How to Beat Penholders in Table Tennis

Last Updated on April 24, 2024 by Alex Horscroft

Like lefties, penholders can be a little intimidating to play against. With their spinny serves and powerful forehand, they are particularly strong on their service. Yet you need not place penholders on such a pedestal. The shakehand grip is far more well-rounded, and penholders have simple flaws that you can exploit.

Join me as I discuss my opinions on the their strengths that you should avoid, and the best ways I have found to beat penholders. 

What Is Penhold in Table Tennis?

Penhold is one of the main types of grip alongside shakehand. It is named this way because you hold your paddle as you would a pen.

The penhold ping pong grip breaks down into two classes: Japanese penhold and Chinese penhold. The main difference between the two grips is that your fingers lie straight on the backhand rubber for the Japanese version. However, for Chinese penhold, the fingers instead curl inwards. 

The obvious difference between penhold and shakehand is that the handle is facing upward rather than downward. The forehand rubber is also used on both sides, meaning there is no need for a backhand rubber.

While this removes the crossover, it reduces the quality of the backhand. To improve this, some players use a modified grip called the reverse penhold backhand (RPB). This sees the use of both sides of the paddle just as shakehand does.

Related: Ping Pong Grips: The Ultimate Guide

Strengths of Penhold Players

1. Spinny serves

Penholders have a small advantage when it comes to producing spin over shakehand players. This is because the penhold grip allows for better wrist movement. As such, penholders usually have very spinny serves, and they can be highly difficult to read. 

I’ve played a few penholders over the years whose serves gave me a tonne of trouble. One player in particular was a lefty too. It was a bad day at the office to be sure! 

2. Forehand Attack

Penholders are all about forehand, it’s one of the biggest advantages of the grip. Both Japanese and Chinese penholders have an innate advantage over shakehanders (but this doesn’t necessarily mean their forehand is better than yours).  

They’re more likely to engage their wrist for forehand loops which increases the amount of spin on the ball. What’s more, they tend to be very effective with flatter shots too such as drives and smashes. Therefore if you hit a sub-optimal ball to their forehand you can expect a very high-quality return.

3. Excellent Footwork

To ensure they get to use their powerful forehands as much as possible, penholders spend a lot of time on their footwork. 

You’ll notice that the ready position of the typical penholder is more to your right than normal. This is because they are better at covering the table than most. Furthermore, many penholders are more likely to step around on their backhand side to hit a powerful forehand loop. 

As far as footwork goes, I’d say by and large that penholders are the best. 

4. No Crossover

Another distinct advantage that penholders have over shakehanders is their lack of a crossover. This means they are never caught between choosing to play a backhand or forehand shot — they use the same rubber for both sides.

However, this is not true of all penholders. As stated earlier, many modern penholders have switched to the RPB grip. While this makes their backhand far better, it introduces a crossover, which is a weakness.

Yet even though this crossover is present, many players struggle to find it. This is because it is further away from the body compared to shakehand. 

5. Close-to-the-Table Play

A particularly jarring side of penholders that doesn’t get enough press is their superior close-to-the-table play. What I mean by this is shorter shots that occur over or near the table. 

Penholders have a good pushing game and are very effective at playing the ball straight off the bounce. If you like to take a step back away from the table like me, this can really ruin your timing.

I lost my last match against a penholder for this very reason. He hit fast drives off of the bounce which I struggled to loop. This forced me to take a step inward into his world where I felt out of my depth. I noticed that his strokes were very short and hard to read. This meant I didn’t have enough time to anticipate where the ball would go which limited my ability to loop. 

How to Beat Penholders in Table Tennis

1. Force Backhand Topspin Rallies

The strongest advantage shakehanders have over penholders is that their backhands tend to be much better. Therefore, it is a good strategy to force backhand topspin exchanges. If you hit the ball fast and fairly wide, they won’t be able to come around to play a forehand loop.

This strategy works beautifully against all types of penholders, however, it is the strongest against Japanese penhold. This is because it’s almost impossible to loop on the backhand side with this grip. 

2. Use Slow and Spinny Loops

Hitting loop kills off of backspin with consistency is pretty difficult, but against penholders, there is often no need.  

A much safer strategy is to take your foot off the gas and crank up the spin instead. Penholders struggle to get over the ball when blocking on their forehand side, so aim spinny loops there. Only the best penhold players will be able to counter-loop such shots.

If you’re playing a Japanese penholder, you can do spinny loops to their backhand too as the same weakness is present. I wouldn’t against RPB players though as their backhand mobility is far better. 

3. Deep Backspin Serves to the Backhand

As we know, penholders have far worse backhands compared to most players, therefore you can almost guarantee a juicy third ball attack by serving long and with backspin to their backhand. 

Traditional penholders can’t loop on their backhand side, so all they can do is push or step around to play a forehand loop. If you play the ball wide enough or successfully block the occasions they do hit a forehand loop, they should almost always push the ball long. This shifts the balance of the rally in your favor. 

4. Play Wide

Traditional penholders are stronger than shakehanders in the middle of the table, however, they are weaker at the sides. This is in part because they like to stand wider on the backhand side leaving their forehands open. However, it is also simply because of the grip — playing a wide ball away from the body with the backhand is much easier for shakehand than penhold. 

5. Force Them Away From the Table

Many penholders are strong close to the table, so seek to take this advantage away from them much like you would with a short pips player (some penholders use short pips too!). 

Play heavy topspin loops near the end line and use width well. Combined, these measures will gradually force penholders to take a step or two back, giving you the advantage. 

6. Returning Their Tricky Serves

Although it’s easier said than done, overcoming penholder’s serves is one of the biggest obstacles to overcome.

Try to pay attention to their wrist motion precisely when they contact the ball — anything else is just noise to distract you. If you’re really having trouble, you can try and take the ball later as this will slightly reduce the amount of spin you have to contend with. 

Try also watching the rotation of the ball in the air and its trajectory. This should give you a good idea of the spin. If you’re too anxious to attack, you can try chopping or pushing the ball with heavy backspin. However, this can be very difficult to do!

The Penholder in Action

Please forgive the poor video quality, Ma Lin is now retired so the footage is quite old. When it comes to penholders, Ma Lin is one of the best. He used a traditional Chinese penhold grip which means his backhand was much weaker than most.

However, he made up for it by having one of the deadliest forehands in the world. He also had impeccable footwork. Ma was a master at stepping around on his backhand to play forehand loop kills, and boy was it a thing of beauty!

Closing Thoughts

While its true penholders often have very tricky serves and powerful forehand attacks, they are not without weaknesses. More than likely their backhand is weaker than yours, and while their footwork is good, well-placed wide balls will give them hell.

As always, I recommend trying out these tactics to see what works and shaping your strategy based on the results. If something isn’t working, don’t force it!

*Images provided by XIAOYU TANG under a CC BY_SA 2.0 license | unedited

Next lessons

Penholders are essentially one-winged loopers. Therefore, you might find my guide on one-winged loopers helpful. 
Furthermore, some penholders like to play a fairly flat game, so consider checking out my guide on beating flat hitters.