Welcome to EmRatThich.
Happy New Year ! Today is 01/01, our 1st Ping Sunday in 2017.
I will explain the most important tips / advices of how to hold the table tennis racket correctly
based on Chinese technique.
This is the part 2.
But firstly, I want to share with you a true story ...
I'm the fastest improving player in my club.
There's an amateur young player who always watch my training session.
One day, I asked him "Hi Vic, how long have you trained?"
"8 years ...". "What ! You have trained 8 years and still
...". I saw a sadness in his eyes Another day, I watch his training session
for beginner player.
He is very motivated.
But he holds his racket like this ... Vic can't loop properly with this grip.
He can only block the ball.
Poorly Vic, it's a waste of time to train with this bad grip ...
And the coach didn't correct him even during 8 years.
Oh no ! He didn't have enough time or he didn't want how to correct ?
I feel sad and angry ... That's is the true story that leads me to
make this video.
Before showing what is the good grip based on Chinese philosophy, I want to discuss with
you
Your
comment encouraged me a lot.
Sometimes I just want to give up making videos.
It takes to much time of my weekend to make video.
I do not want to make a bad video, but I also have 2 young kids any many other tasks.
I am very happy with your feedback and
I continue I have a problem and
I need your advices.
Please comment and I will decide based on your advices.
I don't mean to put down others.
I just want to improve the coaching as I know the fastest way to improve is to show the
players or the coach about their errors.
But if it hurts I would stop it.
I need your opinions.
Now, I will show you the most important key points to remember before holding your racket
There are many good guides showing you how to hold the racket correctly.
For example: All about table tennis, PingSkills, ButterFly Magazine, Killerspin, Greg Letts,
Ping Pang Wang, Expert Table Tennis and others....
But it seems that these 3 key points of a table tennis grip has not been clearly explained
... First keypoint, due to the hand anatomy, you
can hold your racket by 2 muscle groups:
Group 1: You hold mainly by little finger, ring finger and middle finger (compartements
6, 5, 4)
Group 2: You hold mainly by thumb and index finger (compartement 1, 2, 3)
Table tennis player are mainly taught to hold the racket as holding a normal object by using
the muscle group 1 (little, ring and middle).
But do you know that the muscle group 1 is also the extensor compartments of the wrist.
By using the group 1, the wrist rotation is blocked, less freedom.
You can verify it yourself.
Now, hold your index, ring and middle finger STRONGLY and try to rotate your wrist from
(left - right).
If you hold your fingers very strong, you can hurt your wrist !
Now try the group 2.
Try to pinch STRONGLY by using your thumb and index finger and try to rotate your wrist.
You can see that the group 2 less affects the rotation of your wrist.
Your wrist has smore freedom with group 2.
So please remember holding a table tennis racket is different than holding an object.
Try to hold firstly with only your thumb and index (pinch).
Using this muscle group will let your wrist can freely rotate, which is very important
in table tennis.
Then slightly put your middle, ring and little finger on the racket.
The main applied force comes from the thumb and the index (group 2) but not from the group
1.
Chinese coach says that "If you hold the bat correctly, someone comes from your back can
suddenly pull it out of your hand".
That means you shouldn't hold your racket firmly, but hold it loosely and by the thumb
and index.
This is the best way to hold your racket, as your wrist can freely rotate, and the racket
is at the same line with your arm, which is crucial to loop correctly.
The second keypoint: Holding your racket as compact as possible.
Look at the photo, the finger are close together, which makes a very compact and solid grip.
There are many advantages of holding compact.
First, the more you compact your finger, the less uses of compartement 4, 5, 6, and more
freedom of the wrist.
Second, a compact grip provides a better feeling of the ball as your fingers are close together,
it's clearer to feel the ball.
Third, a compact grip makes a better support when you want to apply pressure on the grip.
Try to seperate your fingers on the handle and you can feel that it's harder to support
your stroke, especially for BH to FH transition.
You can understand now why Zhang Jike has a very compact grip.
A compact grip is crucial for him, as his weapon is BH flip, BH counter attack which
require an absolute freedom of the wrist.
His BH-FH transition during rally is very fast too.
Please remember:
- You should never hold your racket and block your wrist.
Using wrist is a must in table tennis.
Use your thumb and index to hold your racket.
Loosen your little, ring and middle finger on the handle.
- Make a compact grip.
Put your fingers close together.
Your index finger should be very close to the handle.
If you put it far away from the handle, it's easier to block, but not good to loop the
ball.
If you have a wrong grip.
It's time to correct it now.
It's very hard to change your grip after a long time of holding a bad grip.
However, if you succeed to correct it.
You will discover a new horizon of your table tennis.
You will discover that it is much easier to do some techniques that you can never do it
before...
If you are a coach, it's much more important to show your players the principle, the keypoints
of holding a racket than showing "hold the racket like this, hold like that".Because
if the player understand the keypoint, they can improve their grip, and adapt their grip
based on their playing style.
That's it for today.
I will show the 3rd principle, and how to hold a penhold racket Next Ping Sunday !
Happy New Year & See you, EmRatThich.
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