Welcome to the PingPod, the Ping Pong Podcast by PingSkills. I'm Jeff Plumb and with me
is Alois Rosario.
Wow, PingPod again.
PingPod again, it's been a little while but this is episode 43.
43!
Indeed!
Today we're talking about the grip Alois. In particular the shakehand grip and changing
between backhand and forehand. Now generally we always say keep the grip neutral but we've
just been doing a few experiments and we're getting a lot of questions about this. Is
it OK to change the grip so we thought we'd talk a bit about it.
Yep. Good idea. So I think in general if you keep in mind, especially when you're learning,
keep the grip the same. So when we talk about keeping it the same that's a nice neutral
grip right in the middle where you can play backhand and forehand just as easily. So your
backhand grip and your forehand grip are exactly the same. But as we start to progress and
we start to want to generate a little more speed and a little bit more spin you can start
to make subtle changes with your grip I think Jeff.
OK yeah and we did a little bit of an experiment just before Alois where we were playing backhands
and forehands and trying to topspin and for me I think I do slightly change it but hardly
at all. I think on the backhand I just use my finger here just to push on the bat a little
bit and angle it back towards what people would call a backhand grip but it's very subtle
and then on the forehand I just angle it back again. And so it's almost a seamless change
that happens just from switching from the backhand to the forehand. And it's more when
I'm topspinning, if I'm blocking I think I pretty much keep the same grip. How did you
find it?
I found it exactly the same so when I'm blocking it's basically the same on both sides but
once I start to want to play a more attacking stroke especially with the backhand and forehand
topspin then I start to change a little bit. So what happens is I've got some air or I've
got some space in here and that space is where I use to start to change the angle of the
grip. The way I'm doing it is I'm putting a little bit of pressure here to change it
slightly that way, and that way. So you can see that I'm changing it very subtly and it's
only a very small movement of my pointer finger or there and I'm also utilising my middle
finger here a little bit just to push it around slightly as well. So you can see by doing
that it changes the angle of my racket slightly. So it isn't much at all it's not like I'm
turning the bat around in my hand here and then turning it around there it's just a very
subtle little change used by just the end of my pointer finger there and the middle
finger just changing it around there a little bit. So that's how I get the changes. Yeah
what about you Jeff?
Excuse me, I've got a bit of a cough in my throat there.
Are you OK Jeffrey?
I'm OK thank you.
Alright.
Yeah same thing. I think just a very subtle thing but we do get some questions about players
altering it quite a lot and I think that can be detrimental because you are going to get
caught out between grips.
Yeah and that's the real key. If you try and do something where you just haven't got the
time to do it to change then it's just not going to work. If you're making big changes
from here to here then. Jeff, are you alright?
Ah boy, excuse me. Stuck right in the throat, really.
No good?
No good.
Bugs?
Who knows?
So I think just making those subtle changes is OK. Don't try and make big changes of your
grip because you just don't have time. The game is just too fast.
So is it something you ever focussed on?
No.
So maybe, should people experiment a little bit just for fun?
I think the key is if you keep the hand and the fingers relaxed then you will have the
ability to just make those subtle changes. As soon as you grip your bat too tight then
any change becomes really difficult. To change, I mean it's hard to demonstrate here but if
I've got my bat really hard in my hand there then to try and change the angle takes a lot
of muscles but if it's completely loose and relaxed then it doesn't take much to change
the angle of my racket at all. So that's where we talk about a little bit of space in here,
nice relaxed fingers and hand, so your thumb is relaxed, your forefinger is relaxed, and
the other three fingers are also relaxed so that you can manoeuvre and change the angle.
And like you said that's not only good for switching between backhand and forehand that's
also good for delicate returns of serve.
Exactly. So when you're making that short push if you've got a nice relaxed grip, you
can absorb the spin and speed on the ball as well.
Alright, so we'd love to know your thoughts. Leave a comment to let us know about your
grip, whether you hold it really tight and whether you switch between the backhand and
forehand and we'll keep the discussion going on our blog. So thanks for watching and we
will see you on the next PingPod. Bye.
Bye.