A next-generation paddle is used for this style. It's geared for close-range combat and good touch-feel of the ball. In actual playing, every ball is picked up as close to its bounce and stroked with maximum cushioning by the paddle and the palm. Well, the paddle is appropriately named: palm racket, for palm holders, as compared to pen holders and shakehand holders. It is also dubbed with aliases like Cal Atomic racket(since it's invented by a former nuclear professor of Cal) and starship blades(since it resembles the Starship Enterprise in Star Trek).
The blade of the palm racket is made of a one-ply 1/4-inch balsa wood, sandwiched by two 1/32-inch balsas. The handle is made of styloform, with fingers braced by a thin sheet of balsa. The racket is held exactly like the old pen holder racket, except now the palm of the hand is holding a ball-shaped styloform in the handle to facilitate upward pull when executing a backhand topspin. The whole handle is glued to the center of the blade's back side. The rubber sheet used is sponged with large, short-pips cover.
The blade is cut out in the form of a mitten, with a thumb sticking out. This is done to ease the mind when it tries to "fuse" with the racket. Fusing is a medical term describing the process of an amputee adjusting to an artificial limb. The whole idea of this palm-like racket comes from the very real phenomenon of "phantom-limb syndrome", in which a person can lose a limb but not the sensation of it's presence. Conversely in ping pong with the current racket types that are extensions to our hands, we are all seem to be engaged in a never-ending, often futile, struggle to fuse with our rackets.
Another support for the merit of this palm racket is that this seems to be the the natural evolution of ping pong racket. They start off as long- handle racket, like tennis and badmington. This is for ease of play and great power, at the expense of a dominating style. Then came the shakehand style used successfully by the Europeans, which requires strong physical strength. Finally, came the short-extended pen-holding style that require fast reflex and greater sensitiviy of the hand. Its requirements of intricate knowledge of the game and explosive bursts of exertion in order to confuse and dominate the opponent, respectively, have made it unpopular with professional players -- there is just no time to bother with the brutal discipline and insane training for the modern materialistic athletes.
This time we write the book on the game first before playing it. At least we can win on paper. Nevertheless, we dont easily give up on the academic yet corny notion that brain is more powerful than muscle. This style may just be our ticket to become hardy fools.
How is this game played? It starts with a crashing fast serve that can go deceptively to either the right or the left. This serve intends to draw a flat return that could be picked up off the table to outspeed the other player.
In returning serve, a downspin ball is invariably replied with a quick off-the-bounce deceptive push. No one is expected to outpush this palm-holding style.
All side-spin and top-spin serve would be attacked by properly rubbing the oncoming ball in the opposing direction as the ball's spin. Counter attacking rallies would be suppressed with off-the-the-table block with proper rubbing, then put away with last-moment-angle-changing flat hit. The palm racket is the fastest twisting racket made. Every stroke should be performed with a last-instance twisting to cut off the opponent's time for reacting to it.
So far so good, on paper. How do we go from here to there? Let's write down on paper exactly how we train and why we do it that way.
Let's first get real serious -- dead serious as the life-and-death skills of kungfu, samurai, fencing and fast draw as in the old days. If your life is at stake, ping pong stance would have to cover both side equally like they do in fencing. All the movements should be choreograghed precisely like in kungfu. The serve should adopt the suddenness of the fast draw with a bullet fast ball shooting to the left or right corner. The 3rd and 4th ball return should be a double-or-nothing, counter offense like would a samurai swordsman. In fact, every stroke should start with a stance ready for counter offense by tucking in the tommy and bending forward from the waist.
Two features of kungfu are borrowed here. First, what is termed "chingkung" or lightfootedness is used to keep up with every bounce of the ball, off the table and racket, and some. One sometimes even needs to hop INSIDE of his own shoes since it would be too slow to carry the shoes with the feet. This is especially true in the case of the two quick hops needed to keep in pace with the serve return when the server strikes the ball, followed immediately by the ball hitting the table.
The second feature derived from a style in kungfu called "Tai Chi". In Tai Chi one is supposed to respond passively to the opponent and use his own force to dominate him. This requires that you let the ball bounce on your racket first and then guide it back to the opponent.
To thoroughly respond passively, you need to react according to the other player's direction of swing. If upward, you should lift your body up and then come down as the ball and rebound up again exactly as the ball bounce in striking the ball. If downward, you should press yourself down and then synchronize with the oncoming ball in your motion. Sideway swings require the same.
The practice would, therefore, mostly based on shadow strokes, playbacks, robots, steadyness drills, matches and tournaments, and the amounts of time spent is greatest in shadow stroke, decreasing by one order of magnitude in each exercise.
TO BE CONTINUED...