Pro n Cons of ST / FL / Anatomic Handle

Straight handles have the benefit for players who have slight (or major like Timo Boll) grip changes from forehand to backhand to short game. I use a straight handle and do find it useful when say I adjust my grip a bit to do a forehand flip. However, I don't really change my grip when doing forehands or backhands. I'm a more forehand emphasis player so if I buy a new blade it will probably be flared.

Flared handles are the most common and I could be wrong but its for players who don't really change their grip.

Anatomic handles are simply made for comfort I think. I see no real advantage to it, perhaps even having a disadvantage for people who want to backhand.

yeah i was reading an article on megaspin about handles. jkilla pretty much got it down.
Most people use flared, 50% of professionals use straight handles.
Flared is very good for strong forehand players.
I have straight handle and my hands slip when using my forehand, but it's really easy to switch grips and go to the backhand.
When I used a flared handle, my forehand was really strong, but it was hard to switch to my backhand/change my grip

FL handle looks and feels better in my hand so all my blades are in FL.  I don't usually switch but I can do it without much problem with a FL handle.  I do change my grip slightly between FH and BH at times.

Actually alot of defenders like Joo, Kim, and Park all use FL.

Does that mean no more sponsorship from Butterfly?

Strong fh will use fl

Strong bh will use straight

generally speaking

I like FL handle, but most of the FL blades have thin neck, at least for my big hands.
After trying a few ST blades I decided to switch to thick ST handles because I have a better grip with the middle and ring finger. With thin FL handles I have the mentioned fingers over my palm and I loose the grip when I switch from fh to bh or the other way around.
I tried once a blade with AN, I didn't like it, even if the blade was great.

What I would like to try is the conical handle from tibhar, they have a few blades with conical handle. When I was a kid I had one with con handle from HANOI, it was a good blade.

my own experience : most of the time i use fl. i have use anatomic in between for a while. recently i use st.

 fl for me has more stable grip and can fully utilize power from  the finger and back of my hand but with st i feel little loose grip. Anyway with st, i realise that, i can concentrate to use my wrist more than fl. it is useful for bh strokes. with anatomic i fell i have a firm grip to the blade.

now i realise that both has its own pro n cons. tq for all the feedbacks post here by forum members.

ST handle: mostly BACKHAND hitters, loopers
FL handle: mostly FOREHAND hitter, looper
AN handle: mostly FOREHAND large palm hands hitters, loopers
CO handle: mostly FOREHAND/BACKHAND small hand hitters, loopers

Thot wrote: I like FL handle, but most of the FL blades have thin neck, at least for my big hands. After trying a few ST blades I decided to switch to thick ST handles because I have a better grip with the middle and ring finger. With thin FL handles I have the mentioned fingers over my palm and I loose the grip when I switch from fh to bh or the other way around. I tried once a blade with AN, I didn't like it, even if the blade was great. What I would like to try is the conical handle from tibhar, they have a few blades with conical handle. When I was a kid I had one with con handle from HANOI, it was a good blade.

liXiao wrote: Actually alot of defenders like Joo, Kim, and Park all use FL.

A lot of people think its easier to twiddle with ST handles but i think it is debatable!

frogger wrote: Anatomic can feel very good or very bad depending on size and shape.

This is so true even for ST and FL.

Before starting EJing I thought that all handles of the same type were the same. Boy was I wrong! In fact, pick any two different blade models, even from the same manufacturer, and there will be likely at least slight differences in the shape of the handle (this may not apply to brands who have standardised handles, like Stiga or OSP). I don't understand whether this is by design or whether it just happens that manufacturing lines differ, but I find it annoying that sometimes I like a blade a lot but just cannot stand the handle.

Actually I stopped playing with Nittaku Violin because of the thin ST handle (I also tried grip tape but could not stand it). I've recently got a Violin with L-Size handle. The differences are minimal at first sight (size is less than 1mm larger, and the cross section is less rounded) but the difference is huge. This blade acutally has the most comfortable ST grip I ever tried (that's subjective, of course), and now I've started playing with Violin again!

30 years ago I had a Friendship blade with a large AN grip. I still remember how comfortable that blade was. It was a rather squared AN grip if you can imagine that, that fit the hand like it was molded to you. Sometimes odd variations of a handle can feel very good. Now all the "cookie cutter" mass produced blade handles don't always feel so good. Like I said earlier they make them for old people and children. To small! To small! Stiga Legend grip and BTY SQ ST gets you in the ball park but still doesn't hit any home runs.

For me Conical handle is the best handle available.