Introduction

In summary, I still think I'm right, that it's a better way to play. Few seem to believe me; my personal ego is a non-zero influence; and my skill level is hardly Olympic. So you should evaluate the claims yourself on their own terms. But the argument seems valid to me, so I have to be honest to my experience and say what I think.

There are important and valid caveats: The V grip is probably not better for a defensive player, for a blocker, or for a player without footwork (I'm not sure it'll be very good for older players), or for the classical Chinese style of "fast attack", close-to-table, pips-out play.

But for the modern offensive spin game the V grip should be a winner, in my opinion.

This year was mostly a long plateau before I discovered a few key changes that have improved and stabilized things dramatically. I have used this grip continuously for training and competition, seeking out improvements in technique and equipment, playing 3 to 6 times a week since early November, 2000, including a weekly hour of coaching. Even with coaching, I'm still basically doing it alone and there have been significant and persistent sources of instability that have taken a long time to understand and solve. (That explains my USATT rating, which has drifted downward during the plateau. Just wait!) But now I think I have solved or minimized the fundamental problems, attaining a much higher level of stability. I hope I have understood and mastered the basic techniques; that my stroke mechanics are now basically within a range of what will ultimately turn out to be standard and correct form for this style. In short my coach says he likes my strokes now, and improvement is now a matter of refinement rather than radical exploration.

On this basis I still believe, and here reiterate, my original claim: the V grip is mechanically superior to penhold and shakehand grips for an offensive spin game (the dominant style of our time).

Forehand Stance is Neutral

• I no longer agree that correct posture means leaning back like a jai alai player. On the contrary, a more classical, forward leaning posture and forward body-impact motion is helpful, providing increased power and control.

• In footwork, my neutral position is not square to the table on the backhand side (a backhand position), but open halfway to the forehand (though still standing in the backhand half-court). I open my stance to the forehand: my paddle-hand-side foot is back a few inches from my free-hand-side foot. My body is also oriented toward the forehand: turned as if on the way to making a forehand stroke. My paddle-side shoulder is lowered as if I were setting up for a forehand loop.

  From this partly forehand stance, rotating back to a backhand stroke is easy and plenty fast, and going fully to the forehand is very easy. This forehand-anticipating stance solves two fundamental problems of the V grip style.

  First, this position favors you when you are trying to return balls hit to your elbow: your shoulder is low, you are leaning toward your elbow already, you are partly turned to the forehand already, and you can go either direction quickly and easily in small motions that protect the middle.

  Second, it solves a problem I frequently have had when I am starting in a backhand stance and a topspin ball comes to my forehand. My response to this is usually to rotate my forward-leaning body around the axis of my spine, resulting in both an improperly raised paddle-side shoulder and also a top-side orientation of the V grip paddle facing the ball. So I end up using the top side of the paddle for a forehand stroke, which is quite a bit weaker against topspin than using the bottom side, and the paddle-side shoulder being high at the beginning of the stroke also results in a lot of inconsistency.

  With the new forehand-anticipating position as my neutral position, I protect the elbow and short-circuit an incorrect turn to the forehand: when a ball comes to my forehand the easiest thing to do is also the correct thing to do, namely to turn my shoulders to be more parallel to the ball flight, and to use the powerful, spinny bottom side of the paddle.

No More Twiddling or Pips-out Rubber

• Twiddling is a thing of the past. A drop handle cannot be reversed in the hand; there is only one orientation.

• No twiddling means that top side ("thumb side") serves (almost all serves) must all be done using the rubber that is on the thumb side of the paddle.

• This means that junk rubber like long pips, or anti-spin rubber, or even short pips rubber, are impractical to use in an attacking game. Previously, when twiddling was an option, I put smooth rubber on one side of the paddle, and pips on the other; I would serve with the smooth rubber on the thumb side, then twiddle so it is on the bottom, and play out the point with the smooth side down to handle both forehand and backhand attacking strokes, while the pips were available for close-to-table strokes, pushing, and also defensive play using forehand chopping with the pips on the top side. This different-kinds-of-rubber combination approach can be effective if you can make it unpredictable for the opponent and if you are good with either material.

  Wang Guangyao has pips on top, and smooth rubber on the bottom. Pips on the top side takes away a lot of spin potential in service; it seems quite impossible to me if you want to have both spinny serves (therefore smooth rubber on the top) AND a spinny offensive game (therefore smooth rubber on the bottom). At least that's my own strength, so it's smooth rubber on both sides.

Equipment Selection

Stroke technique

How to Learn the V grip

• DO NOT LEARN SPIN FIRST. LEARN TO HIT FLAT (light-topspin or no-topspin) FIRST. I know you are doing this because you love to spin. I know spin is the true and wonderful joy you experience in this game. I know when you see a ball that looks the least bit easy you are delighted because this is finally a nice opportunity to really spin it heavy and enjoy that goodness. But I have to tell you. DON'T SPIN FIRST, HIT FLAT!!!

  If you think you can spin spin spin and that'll eventually give you control with spin, guess what, you're wrong. I'm not saying this because I'm proud. It just happens to be true, and it's really a painful hard fact, and if you want to spend three years trying to spin and not working on the flat-hit game, then you'll still be struggling with your spin game and forget about your flat hit game. But if you get comfortable with flat-hitting, simple light-topspin counter-driving, then both a smash game and a loop game will come to you very very easily. I know you want to spin, but the way to learn to spin fastest is to learn to hit flat first and then to spin later. You'll spin better and sooner going through flat-hitting.

• The V grip makes the spin game easy, but you can't control spin unless you first control flat-hitting, hitting against dead balls. And with the V grip that is the most difficult thing to do, because hitting flat is basically unnatural and brittle, there are a lot of ways to do it wrong, and hardly any ways to do it right. But you certainly can do it right, and unless you do, you won't gain control.

• Do you understand? Control is the key. Without control your skill is meaningless. Think about control, seek control, gain control!

• Do this exercise away from the table. Hit the ball against the wall or badminton-like to another player using exclusively the bottom side of the paddle. Hit flat, with little or no spin. Do this 300 times on the backhand, and 300 times on the forehand, always with the bottom side. You'll have to figure out how to hold your body and arm and how to move to the ball with control of flat-hit ball. After 300 you will have a lot better sense of how to hit the ball flat.

• To hit flat, listen to the sound of ball contact. If you hear wood, then that is flat. If you hear rubber, then that is not flat. Listen for wood while learning to control it.

On the Human Side