I took my massive penhold skills to the Berkeley club tonight and won three out of five matches.  Of course the asterisk there is that I demoted myself 350 ratings points (1450 to 1100) so that I wouldn't get blown off my normal table.  An egregious abuse of presidential power to be sure but I think it worked out for the best for everyone.

Tonight was a bit better than Sunday as I actually was able to hit a forehand loop and won a number of points off forehand winners.  The rpb was still working quite well and I even managed to loop a few underspin balls with it.  Serving was the same, which is to say fine, probably a few notches below my shakehand serves, but nothing to complain about.

The thing that I was really bad at tonight was the short game.  Fortunately at 1100 you don't need much of a short game to win but still it was distressing not to be able to push or drop.  I didn't push much at all tonight, mostly because I got so many long serves and returns, but I did try a few times just for the hell of it and the results were typically disastrous.  Really no control at all, I don't have a feel for it yet.

One funny thing about the rpb is that it is quite difficult to hit a ball down the line.  Almost all my backhands went cross court.  A few times I tried intentionally to go down the line and did manage to hit one or two but mostly they ended up in the middle.  It's easy to get a very sharp cross court angle though and I hit a bunch of those for winners.  Another funny thing about the rpb is just how spinny it is.  I normally don't expect my backhand loops to be blocked long but that happened a lot tonight.  I think I attempted only one traditional penhold backhand all night long.

So that's more or less the level I'm at, 300 points below shakehand.  Not bad really, considering I've been at it maybe 10 days.  One thing that bugs me though is my crappy forehand step around.  I mean you can't be a penholder without a lightening fast forehand step around, it's something you just have to have, otherwise you're just another crappy shakehand player in penholder clothing.  I'm fit enough now to do it, it's just a matter of willpower.