What is TigerWing style? – What does the ITTF say about the WingTiger table tennis style?
“TigerWing” playing style is a highly innovative and unique approach to table tennis, designed, developed, and promoted by New Zealand’s John Ho since the end of 2018, to create maximum deception and offensive opportunities. The main representative player is Eli Ho.
It is notable for several unique features that set it apart from conventional table tennis techniques or styles due to its specific grip, racket setup, and the tactical use of different rubber types. The TigerWing grip equips players to perform both forehand and backhand strokes with inverted rubber while also allowing for rapid, unpredictable switching between inverted and long-pimple rubber on the backhand side.
Comments and report from the ITTF (International Table Tennis Federation) expert and the magazine:
A Unique Playing Style: The Rise of the “Tiger Wing” Eli Ho isn’t just making waves because of his talent—his playing style is unlike anything seen before. He uses the Tiger Wing grip, a hybrid between the traditional Japanese penhold and the shakehand grip. This unique technique allows him to attack and block with the same side of the racket while using long-pimple on the reverse side for service returns and backhand pushes. The mastermind behind this innovative grip? His father, John Ho, is a passionate table tennis enthusiast who has spent years analyzing playing styles. ～ Mikael Andersson ITTF Sports Development Director “The Garden of Eden” 2025 March 19
“At the age of six and a half, I changed to the Tiger Wing style invented by my dad in August 2018”, explained Eli. “The grip is a hybrid between the traditional Japanese pen-hold and the shake-hand grips. It is unique and always gives the opponents a surprise.” ~ July 2025 edition of the ITTF’s Swaythling Magazine, p36, an ITTF publication that highlights inspiring stories and achievements in table tennis.
TigerWing leverages a hybrid grip, dual rubber usage, and the Reverse Shakehand Backhand technique to create a highly flexible, deceptive, and effective playing style. It combines all winning factors of table tennis—speed, spin, power, rhythm, and variation—making Eli Ho a prolific and pioneering player recognized by international figures like ITTF Sports Development Director Mikael Andersson and covered by sources such as ITTF Swaythling magazine.
The ITTF’s evaluation of the TigerWing style primarily reflects its recognition of its innovation and uniqueness. Specifically, ITTF Director of Sport Development Michael Anderson praised representative player Eli Ho’s TigerWing style as “unprecedented and ingenious,” arguing that this hybrid grip and technique, combining traditional Japanese penhold and shakehand grips with long-pimple and inverted rubber, offers game-changing offensive and defensive transitions, variations, and deceptive play.
Key characteristics include:
Rubber configuration: One side of the racket features standard inverted rubber for offense, while the reverse side has long-pimple rubber, which is used for service returns and backhand pushes. This dual-surface approach is rare at elite and especially youth levels.
Hybrid grip: Merges Japanese penhold and shakehand grip, enabling the use of both sides of the paddle efficiently and allowing attacks and blocks with the same side rubber, as well as specialized backhand techniques.
RSB (Reverse Shakehand Backhand) technique: allows you to use the inverted rubber on the back of the racket to perform topspin loops and other strong attacks in the backhand position, while combining long-pimple rubber to change the rhythm and spin at any time. By integrating techniques like the “Reverse Shakehand Backhand” (RSB) and long-pimple rubber, the TigerWing style aims to overwhelm opponents with a constant barrage of varied spins, speeds, and trajectories, truly giving the player “wings” to dominate the game.
Versatility and Concealment: Players can flexibly switch rubbers during a match without having to flip the bat, significantly increasing the unpredictability of tactics and confusing opponents.
“Three-sided/four-sided” attack: Using mixed rubber and RSB (Reverse Shakehand Backhand) technique, you can launch attacks on both the forehand and backhand, thereby covering the entire hitting area and reducing the weakness of the traditional backhand player’s middle defense.
Proven success: Eli Ho’s success with this style includes winning significant titles like the 2024 ITTF World Hopes Week & Challenge, a major international U12 event. His achievements have helped change coaching perceptions about what’s possible in modern table tennis.
Invented approach: The style was developed by Eli Ho’s father and coach, John Ho, noted for his technical innovation.
Concept and advantages:
The Wing Tiger style, with unprecedented technical and tactical versatility, emphasizes “adding wings to a tiger”; that is, based on traditional strong attack, it also gains new advantages of change and deception.
Through the comprehensive changes, disruptive variations in speed, spin, power, and rhythm, traditional winning factors are elevated to a higher level.
Has a significant psychological advantage – the constantly changing nature makes it difficult for the opponent to adapt and often forces mistakes.
Due to the innovation and complexity of this style of play, masters are extremely competitive and visually impactful in competitions, and it is regarded as a representative style for the future development of table tennis.
Representative figures:
John Ho: Founder and developer, as well as Eli Ho’s mentor and head coach, is dedicated to the promotion and training of this technology.
Eli Ho: The world’s first official WingTiger style player, who uses this technique to demonstrate high-level competitive ability in non-traditional fighting styles in international competitions.
Proven success:
Eli Ho’s success with this style includes winning significant world youth titles like the 2024 ITTF World Hopes Week & Challenge, a major international U12 event, and the 2025 WTT Youth Contender San Francisco II U13, U15 events. His achievements have helped change coaching perceptions about what’s possible in modern table tennis, showcasing the impact of its inventive grip and tactical approach on the sport’s evolution.
Initially met with skepticism, TigerWing has gained respect for proving highly effective in international junior competitions, prompting a shift in how coaches and experts view the possibilities in modern table tennis playing styles. In contrast to other innovations that may focus on a single aspect (e.g., grip or rubber type), TigerWing integrates multiple elements cohesively and dynamically, making it a breakthrough approach, setting new standards for evolving the sport’s techniques and tactics.
In short, the Wing Tiger table tennis style stands out for its novel approach to grip and equipment, is a modern hybrid offensive and defensive integrated play that combines inverted rubber and long-pimple rubber, an innovative grip, backhand side with RSB (Reverse Shakehand Backhand) technique, proactive offense throughout the court, and high concealment.
It offers tactical diversity and competitive success through enhanced flexibility, unpredictability, and tactical depth, redefines the boundaries of traditional table tennis techniques, and provides players with new ways to outshine and defeat their opponents, possesses. Therefore, the Wing Tiger playing style has unique and significant development potential and has attracted the attention of an increasing number of top coaches and international experts.
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