Club Update from 2/19/17

I was back at club for the first time after a little break. For starters, Ben & I assembled our new Joola Tour 2500 table the club purchased. Man is it nice. I really couldn't be more excited with the direction club is heading with our new payment structure.

As for my play, I would say it was okay. I hadn't played in a week and a half and I did fine. I've been having this dilemma with wanting to add more power back into my game. Sure the short pip placement control game is nice but you have to pick your shots. If the ball is low over the table, you cannot just smash it any time you like. With inverted, you can loop that ball. I've contemplated going back to inverted but honestly I've been playing short pips on my penhold forehand for so long, it always goes bad.

At the end of the night I took an old duel inverted penhold blade of mine and played an another member at club shakehand. He won the first two games but after that I settled in & came back to win the final 3.

I've been down this road before as I originally started out playing shakehand. For many years actually. And my findings that night were still about the same as before.

What comes easier to me playing shakehand.
(note: this is just for me. I believe these vary from player to player)

• Feel
• Honestly I probably should end the list here because this is probably the most important factor of all but the feel of the ball is simply greater for me. Forehand flips, looping backspin, etc. Because i'm grabbing a handle, as what's natural, the feeling is greater.
• Perhaps if I would have originally started out penhold this would be different but none the less, that's where I'm at.
• Looping backspin
• It is a treat not taking a second thought about what to do if the ball is off the table and to your forehand. Loop that every time and to do it with confidence.
• Backhand block
• So truth be told, when I would play RPB with inverted, my backhand drive & loop I always felt very comfortable with. It was very fast & spiny. The problem was simply blocking. Being a natural TBH guy, I never fully adapted. TBH block or RPB? With shakehand, I can do that same drive & loop just as well but with the added advantage that blocking feels easier and more natural. There is no indecision on which type of block to go with since you always have just one option.
• Serving
• This might come as a surprise but with penhold, the bat is naturally angled down. If you're doing a pendulum side/top or side/bottom serve, great. But pure bottom, it's easier for me to generate more spin on that serve with shakehand. Furthermore, the Par Garell serve (probably the best server in the world) just comes naturally to me with shakehand. This serve I could never do with penhold.
• I will admit that the reverse pendulum serve at first seems more difficult now but I will work on it. Or simply continue the punch serve as a replacement. That's all what Par's serve is honestly.

In fairness, I probably should say what came easier to me with penhold.

• Big forehand
• I started out inverted and I liked the speed & spin it gave me. But now that I've fully acclimated to short pips, I feel that aspect is kinda gone. Go figure.

So there it is. I'm giving this a real go. Yes the forehand will probably be the hardest part but one thing I learned from my match with Jarry the other night, if I can just develop good control with my forehand, something I think I have a good jump start on based on the feel, I can work on power later. I've already got the power down from the backhand. So I might start off a little more backhand oriented but we will see if we can change that over time.

Funny enough, the gentlemen who I beat, who runs club, said back in the day he played penhold as well. But as he aged possibly, he switched to shakehand and he told me when he did that, his game immediately improved a couple hundred points. Lets hope I can find the same results.