OOAK Table Tennis Forum

Here is a shadow swing video of my new backhand so you can see the components.

Notice you can so this stroke with no arm backswing at all. Only use wrist back whip on the hand going forward.

Elbow is lower and closer to the body like a martial arts punch compared to a normal backhand topspin.

It uses Brett Clark's 2 master principles of Table Tennis. (TRADE MARKED)

1. Delay the backswing as long as possible
2. Whip action of the bat going back against the body going forward. (Body first then whip).

I have found you can do a similar stroke against backspin with more body motion.

I have found it is very powerful, has good spin and is very reliable. You can change the contact on each side of the ball with the same elbow forward movement making it very deceptive.

Please some feedback or I will not post any more videos.

https://youtu.be/HSbHoGqfFFo

MA long seems to something similar
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFd9_4x ... TiLong-Pro

His elbow is more out to the side of the body compared to my stroke. I feel this results in him having more spin. At my level I can go for more power with the elbow behind the bat more and a bit less spin as I play players that do not use pro spin against me.

So the golden point is kaput?

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Yoko Ono

Maybe for close to the table backhand play? Usually Brett will have a totally opposite view to things I come up with.

What you demonstrated in your silent video works. Feel free to post again!

I wouldn't go out of my way to teach the technique though it's more or less what Ma Long does these days.

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Hi Brett, Thanks for your comments.

I feel this stroke is excellent for club players based on my experience. In 4 weeks I have been able to introduce this stroke into match play and my backhand is 20% better as it is so much more reliable as well as very fast and spiny. This unheard of for me to make such a big improvement in match play in so little time.

The no backswing eliminates the issue of correct timing of the backswing. The bat angle does not change from the ready position to ball contact. Contrast this with a closed start bat angle for a traditional backhand topspin. The bat pretty much goes in the direction of the ball flight from the ready position. The stroke is very simple. The stroke is very fast to set up and great for off the bounce. All this makes the stroke very reliable.

Another advantage of this stroke is stroke recovery to the backhand starting position. In this stroke you use your strong shoulder muscles to pull the arm back and down. This takes less effort than using your forehand muscles to reset in a more traditional backhand topspin. You can also reset faster as the shoulders are stronger. Having a backhand with the elbow closer to the body allows your arm to rest as compared to having it always out to the side of the body.

I created this stroke when walking on the beach. I was very surprised when you told me Ma Long uses something similar. I notice his elbow is more out from the body than my stroke. I assumed that this was for more rotating around the elbow to create more spin.

I did a shadow swing of Ma longs stroke and compared it to my stroke. What was a big surprise was that I could get a faster whip action from my stroke with my elbow starting closer to my body.

Also in my version, the bat is facing more to the roof at the start of the stroke. This allows a increase of range of movement for the backswing whip action. A bit like facing the bat forward at the start for the forehand serve.

So my assumption that you need the elbow out from the body at the start of the stroke to get high spin is not correct.

I feel this is due to the elbow action. In my stroke it starts further back and closer to my body. The elbow does go out from the body and back in behind the ball during the stroke. So the forward movement of the elbow much larger compared to ma long or a more stationary elbow position of a traditional backhand.

Due to the forward and up motion of the body as well as the increased forward ( and out and in) motion of the elbow results in a very fast whip action without needing any backswing. The result is seen on the table. Huge pace and high spin.

I would be interested in your comments.

What I use to teach the backhand body movement to my students is to get a old bat and I used some hard foam cut at a 45 degree wedge behind the bat. Attach the bat to the chest using fitness band. So it faces the table using forward lean. Then they have to hit the ball using their chest with the backhand stance against the robot. Do this for 2 weeks and then add the stroke. I tell them to delay the stroke as long as possible so the back whip goes as the body is going forward.

India must have seduced Brett.

My new backhand. Incorporates a delayed forward swing and hopefully good body mechanics?. I should be lower!!!!

https://youtu.be/v5B0_fRXhos

PS I have noted that adding a right hip back in the squatting motion allows a increase of power of about 10%. This allows increased forward shoulder motion.

If I used that bat angle on a backhand the ball would hit the table about 10 cm in front of me. But delaying the swing until the ball is right there is the same for short pips. Maybe more because the entire swing is only a small fraction of what you are doing.

Brett is back in India?

_________________
Smile in the mirror. Do that every morning and you'll start to see a big difference in your life.

Yoko Ono

Last time I spoke to Brett he was going to India to coach a woman pro full time. I really miss my 2 hour training sessions with him. I assume he is in India.

Anyone going?

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NL is there. Maybe they can hire him to keep score, was a bit of a problem yesterday.

Match of the tournament is tonight - CHJ vs WMY!!

_________________
Smile in the mirror. Do that every morning and you'll start to see a big difference in your life.

Yoko Ono

Is there anybody alive out there?

What is the perfect timing for an amateur player to loop a long top-side serve (esp. with BH)?

1) Before the top of the bounce, on the rise?
2) After the top, on the fall?

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Tactics Enthusiast

I am still here.

First of all, Merry Christmas / Happy holidays to all.

I have been living and coaching in Bangalore, India for a few months as well as travelling to international tournaments and German league matches. I don't really want/can't talk about all of this here, hence my recent silence. It has taken some adjustment to this new life as well. If people ask me privately then I'm happy to tell them exactly what I do. I just don't want to talk about it online in public.

What I would like to talk about is a project that I'm working on. It's called AI ttEDGE and the name kind of gives it away. In short, the eventual goal of AI ttEDGE is to have an Artificial Intelligence tt coaching app that has virtual me coaching you in real time. So you'll be playing your shots and AI Brett Clarke will be telling you what you are doing right and wrong. You'll be able to use bluetooth earbuds so you can listen and ask questions in real time as you are playing shots. You'll also be able to record yourself and the app will analyse you later. You'll be able to look at your phone or tablet and see a realistic AI Brett Clarke avatar and ask him questions that will be answered with my natural voice. I will virtually be on your phone.

The above is a probably a multi year project though it is already well underway. I'm hoping to have an extremely basic prototype available in a couple of months. This prototype will definitely not have all the above features. It will only be able to do one thing which is tell you in real time if you are leaning forward enough whilst playing backhand topspin against backspin. It means you'll be able to set the camera up on the side and I'll be telling you to lean forward more if you aren't already doing it enough. If you are already leaning forward enough, I'll tell you that too in real time. The reason I'm starting with this module is I already need it to help me coach. I can only be standing on one angle at one time atm and that's annoying. I'm building an app that I need to help me coach until I don't need to coach anymore, if that makes sense? If others want to use my app, that makes it even better.

AI technology will probably take over most jobs at some stage throughout the next 50 years. You can watch the 8 part series below to understand where things are going. I'm personally becoming obsessed with how AI can help with coaching sport (not just tt). I personally can't build an app but the creator of the Table Tennis Edge app is back on the job.

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I don't think it's possible on the fall. I'm going to make up some s*** and say as the ball is rising. This is all for bh

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Get your 3 wishes here today!
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