Where should THUMB be during shakehand grip?

I say this a lot, but messing with your grip is the ninth circle of table tennis hell*.

Edited by Baal - 01/01/2020 at 7:12am

Perhaps the best grip is the one you can always use consistenly and hopefully with good results. It's one of those things that always seems to change with my game and I can never remember the 'default' way I usually hold the paddle. Sometimes I'll move fingers around if a shot isn't working  or playing against a particular style and then the entire foundation collapses. 

Edited by FinalFight - 11/19/2019 at 11:04am

In the bh, I see more high level players putting their thumb in the middle of the base of the fh rubber to exaggerate a bh grip, it helps tangentially grabbing the ball over the table for example but also on all bh strokes because it enhances the feel and stability by a lot, it supports the stroke in the same direction of the paddle and will participate a lot more in the system that welcomes the ball and sends it back. 

Edited by stiltt - 11/17/2019 at 4:12pm

Forgive me if you find out that this post is about 7 years old.

VGripper proposes that "thumb position correlates with paddle rotation in the grip. i.e FH, BH, or neutral biased grip."

I think this is sometimes true when you look at top players, but watching some videos closely, I think there are exceptions.  A good example of what he talking about is Kong Linghui, whose basic grip tends towards the BH side; his thumb rides up a bit, same with Zhang Jike, even when they hit forehands.  Actually, I think most people who play like that tend to have thumb higher. But there are guys who use a more forehand oriented grip on FH and they usually change their grip a lot when they hit backhands (e.g. pretty much every top German player, especially Boll) and the thumb position isn't always the same with this group.  For example, Timo Boll' thumb definitely does not ride up so far, but Kreanga is a really opposite extreme when he hits BH. 

Another thing is how far up or down the handle people generally grip, which can also vary a lot among really good players.  Some guys really tend to grip pretty far down the handle (Wang Liqin, Timo Boll, Cheng Yinghua), and some guys grip somewhat higher (Kreanga, ZJK).  If you grip low, your thumb will stay low.   

It's best not to think about grip too much when you are playing, it's got to be comfortable but automatic.     

My hypothesis is that thumb position correlates with paddle rotation in the grip. i.e FH, BH, or neutral biased grip. 

Baal wrote: Actually, consciously messing around with your grip is the ninth circle of table tennis hell.  There lies madness.  Usually more problems come from feet and body than from hands or arm.

Sounds like this is spoken from personal experience

pingpongpaddy wrote: imo Any thinking that requires fingers and thumb to be in precise positions is wrongheaded and will lead to tension.

+1

You have to change your grip going from FH to BH for hitting hard.  If you're not pressing on the rubber from the other side, you must have wrist of steel to keep the ball under control.  It's one of the only tactile ways of knowing your paddle angle more precisely.

Edited by power7 - 10/17/2012 at 1:15am

JimT wrote: It could be just me but I move a bit both my thumb and my index finger depending on the stroke. 1) serve - both are holding the racket a bit lower (off the face) than usual so I could do a faster swing/snap motion 2) opening FH loop close to body - both fingers are on the face, deeper into the racket so I basically perform the loop as if the racket were my palm 3) counter-loop or kill-loop - index finger a bit lower but still on the face, thumb slides down to the top of the handle, so the arc of the swing is a tad longer 4) FH block (simple and fast) - index finger moves up the face becoming less horizontal, thumb stays in place 5) FH block (slowing the ball) - thumb goes lower, index finger presses on the face forcing the ball down a bit more Etc. Some players say that they never change the grip or finger position but I really really doubt that - that's what they were taught but literally nobody can do that. Some elite players also say that they change fingers' position for a smash or a BH loop... but generally they do indeed prefer not to change it much because it creates problems with transition from one shot to the next one.

You forgot to add "put your left toe over your right toe" jk :) It all varies stylistically from player to player. TB plays with that weird grip so that he doesn't have to transition between BH and FH (at least that's what I see from watching him play, very smooth BH-FH transition, just like ZJK).

The ultimate example of a thumb pressing the blade on a backhand is Kreanga.  You can also see this with Persson, but not quite to the same extent.  Also, Kong Linghui a little.  There is no doubt that this can stabilize your backhand, unless you move it out of the way, it can hurt your forehand a bit.  It's a tradeoff.  Kreanga has a big grip change between forehand and backhand because of that.

 

Edited by Baal - 10/16/2012 at 12:37pm

Not if you loose your ring and little finger when whip hitting from BH.

My coach suggest change grip during play to maximize each shot only if you are able do it with good results otherwise stay with one grip most of time. 

Placing the thumb on the rubber was something that I used to do, and I found that it made my backhand loop a lot easier to execute because my wrist was significantly more flexible. However my forehand was at a disadvantage because  I couldn't get the right angle on my forehand loops. Some players do alternate between grips when they play different strokes and thats fine.

But I have forced myself grip the handle the original way, where the thumb only touches the topmost part of the handle, and does not touch the rubber. 

I was training yesterday and I have a really inconsistent BH, I ussualy use my thumb on the blade, so I dont know why I used it on the rubber and I could control much more, for me its easier to make my BH topspins and is harder for the other player to get them.