OOAK Table Tennis Forum

Firstly, apologies to Andrew. After i'd posted it I remembered you were PH. Sorry. :/

Right, onto my question. This isn't for me, it's for my dad.

He's been using SP's on his FH and a thin sheet of friendship on his BH for about 10 years now, and his forehand hit is very good, he has a decent bh hit and a good bh loop.

However, he wants to switch to SP's on both sides, something suggested to him by John Hilton. He's tried in the garage on the robot, and i'm not convinced he's getting the stroke right when trying to hit backspin with them. He's okay hitting fast/topsin, but not pushes, hits them all into the net.

I had wondered if it was because he hits on top of the ball, which is okay if the ball bounces above net height, but otherwise quite useless.

However, with the BH, it seems a lot harder to do a shovel-hit for the lower ones.

Any suggestions?

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First things first, but not neccessarily in that order.

Ok this will be complicated to explain and I just hope the best of it hehe.

Judging from your story his pushes do not have enough upward speed and/or forward to clear the net, a way to increase this would by not just going under the ball but also abit on the side. So under-side and then use a long stroke using your lower arm and wrist.

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Frame: Nittaku Violin
FH: Joola Energy 2.0
BH: Bty Solcion 2.1

Servio, my apologies - I didn't word it very well.

What I meant was, he's good at hitting against top spin or fast flat balls with the short pimples, but he's not very good at hitting against pushes/chop with them, like he is with his Forehand.

I worded it appallingly. Sorry :/

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First things first, but not neccessarily in that order.

It sounds like he's hitting with a closed blade, which isn't a good habit anyway. He needs to open his blade and also step in to the ball when it's backspin so he's not hitting it the ball out in front of him.

If he's actually loopkilling the ball (spinning it) then inverted is a better choice, but he's probably just hitting the ball with his blade closed, which is why John Hilton recommended SP.

That's pretty easy to practice on the robot. He should just open his blade and step in until the ball goes over the net.

He'll need to learn a roll for balls lower than net height, but if he's used to a thin sheet of Friendship that will be pretty easy to learn if he just takes some power off his shot and just opens his blade and strokes the ball on there.

-- Andrew

Thanks, Andrew.

To be honest, I think he should have left it - his backhand loop was great for getting balls up to kill with his forehand, and when you're in the top 150 vetts in your country, I think it's good practice which is going to propel him, not set-up changes, but yeah... he's the gaffer.

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First things first, but not neccessarily in that order.

If he's already got a good loop, that would be a good reason to stick to inverted. Short pips, even spinny ones are not that good for looping, though they are good for hitting.

-- Andrew