Hey!
I just wanted to share here that in the quarantine I had some time at home - luckily a few months before I finally bought a table tennis table. Two weeks ago my brother was visiting and we played table tennis for a few days. He*s a decent player but doesn*t train nearly as much as me. So the first day was rather unexciting as I won every set with ease *- however the second day I had the silly idea of playing Penhold against him. Now the first couple of games I lost but I understood the basic concepts and remembered everything I read before (I read a lot about Penhold as it was always very interesting to me) *- and I had so much fun! That I decided to start an experiment if I can be a Penhold player by the end of 2020 (reach my Shakehand Level with Penhold).
I noticed that playing Shakehand I pretty much played tactics of Penhold players already and I*ve been a great admirer of Xu Xin for a long time.
Anyways - this is exciting for me and I just bought myself a Stiga Offensive Classic in PEN with a DHS Skyline II Neo on the FH, as my Butterfly rocket with the Tenergys was a little fast for not knowing what to do with my wrist haha
I understand learning Penhold is much harder than learning Shakehand as you have more freedom in your wrist which also means more room for error - and I hope I will find a trainer in Berlin that knows how to teach Penhold. But for now I*m very curious to see how far I can get. Still my question * anyone here switch playing styles after a few years?
Or do people generally stick with what they start out as?
I read somewheee it*s very easy to transition to Shakehand from Penhold (which comforts me as i still Plan to play long pips ox bh in many years when I turn 60-something) but also everyone seems to say switching from Shakehand to Penhold is very hard.
I*m just hoping to hear some stories of success and encouragement
Sending love in these dark times and wishing you all good health
X