How did the pen-hold table tennis racket decline?

Because of the backhand disadvantage.

In the earliest small ball era, the pen-hold backhand relied on speed to land the ball. The ball was fast enough, and it was easy to control the line when pushing and blocking. The landing point was tricky; because the ball had stronger speed and spin, the first three boards at that time were dominated by forehands.

It was much higher than it is now, and there were fewer rounds that could lead to a stalemate. Therefore, although the pen-hand backhand at that time was weak, it could make up for it with other advantages and was not fatal.

In 1989, the European loop ball became a big success, but the traditional straight rubber left push and right attack was on the decline. The national team gradually transformed into a horizontal double reverse loop and a straight reverse rubber single pull.

With the support of the strong friction of domestic anti-glue, players such as Ma Lin and Yan Sen added friction to the push block to make it more threatening. At the same time, they used the immature pen-hold shooting and horizontal hitting to assist.

On the other hand, although Korean and Japanese straight players use astringent rubber and cannot use the back side of the racket, they rely on the unparalleled quality of the single-sided veneer, and then use footwork and traditional single-sided backhand to assist.

The traditional pen-hold shooting method has been extended until 2008.

At the beginning of the 21st century, the emergence of Wang Hao and the full horizontal double-heavy pen-hold grip was an earth-shaking change. At the expense of the power of the forehand and the ball on the table, the backhand of the pen-hold grip became an advantage.