Table tennis is unique among racket sports in that it supports a wide variety of playing styles and methods of gripping the racket, at even the highest levels of play. This article describes some of the most common table tennis grips and playing styles seen in competitive play. The playing styles listed in this article are broad categories with permeable boundaries, and most players will possess some combination of these styles while leaning towards a "favorite".
, shakehand grips and attack-oriented playing styles are the most popular styles in high-level play. While many argue that this is because shakehand grips and attacking styles have a competitive advantage, it is also true that the shakehand grip is easier to learn as a beginner, and attack-oriented playing styles have broader aesthetic appeal than defensive playing styles. Regardless, players with a variety of playing styles and grip techniques still manage to play and win tournaments at the highest level.
In the 1970s, most European teams focused on training all of their players with the same equipment and playing style: shakehand grip with inverted rubber on the racket, playing a loop-focused attacking style, using the forehand to cover 2/3 of the table and backhand to cover 1/3 of the table. In contrast, the Chinese team maintained a wide variety of playing styles, equipment, and grip variations among their players. The diversity maintained by the Chinese team is no doubt a factor in their dominance of the sport over the past several decades, and European teams have recently figured this out and followed suit.
Racket grips Competitive table tennis players grip their rackets in a variety of ways.Yuza N., Sasaoka K., Nishioka N., Matsui Y., Yamanaka N. et al. (1992.) Game Analysis of Table Tennis in Top Japanese Players of Different Playing Styles. Int. J. of Table Tennis Scis. 1:79-89.Drianovski Y. and Otcheva G. (1998.) Survey of the game styles of some of the best Asian players at the 12th World University Table Tennis Championships (Sofia, 1998). International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF). Almost all competitive players grip their rackets with either the shakehand grip or a penhold grip. Numerous variations on gripping styles exist. The rules of the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) do not prescribe the manner in which one must grip the racket.
Shakehand (aka "Handshake") grip Shakehand is possibly the oldest surviving grip since the table tennis racket took its current shape. It is named because one holds the racket as if they are shaking hands with it: thumb on one side of the racket, index finger on the other side, and the remaining three fingers wrapped around the handle. This grip allows nearly even power distribution over forehand and backhand shots, but suffers from an awkward crossover point in the middle of the body, where the player must switch from forehand to backhand. This crossover point between the forehand and backhand is an area of weakness for shakehand players, but penhold players do not have such a crossover point because they can cover the middle of their body by simply swinging their forehand down like a pendulum. The main advantages of a shakehand grip are the ability to make fast topspin attacks on both the forehand and backhand sides, and the ability to create extremely spinny balls, particularly those with pure topspin and pure backspin. Shallow Shakehand This variation of shakehand involves placing the thumb on the handle. This favors topspin attacks and loops. Deep Shakehand This variation involves placing the thumb on the rubber. This allows for more precise shots and backspin.
Virtually all European players and roughly two thirds of Asian players use the shakehand grip.
Penhold grips The penhold grips are named because of the similarity to the way that pens are held: with the thumb and index finger wrapped around the front side of the handle, and the remaining three fingers on the back of the blade. This is especially reflective of how traditional Chinese, Japanese and Korean calligraphy pens were held, where the grip is said to have originated. Penhold styles have one notable advantage over shakehand in that they do not have an awkward crossover point in the middle of the body. Penhold styles also allow around 270° of wrist mobility around the axis of the plane of the blade, making it much easier for penhold players to create both directions of sidespin as well as hybrid sidespin-topspin or sidespin-backspin shots. It is also easier for penhold players to disguise what kind of spin they are putting on the ball, as well as in which direction they are going to hit the ball. It is typically hard for penhold players to create pure topspin or pure backspin, as both their forehand and backhand strokes tend to hit the ball at a side-angle, so most of their shots will have some sidespin.
Penhold grip styles have become less popular in recent years, since it is hard and awkward to perform backhand topspins and backhand attacks, and the game has become much more attack-oriented as of late. The backhand weakness makes it much harder for penhold beginners to perform well against their shakehand counterparts, and so few stick with it to develop better technique. However, this has not stopped top penhold players from winning the World Championships, the World Cup and the Olympic Games regularly, as the backhand weakness can be covered adequately by putting in the effort to learn good backhand technique (as Ryu Seung-Min has), with excellent footwork allowing forehand coverage of most of the table (exemplified best by Ryu Seung-Min and Xu Xin), or by supplementing with the more modern Reverse Penhold Backhand innovation (exemplified best by Wang Hao).
One-Sided Penhold Called Traditional Penhold, recently called Traditional Chinese Penhold, Japanese Penhold or Korean Penhold, players who utilize the traditional penhold grip hit both forehand and backhand shots with only the forehand side of the racket, and usually don't even have rubber on the racket's back side. The rackets made for use with Japanese Penhold look quite different from most other rackets: they are usually square, made from a very thick single-ply piece of cypress wood, painted black on the back side, and with a large piece of cork protruding from the handle. Directional control of the racket in this grip is supported almost exclusively by the index finger, which hooks around the large piece of cork glued to the handle. Many Chinese Penhold users choose to use a shakehand racket with a shorter flared handle. The backhand stroke is achieved by swinging the forehand side of the racket down and around in an underhand position across the body, like an upside-down windshield wiper. This results in a backhand which is suitable for blocking and returning balls, but does not properly allow shoulder mechanics for fast attacks or producing topspin. While traditional penhold players often lack the ability to loop on the backhand side, many of them can partially make up for it with a powerful backhand punch. Although this grip impairs the backhand stroke, the forehand stroke with this grip is phenomenal: the grip aligns the racket with the hand and forearm, and as a result, the fastest shots in table tennis are made with the Japanese Penhold's forehand stroke. Many traditional penholders would argue that the exceptional forehand makes up for the weak backhand, and traditional penhold players typically avoid using the backhand by trying to cover the entire table with their forehand. This places a much higher demand on the player for athleticism -- specifically for explosive leg strength, fast footwork, coordination of footwork with arm strokes, and quick reaction times. Notable traditional penholders include Ryu Seung-Min, Kim Taek-Soo and Kaii Yoshida. It can be seen in recordings of their matches that all three of these players do quite a bit more footwork and coordinated body movement than their shakehand counterparts.
Two-Sided Penhold Also called Modern Penhold or currently, Modern Chinese Penhold, this was created due to a project the Chinese national team has undertaken recently. It was to teach its penhold players to use the underside of their rackets to hit backhand shots. This Reverse Penhold Backhand (RPB) solves the shoulder mechanics problem of the traditional penhold backhand, allowing easy looping and attacking shots. However, the gripping position one must employ to play the RPB is different from the traditional penhold grip: one must relax the index finger and bring it higher up on the racket, making more room for the thumb. Pressing with the thumb is what allows the forehand face of the racket to rotate inwards, letting the player hit the ball with the underside. This modified grip puts the wrist out of alignment with the rest of the arm, and thus results in a significantly weaker forehand when compared to the traditional grip. Chinese table tennis legend Liu Guoliang is usually credited with the invention and promotion of the RPB stroke, and as head coach of the Chinese team, he started training penholders to use this stroke. The first high-level player to truly master and popularize the RPB stroke is Wang Hao, who hits almost all of his backhand shots with the underside of his racket (with the exception of the short push when receiving a short serve). Other top-level Chinese penholders such as Ma Lin and Xu Xin primarily use the traditional penhold backhand when returning balls, but they keep rubber on the underside of their rackets in case a good opportunity for a RPB attack presents itself.
Hybrid Penhold This grip is most likely the most versatile of the Penhold Grips, as this merges the previous two, giving way for the blocking of Traditional Penhold and the looping of Modern Penhold. A famous player who uses this is Ma Lin.
Seemiller grip This is a grip that was developed and popularized by Dan Seemiller, an American table tennis champion. This grip makes it awkward to hit shots using a standard handshake backhand using the opposite side of the racket. So, instead, Seemiller grip players hit their backhands with the same side of the racket as they use to hit their forehands, turning their wrists over the way a baseball player would to make a backhand catch, and typically blocking or counter-hitting the ball. Since they use only one side of their racket at a time, Seemiller grip players often put a rubber with very different playing characteristics on the other side of their bat, commonly a low-friction "anti-spin" rubber that they use to return spinny serves or to abruptly change the pace of the ball during a rally. Seemiller, in fact, is credited with inventing the combo bat, a racket with different types of rubber on each side. Also similar to the penhold, the Seemiller grip does not have a crossover point. Furthermore, the Seemiller grip allows for excellent feeling on blocks, as the fingers are much closer to the ball's point of contact than they are in the shakehand grip, and the wrist is in a much better position to angle downwards than it is in either of the penhold styles.
Ann Alvarez Where the thumb and pointer are on the backside of the racket, allowing for a very stable (and powerful) backhand. However, the forehand of this racket is significantly weaker.
Windshield Wiper An in-between of Shakehand and Seemiller, this grip is the standard Shakehand with the pointer finger running straight up the racket. This leads to an easy switch between this grip and Shakehand.
Danny Seemiller Also called the Trigger Grip, this is the current playing grip of Dan Seemiller. It is the shallow Shakehand grip with the pointer finger wrapping around the racket, as if pressing on a trigger. This grip fixes the forehand problem it once had, making it much more powerful. Eric Boggan also uses this grip.
V-Grip