How to cover my wide forehand

First thing is that you shouldn't be allowing them to play these shots to begin with (by giving them slow or long, wide angle balls)

Second is that to cover these when they happen, you can't just move sideways. You have to move sideways and FORWARD into the table. Which makes sense really but is something that you have to practice because the footwork involved can be very tricky to pull off and especially to recover from speedily.

Lai kar yam said:

Hello i am a lefthander tt player and i am a forehand dominant player. I will always stay on my backhand side to pivot with forehand. But the problem is that most of my right hander opponents will always spot my weakness and keep hitting to my wide forehand and also occasionally to my wide bh to catch me off guard. Whenever they push to my wide fh i will have very little time to react so i will chop and my tempo will be messed up as im a looper. Any advice?

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You need to understand that what you do before the block comes wide to your forehand? For example, if you pivot on your backhand, then where did you hit the topspin? To your opponent's cross court, his middle or down the line to his backhand. Assuming your opponent is right handed. If you want to stop your opponent from blocking wide, then attack to the middle of your opponent. Also, checkout the videos of left handed players. You will notice that after hitting a pivot forehand topspin from the backhand corner they will always come towards the center of the table to handle the block.

As a lefty and being very familiar with this concept, you have to know your own limitations.

I use to love it in my younger days when people would test me out wide because I could get there and give them back a heavy cross-court sidespin loop back at them that seems aided by their angle. However, I'm 39 now and am finding that to not be as successful as it use to be when I was younger.

So put real simply. Are you still young or athletic? If so, great. But if you're not able to cover the wide shot, then you have to accept and adapt your play to stand slightly more middle of the table. That's what I'm trying to do now. Feel more & more comfortable playing a little bit more middle of the table.

Time & age isn't kind to single wing hitters. It just doesn't work. Better get that backhand up to snuff.

ps - You know given it's a mirror match (righty vs lefty most of the time) you can do that wide FH shot back to them right? Who handles it better?

You need dis

You should never be standing too far away from the forehand corner. Make sure you are able to cover your forehand corner in 1 step (when close to the table) or with a cross-over step.

Also, don't let your opponent get the opportunity to give such a wide angle. You can try to make your forehand pivot as wide to your opponent's forehand as much as possible so that their angle's are limited.

There is no magic if you pivot good players will exploit your wide fh. Or you train even harder the footwork or you work in your backhand. Because there will be pivots that you won't do a quality shot and the ball will come to your weakest point in that case wide fh.

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songdavid98 said:

Also, don't let your opponent get the opportunity to give such a wide angle. You can try to make your forehand pivot as wide to your opponent's forehand as much as possible so that their angle's are limited.

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Yeah that's a good point to the OP I omitted in my response. Pay attention to angles and when it's possible for them to play that really wide to your FH shot.

If the ball is in the middle of the table or to their wide FH, no real threat of a really wide FH that you can't cover. The ball will just be angling straight down the line if they play it to your FH. However. Any time you hit it deep to their BH corner, have to be ready (ie - more middle of the table) just in case because they have the angle to possibly play a very sharp BH cross court wide to your FH.

yuri.saldon said:

There is no magic if you pivot good players will exploit your wide fh. Or you train even harder the footwork or you work in your backhand. Because there will be pivots that you won't do a quality shot and the ball will come to your weakest point in that case wide fh.

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Or hit the ball very hard so that the opponent has no chance to get the ball back. Either down the line or to the middle (the best option).

You can not hit harder every ball in a realistic world. Xu xin is the exactly example of it, a left hander fh oriented player with a good footwork even him is improving his bh to be competitive

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yuri.saldon said:

You can not hit harder every ball in a realistic world. Xu xin is the exactly example of it, a left hander fh oriented player with a good footwork even him is improving his bh to be competitive

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If you can't hit hard, don't pivot.

Ilia Minkin said:

If you can't hit hard, don't pivot.

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And then develop a consistent bh opening against backspin and bh loop, that's the only solution in a long term

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yuri.saldon said:

And then develop a consistent bh opening against backspin and bh loop, that's the only solution in a long term

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Indeed. But it is also nice to have the strong pivot to use against an easy ball or to turn the heat up in certain situations during the game. Like a card in a sleeve

Ilia Minkin said:

Indeed. But it is also nice to have the strong pivot to use against an easy ball or to turn the heat up in certain situations during the game. Like a card in a sleeve

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In this terms I absolutely agree with you!

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1) Step back into ready position, most importantly after you serve. If you love to pivot on the 3rd ball, make sure you don't wait and watch after you serve. You really need to take that step back to cover the options.

2) The opponent has options. You shouldn't HOPE that the ball will come here or FEAR that the ball will go there. Know the options, look at the opponent and REACT to what they are doing.

Over-anticipating is bad too, it makes you slower to react. You can use tactics to restrict the options, to make some of them weak, but the opponent might pick the poorer option or not follow your plan at all.

3) If you start to be conscious of your wide forehand and move more to the middle than usual, you're gonna leave the backhand corner open. Some players are really good at hammering down that corner (down the line since you are a lefty). Instead, if your FH is that good, cover the BH corner and be ready to punish the ball to your FH, or to step around if they give you a chance to do so. If you can't, practice the BH & footwork.