OOAK Table Tennis Forum

I believe this film is relevant to the Learning Table Tennis series, and table tennis in general (as well as many other things in life).

https://vimeo.com/pricefilms/pencils

FruitLoop it seems to me the faster you can incorporate a more explosive body movements into your stroke will naturally lead to faster racket head speeds. I notice this in my forehand. If I explode my right hip into the forehand topspin it results in faster racket head speeds and quality of stroke goes up heaps and it zips of the table. I think to explode faster in the backhand you really need to push off the ground quickly with your feet leading to what you are observing. I sort of think the short sharp strokes the Chinese Pros do depends on these fast body movements. I also think the weight going upwards enables you to recover and bounce into the next stroke. Brett can shoot me down if required!

Following on from the bounce discussion on the latest TTEdge video, I was thinking about something in regard to this.

In a power clean movement in weightlifting, the moment the bar passes the knees is followed by a 'stomp'. This is to ensure the person is essentially jumping with the barbell at that point in order to maximise the transferral of force from the hips extending to the bar and also that the feet are in position for the catch phase where the barbell weight is absorbed on the delts. Here is a perfect example: http://youtu.be/O32-Ae8SNIc

I was thinking about this in relation to the backhand which involves quite a similar hip movement and for a similar purpose. I have then watched a lot of highlights of top players and notice that this stomp is frequently there, sometimes obviously with both feet leaving the ground although this is very rare, other times only on a micro scale where the feet don't actually leave the ground and it's more a rising and falling of weight in their feet. I don't think this is merely a bounce afterwards. It all happens so quick and on a small scale its very hard to analyse. It also depends on exactly the type of shot they are going for, backhand counter hits typically don't involve this much at all, but looping against backspin and hitting full power backhands generally do. I can notice this on a small scale in the latest Henzell video. Here is another example I found where you can see it at the start here: http://youtu.be/pYMY-1KQrbo

So I have taken this to the table and practiced it and I think this might actually have finally got me to use the hips more effectively in my backhand. Before I was using all arm on backhand. I was thinking of really snapping with my feet as I come out of the 'bow' phase and it seems to extend the hips really fast. Am I on the right track here? Or is this a descent into madness?

I suppose my whole point is it's quite hard to do the move and thinking about doing a mini stomp with my feet seemed to work better than just thinking about extending the hips.

Practice a lot of floor serves. Or spinning the ball in your hand a LOT. That's for the spin.

For the serve in the video: the biggest problem with your serve, IMO, is that you aren't going through through a circular/ U path and pulling the racket upwards at contact. The point of the circle is to give the illusion that the racket is coming down but to pull up at the last second to get some good topspin. You are just coming forward into the ball. The U path also gives the racket momentum from the shoulder before you get to the ball. You need to feel that at least your racket and more likely your body is moving in a circle at the ball. When I used to do that serve, I would push my knees down a little to give me more room to come up into the ball very subtly but I would probably yank my elbow much more now after seeing William's serve still work with that follow through.

Watch this topspin against backspin at .25 speed on YouTube. https://youtu.be/pYMY-1KQrbo?t=146 Watch how much he closes the angle between his stomach and thigh. No club player has ever bowed down this low to make a backhand against backspin. This is not a short move. See the pic below

Should the bow still be this low and Knees as bent against light backspin or no spin? I also wonder about use of the wrist for backhand against block close to the table, should the bat still snap back completely so it’s almost pointing at my stomach ? I find if I do this I don’t have time. Or when doing parallel backhand to backhand I’m unsure how far I should be bending my wrist.

Here is the same serve, but from a different angle.

The video above is filmed one minute before the first one I posted. I do agree about the ball toss. But I don't quite get the comment about the U shape. In other words, I don't know how to implement it: if I try to enforce even more circular shape, things get way worse, I probably have to think about it more.

I have asked this question before but not got satisfactory answers or ones that I have clear in my head. Obviously thinking about mechanics during a point or technique at all is a disaster. But what about placement? Do top players have a truly clear mind and play on pure subconscious brain patterns or is there some conscious thought about placement or tactics or something else? When I don't think about placement I put it right to their bat generally and fail to find the wide areas or the elbow. When I think too hard about it I try to guide it there and technique breaks down.