The Shakehand Grip
Adriana Diaz forehand drive
Shakehand 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.
The Penholder Grip
Traditional Penholder Grip (Only uses 1 side of the paddle)
Called Traditional Penhold, recently called 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.
Modern Penholder/Chinese (Uses both sides of the paddle)
Also called Modern Penhold or currently, 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.[7] 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.