Tips for a penhold player

Brendan Nisperos Asked 12 years ago

Hi Alois,

I am a penhold player and whenever I play against a shakehand player (I play at my high school so it isn't that serious) I usually have a hard time winning because of the weakness of my backhand. When they attack my backhand side (I am right handed, so my left) I have a habit of either trying to unsuccessfully block into the net or create a pop-up for a kill. Any tips?

Thank you

Alois Rosario Answered 12 years ago

Hi Brendan,

I think the first thing is to work on the consistency of your backhand. You can do this by repetitive training on the stroke. The other thing you can start to do is think about the Reverse Backhand (hitting the ball with the other side of your racket) which is a more attacking stroke.

Work hard on the skill of the stroke and with repetition it won't be a weakness any more but may even become a strength.

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Xariuz Cruz Posted 12 years ago

For my opinion, penholder can try to execute shakehander's weakness. As Alois said before in his videos, the weakness of the shakehander that there is a maybe i call it 'crossover' point. Just hit the ball right, left, right, left and when your opponent is losing his concentrate, its time for you to make a move. Although I'm a shakehander too but I still share it with you :D

eduardo espinosa Posted 12 years ago

Hello, Brendan. I'm a penholder myself. I must assume that you might be holding the blade with spread fingers behind. If so, stop that. Learn to use the middle finger (straight or semi curled) alone to support the blade when hitting backhands. Also a very important tip: Learn to hold the blade the most similar way when holding it for forehand as for the backhand with mainly the use of your thumb and forefinger. For f/h or b/h the blade must be "closed". Also, don't restrict yourself to just blocking on b/h. Try stroking w/ the blade mainly swiveling between your thumb and forefinger. Finally, think of it as playing "better" not "serious".