the backhand side. For this reason, new players tend to avoid this style. Because this weakness makes new players more vulnerable against an opponent who is playing with the Shakehand style.
However, professional players have no complaints about this problem. In fact, this style helped them to win the Olympic Games, World Cups, and World Championships as well.
Professionals can cover the backhand weakness adequately with the recently invented loop innovation of reverse Penhold backhand. Now let’s see how many types of Penhold styles is actually out there.
- ⇒ The Penhold Looping
With the Penhold looping style, you can utilize the topspin loop of the forehand as your primary shot. Using the looping style makes you exhibit excellent footwork as you cover the full table by using forehand.
Penhold loopers have a smaller reach compared to the Shakehand loopers. Even during power exchanges, Penhold loopers stay closer to the table.
- ⇒ Counter Driving
If you are using Penhold style, you can fully utilize the advantage of this style by using the counter driving. Counter driving can block the topspins of the opponent when you are close to the table.
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It also drives the top spins of the opponent right back at them with great speed. So, they are forced to move out of their position. If the opponent doesn’t give top spins, don’t worry about that. Counter driving allows a safe loop of forehand in this case.
- ⇒ Pimpled Hitting
Pimpled hitting is a traditional Penhold style. You will play over the table when you play with the pimpled hitting style. As soon as the ball bounces of the table, a pimpled hitter will hit the ball quickly.
By doing so, the problems of the spins given by the opponent are easily recovered. If you use the pimpled hitting aggressively for a few times, you can win some points easily in the initial few returns.
The Shakehand Grip
The table tennis Shakehand grip is the oldest grip of table tennis. Just like the tennis grip, your index finger has to be perpendicular to the handle and extended over the head of the racket.
Unlike the Penhold grip, the Shakehand grip distributes power evenly over the backhand and the forehand shots. About 70 percent of Asian players and all European players use this style.
The Shakehand grip also has a few types of shots. They are discussed below.
- ⇒ The Shakehand Looping
The Shakehand looping requires you to apply pressure on the racket. From the spin loops and speed of the forehand, you can win a point in this technique or style.
This looping allows you to counter loop, even if you are forced back. By doing so, you can tackle the opponent with great speed, and earn some points during the process.
- ⇒ All-round Attacking
The all-round attacking also uses a loop similar to the looping as a primary weapon. But here, not only you use the forehand but also use the backhand as well.
This increases your chance of having the first attack. But new players often get confused on whether to use the forehand or the backhand. They end up using the forehand and the all-round attacking looks similar to the looping.
- ⇒ Counter Driving
By using the Shakehand counter driving, you can block different types of attacks of the opponent. You can do that by changing the rhythm and angle of your counter shot. Changing the rhythm or the angle will help you to force an error on the opponent.
- ⇒ Attacking Chopper
This style is the only one where you don’t prepare for defense but simply attack aggressively. You use a chop to throw an attack back at the opponent instead of defending the opponent’s attack.
Actually, in this style, you use the attacking as your defense. That means you hit hard to attack the opponent. But you hit softly and take your time if you want to defend an attack. That’s all.
The Unusual Grips
Although most of the gripping styles are covered in the Penhold or Shakehand styles, there are some more unusual grips that you should know about.
- ⇒ The V-Grip
This grip is developed and practiced in China. You form a V sign with your forefinger and middle finger, then you grab the racket blade between the two fingers.
The V-Grip is easier to perform if you have a modified racket blade. However, this grip helps you to have a noticeable spin benefit.
- ⇒ The Seemiller Grip
The Seemiller grip was created by the famous Dan Seemiller who is an American tennis champion. It is nothing but a variation of the Shake hand style.
In the Seemiller grip, you have to use the tip of your forefinger. Place the tip at a position to reach the edge of the racket. By doing so, you will get some remarkable snaps on your forehand strokes.
Conclusion
These are all the table tennis grip types you should know about. You can practice them more and more to become a professional in using then grips. The more you practice the better you will get in combining different grip styles together.
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