Help me Improve?

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Hello!

So, I went to a tournament around a week ago, and the club was recording the semi-finals and recorded the match I was playing. Might as well take advantage and ask for any recommendations or any advice you can give me. It's the first match and I'm the one with the blue shirt


The thing I greatly noticed was the fact that I'm playing too upright. I don't know how to correct this, though. During shadow drills and whatnot, when I do the movements in front of a mirror they look fine to me; I don't look too upright, in fact I look pretty slouched forward like you're supposed to. But in matchplay or any type of actual play for that matter, every time I record myself or see myself play, I'm always too upright.
 
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Hi!

Firstly, well done on the win. It looked very comfortable for you. You dominated from the start and controlled throughout.

The most obvious area of improvement you could make (from my perspective), is your backhand open up against a backspin ball. There were many times (I lost count), when you returned your opponent's serve with a floaty push. You got away with this against this opponent because he couldn't attack your push very well. But a stronger opponent would be able to attack this push strongly and then you might be in a bit of trouble. So based on what I saw in this match, I would encourage you to improve your backhand topspin vs backspin. When you receive, try to be more positive with your backhand and play topspin (you do this well on your forehand already) and try to cut out the floaty pushes.

But I thought you did great in this game. Lots of positives with your rallying and forehand topspin attacks.

How did you get on in the final?
 
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Thanks! Actually, I was working on backhand topspin this entire week, so I’m glad you picked up on that too. It feels weird to me to receive sidespin/back spin serves to my backhand for some reason, so throughout the match I pushed those balls as they came down, which resulted in a weak and floaty ball. It turns out I was playing my backhand loops too low from the table and I felt unsure whether or not to go for the shot. You’re actually supposed to start from waist level and follow through until your hand is perpendicular to the table. What I did was start from a bit under waist level and follow through and ended a bit more than straight. I want to dedicate this new month to using my backhand more often and get used to sidespin more. A lot of the high rated players in the club I go to heavily rely on topspin/sidespin shots and are VERY powerful. My racket angle has to be almost parallel to the table to block those shots! They’re also very fast!

I won in the finals 3-0 as well, so I’m glad about that! Thanks for asking.
 
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Well, I see a lot of coachwork here, and thats good! :)

My personal attitude - wide up, bent with knees, not spin, feel your arm with more wide dynamics, don't tend to chicken-wing.

Of course there are different trends in that and it depends on coach and personal feeling. You both have the stamp of the coach. Try to add your personality.

Here are two very different architectures of the sipmlest warm-up counters, exampling oposite trends, I think you'll catch what I mean:


 
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