says
Spin and more spin.
says
Spin and more spin.
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Here is the way I would think of this, tactical advice is good for before and during a tournament. But your not going to be helped by advice about technique before a tournament. Changing or developing technique is a long term process.
It sounds like your friend knew what to do and how to distract your attention so that the habits you've already trained into your body could take over. But, rest assured, if you had played and/or trained with people between now and the tournament, or, even if you had just went to sleep and picked up your racket to play tomorrow, your body would have remembered how to grab the racket even if you were in a tizzy about how to hold it today.
For the rest of the week, focus on game strategy, set plays, and the mental game, not on technique.
Next week we can play Dr Frankenstein on any aspect of your technique that you want or can imagine.
But here is something to consider: there are grips that are better for BH. They are called BH grips. They help you spin the ball better on BH but they make FH a little harder. Harder because the angle of the racket will be flatter so it will be harder to spin and you will have to rotate your forearm (pronation: that is the anatomical term) more.
There are grips that are better for FH. They are called FH grips. They help you spin the ball better on FH but they make BH a little harder. Harder because the angle of the racket will be flatter and more hooked so it will be harder to spin and you will have to rotate your forearm (supination: this one is the anatomical term for the opposite movement) more and open your wrist more.
But there is no grip that automatically helps you spin more on both sides or makes you hit flatter on both sides, or makes you smash better but not spin as well.
It sounds nice. And what he did was really helpful psychologically for you as you are getting ready for a tournament. But, probably not exactly accurate.
One last thing about grip. If you look at ZJK's grip, he has a grip that is as far to the BH side of things as you can get. Sometimes you see almost the same grip from total recreational players who only hit flat with their BH. And when they open to try and hit with their FH they can't do it because the racket is turned at a funny angle. Well, maybe he changes the grip for the FH sometimes. But I've looked at enough slow-mo photos to know that, at least all of the ones I've examined he is using pretty much the same weird grip for his FH.
Ma Long on the other hand, has a FH oriented grip and adjusts his grip some for he BH. And Timo Boll has a giant switch from FH to BH and back so he uses a FH grip for FH and a BH grip for BH. There is one video where Waldner showed how he changed his grip for FH and for BH. I saw it years ago. So don't ask me to find it. I can't remember where I found it. But it might be one of those tutorial videos he made where everything is in Chinese.
So the point of all this is, there are many ways of adjusting your grip. You are not stuck with one thing.
But if you are taking advice about changing your grip from someone, ideally they should be there in person to show specifically and exactly how they want you to try and hold. And then you should practice it, without an opponent. I will see if I can get video footage at some point of my bounce the ball on the table method that I used for for learning several new grips.
One thing though, the grip shouldn't be too rigid. I agree with Brett that you should be able to do that wiggle thing with your arm to show your grip isn't being held too tight.
But, no focusing on technique or technique changes till after D day; or is it T day.
Sent from Deep Space by Abacus
It sounds like your friend knew what to do and how to distract your attention so that the habits you've already trained into your body could take over. But, rest assured, if you had played and/or trained with people between now and the tournament, or, even if you had just went to sleep and picked up your racket to play tomorrow, your body would have remembered how to grab the racket even if you were in a tizzy about how to hold it today.
For the rest of the week, focus on game strategy, set plays, and the mental game, not on technique.
Next week we can play Dr Frankenstein on any aspect of your technique that you want or can imagine.
But here is something to consider: there are grips that are better for BH. They are called BH grips. They help you spin the ball better on BH but they make FH a little harder. Harder because the angle of the racket will be flatter so it will be harder to spin and you will have to rotate your forearm (pronation: that is the anatomical term) more.
There are grips that are better for FH. They are called FH grips. They help you spin the ball better on FH but they make BH a little harder. Harder because the angle of the racket will be flatter and more hooked so it will be harder to spin and you will have to rotate your forearm (supination: this one is the anatomical term for the opposite movement) more and open your wrist more.
But there is no grip that automatically helps you spin more on both sides or makes you hit flatter on both sides, or makes you smash better but not spin as well.
It sounds nice. And what he did was really helpful psychologically for you as you are getting ready for a tournament. But, probably not exactly accurate.
One last thing about grip. If you look at ZJK's grip, he has a grip that is as far to the BH side of things as you can get. Sometimes you see almost the same grip from total recreational players who only hit flat with their BH. And when they open to try and hit with their FH they can't do it because the racket is turned at a funny angle. Well, maybe he changes the grip for the FH sometimes. But I've looked at enough slow-mo photos to know that, at least all of the ones I've examined he is using pretty much the same weird grip for his FH.
Ma Long on the other hand, has a FH oriented grip and adjusts his grip some for he BH. And Timo Boll has a giant switch from FH to BH and back so he uses a FH grip for FH and a BH grip for BH. There is one video where Waldner showed how he changed his grip for FH and for BH. I saw it years ago. So don't ask me to find it. I can't remember where I found it. But it might be one of those tutorial videos he made where everything is in Chinese.
So the point of all this is, there are many ways of adjusting your grip. You are not stuck with one thing.
But if you are taking advice about changing your grip from someone, ideally they should be there in person to show specifically and exactly how they want you to try and hold. And then you should practice it, without an opponent. I will see if I can get video footage at some point of my bounce the ball on the table method that I used for for learning several new grips.
One thing though, the grip shouldn't be too rigid. I agree with Brett that you should be able to do that wiggle thing with your arm to show your grip isn't being held too tight.
But, no focusing on technique or technique changes till after D day; or is it T day.
Sent from Deep Space by Abacus
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