Switching grips or modified grip

Table Tennis Serving

Last updated 7 years ago

Debayan Paul

Debayan Paul Asked 7 years ago

I have started to play Table tennis recently. The best thing which I enjoy experimenting with serve and stances. Though I am a newbie, I learnt basics of both Shakehold and Penhold grip. I personally feel more comfortable serving with Penhold grip, but my problem is I am pretty bad at returning in this grip. Thus I change my grip just after serving to normal Shakehold to return. It works fine but whenever the returning speed is a bit high either I got stuck between changing the grip, or I can give a spinny but slow and high return. Also, I use sometimes the Penhold grip just to return the ball when an opponent is serving with heavy backspin. What should I do in this regard? 

Hope you have understood my dilemma.

Waiting for your precious reply.


Alois Rosario

Alois Rosario Answered 7 years ago

Hi Debayan,

It is best to stay with one grip.  However, with the shake hand grip you can modify it slightly during the serve to get the same effect as the penhold grip for serving.

To get the modified grip, relax the grip on the handle with your three fingers.  This allows your wrist to move more freely which will help to generate the same moment as with the penhold grip.

Our Premium members can take a look at this video on the Serving grip for an explanation on this.


Notify me of updates
Add to Favourites
Back to Questions

No comments yet!


Become a free member to post a comment about this question.