What Type of Player Uses this Grip?
This grip is currently being used by attacking style players who prefer to play with heavy topspin on both sides. As a relatively new grip, it remains to be seen whether its use for other styles will become popular. World No.1 Wang hao’s game has a tremendous difference after 2007 world championship. The major reason is the RPB grip. His game gets an advantage of attacking opponent at every corner of the table even when wang hao is receiving the serves.
On the forehand side, this grip is similar to the traditional Chinese penhold grip. On the backhand side, the use of the rpb grip removes the normal weakness of the Chinese penhold grip since it is able to produce a heavy topspin ball with good power and a wide reach. At the beginning it was a surprise stroke, gradually players had brought the stroke in regular game. Some players will use a mixture of the rpb grip and the Chinese penhold block and push on the backhand side to give more variation. The added side spin to the ball using RPB grip pushes the opponent always from the backhand side which gives a opening in the forehand side to finish the ball. But the stroke is quiet complex one.
On the forehand side, this grip is similar to the traditional Chinese penhold grip. On the backhand side, the use of the rpb grip removes the normal weakness of the Chinese penhold grip since it is able to produce a heavy topspin ball with good power and a wide reach. At the beginning it was a surprise stroke, gradually players had brought the stroke in regular game. Some players will use a mixture of the rpb grip and the Chinese penhold block and push on the backhand side to give more variation. The added side spin to the ball using RPB grip pushes the opponent always from the backhand side which gives a opening in the forehand side to finish the ball. But the stroke is quiet complex one.
Natural drawback occurs when the rpb grip is used exclusively from the backhand side, it suffers from the same problems as the shakehand grip, in that the player will have a crossover point, or an 'area of indecision', where the ball cannot be easily struck with the forehand or backhand side, and a decision to use one or the other stroke must be made. Another limitation of the rpb grip is that it is actually quite difficult to produce a topspin ball from the backhand side that does not have sidespin, and hitting down the line from the backhand side is more difficult than hitting crosscourt.
