Choosing a Penhold Blade

Try the Yinhe MC-2, or one of the DHS blades like PG2/3, PG8, etc.

You want to get one speed slower than the equivalent shakehand blade. Your fingers supporting the back of the blade in penhold makes it stiffer and therefore faster.

Avoid carbon blades for penhold. They have very little feel and are too fast.

Super light blades < 70g feel hollow and the response is not linear. It takes some getting used to.

The choice for penhold rubbers would be the same as the choice for shakehand rubbers. I like Tenergy 05 for forehand and Tenergy 64 for backhand. These are simply the best rubbers. H3 is also very good, absolutely superb when tuned. When not tuned, the medium gear is too slow.

The Yinhe MC-2 is only 5.75mm. If you want really thin, the Nittaku Violin is only 5.3mm.
I've found that 6.3mm is the maximum that I feel comfortable with.


Edited by cotdt - 05/30/2012 at 2:32am

But is YEO "really" worth the dough ?

YEO is absolutely not 70% worse than TB ALC

Tibhar Illusion Killer is light, offensive and only $30 at presports. Excellent blade with many abilities.

I have a Galaxy t-11 cs, and it weighs 56g.  It's a solid blade that's actually not as fast as advertised.  The downsides to it are that it is super thick and it's ungodly noisy.  The first time I played with it, someone called it a 'Fischer-Price' brand paddle because of the sound.

carbon blades feel terrible with penhold. you lose all feel.

I am still searching for something that equals YEO....sigh!

How are butterfly blades?

Which 'Original' ..Couldnt spot it.
W6 looks nice -- will wait for more reviews.

Have been researching for the past few hours, looks like W-6 it is! Much cheaper that YEO for the same characteristics.

Now the rubber(s) for this blade? :D :D

@jinlai: I had a friend who play C86 and the feel is just near to wood and the blade is made of soft light carbon. The setup is Palio Marco Era 4.75 degree max black FH and red 42.7 degree max for BH.

cotdt wrote: carbon blades feel terrible with penhold. you lose all feel.

I guess I must be lucky then.
I have more control with Ma Lin Carbon, than YE

ZApenholder wrote: cotdt wrote: carbon blades feel terrible with penhold. you lose all feel. I guess I must be lucky then. I have more control with Ma Lin Carbon, than YE

Edited by Imago - 06/06/2012 at 4:27am

    YMLMaxC is 96g, has a very good feeling, more power than YEO
well be combined with hard tensor-J Rizm, Nittaco NH, DHS rubbers-H3, TG2, H2. Average distance-aggressive play with a lot of control.
   W6 / my girlfriend/-5.8-flex and very light.
I hope you understand!

Just ordered Galaxy W-6 with Hurricane 3(Provincial)[FH] and LKT Pro XP Gold Dragon[BH]. Lets see how the game improves ;)