OOAK Table Tennis Forum

Been playing off and on for years and I want to start training and learning better technique. I watched a few videos and this is where I am at. What are things I can work on?

Beginning - FH
3:10 - BH

https://youtu.be/wD9OAQgEd5c

FH:
1) Bend your knees
2) you are weight shifting left leg - right leg causing you to bob up and down. Don't do that. stay down (see #1) and twist at the core instead (but not too much right now)
3) You're hitting in front of you and reaching - you can see your wrist cocking each hit. Try not to do either of these. each time you hit the contact point should be beside you (and twist at the core to make this happen) rather than in front of you. Although, the ability to do this depends a lot upon the quality of hit you get from your practice partner. eg, you'll never be able to stop cocking your wrist and reaching for the ball if they keep hitting short.
4) you're contacting the ball very late. Try to get at the top of the bounce.
5) at 1.26 you lean and try to drag the ball over. Step to the left, give yourself space, #1, #2.

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Chasse Patate

What camera did u use?

Silver gave good advice, one of the first thing ppl adviced me when i first joined the club was getting my body lowered
(more reach, perceive the ball better).

plus, if you bend your knees, you can stick them underneath the table when you flick

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Chasse Patate

I agree with the previous mentions mostly, you should try to get at least 5-10"/15-30cm lower by bending your knees (it's unrelated but you seem to have a length of 185-195cm), having your weight more on the forefeet. You can try to be at 30-45° angle for forehand strokes but backhand should be in line with the table more (no angle) so you should try to get behind the ball in time.

With the new ball I switched to hit the forehand-ball more early at 2 o'clock compared to 2-3 o'clock previously, so I wouldn't suggest to let the ball getting near you at 3 o'clock.

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Red is blogging here >> http://ooakforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=58&t=30522

1 - After watching the video I can see that my knees are barely bent if at all. I will really concentrate on that.

2 - I thought you were supposed to transfer weight from the right to the left as you follow through. Is that more of an advanced technique for looping or was I just wrong? I will work on twisting more.

3/4 - I will need to work on that with my brother. I can see what you are talking about when you say I am hitting it late and reaching for it. So I either need to get a little closer to the table or have him hit them lower and faster.

5 - Footwork is one of my many weaknesses. I often find myself reaching or leaning to get to/away from the ball. I will work on that. I'll google some youtube videos and see if I can find footwork drills to practice without having access to a table.

It was my phone (2 year old Motorolla Droid Turbo), sorry if the quality isn't the greatest.

I will really work on staying low.

This is good advice. I am 6 feet tall (182cm) so good guess. I did notice last night that I had my weight on my heels a lot which made it difficult to move quickly. I will focus on knees bent and weight on my forefeet next time.

I am not a greatest BH expert, but you should try put a (light or stronger) top spin on your BH drive shot. Now you give no-spin or even underspin drive. Balls land better, if they have top spin.

And you should move yourself in the BH shot position behind the ball instead on reaching the ball with your arm. Just move your legs...

haha your phone cam works fine mate!
I'm 181 cm myself, lowering body is quite tough at first especially when you're not used to it, maybe after a month ull get used to it.

Congratulations in taking a really important step to improvement. You are at the stage where you have lots to work with as much as you have lots of flaws. This is a good thing as you should be able to see some great improvements if you follow the advice from the knowledgeable people here. The video quality is good, no problems there. I think your forehand is more advance than your backhand and will perhaps be easier for you to change. Your backhand is really more of an active block. Here's some thoughts. Note that there are more qualified people than me on here.

Forehand
1) Your wrist is mostly cocked. You should flatten that out and relax it a bit more so that the arm and wrist are all in a line.
2) Grip looks pretty good.
3) As others have said, bend your knees more with weight on balls of feet rather than heels.
4) Your footwork is lacking, try be lighter on your feet.
5) Your swing plane is in the shape of an L but the wrong shape L, you start flat then continue upwards, try keep the same swing plane and have your bat go through the same straight line. Imagine you are a discuss thrower having some air swings.

Backhand
1) The main thing I see is the you are pushing and reaching at the ball. There is little to no spin being imparted on the ball.
2) Try pivot at the elbow more and use just a little wrist. Imagine throwing a frisbee.

The backhand is really an easy shot to get right once you have the feel for it as there aren't many variables but at the same time it is hard to actually get your brain to make the adjustments.

From what I see you are certainly no dud and have the potential to get a lot better with some changes so will be great to see your progress.

Here's a good video for you, especially backhand. Good luck !!

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Donic Waldner Senso V1,FH Baracuda Big Slam 2.0mm ,BH Victas Triple Regular 2.0mm

2) Sort of. right-left weight transfer is correct for almost all fh hits, but it's really a backwards-forwards shift with your left out in front. You want to shift your power forwards towards where you are hitting.
I would suggest to skip trying to weight shift until you get your hit correct - once it is correct, and you start hitting harder, the weight shift will come naturally.

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Chasse Patate

For reasons that are pretty obvious, when I went to watch the original poster's video, a whole raft of these came up as "Related" on YouTube.



Iskandar

Embedded on your youtube search history perhaps

For your type of player, a lot of good background reading for you, organized in one place. Go to:

North Little Rock Table Tennis Group timeline page on Facebook

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Panda Drive / 4H Xiom Sigma Pro 2 2.0 / BH Xiom Omega IV Elite Max / Play right-handed
XVT balsa carbon 10mm / 4H Xiom Sigma Pro 2 2.0 / BH Globe 979 Long Pips OX / Play Left-handed shakehand
Stiga Def Wood / 4H Xiom Sigma Pro 2 2.0 / BH GD CC LP OX .. Play Left-handed
Cpen SOS Wood / 4H 729 802-40 2.0 / BH GD Talon use righthanded shakehand grip
HARDBAT / Shakehand Hock 3 ply / Friendship Dr Evil OX .. Play Right-handed