- soft hand right off bounce.
- increasingly firmer hand
- move bat through black a little
- let ball bounce up a little and go through more
- step back inches and use a little longer stroke... until you are a step back and countering/looping
- stay right off bounce loose wirst and go through ball for spin
- use change of grip pressure at impact with acceleration for speed and spin (more speed with allowing ball to rise a little)
this is very interesting... do you think this would work in normal mult-ball block training, i.e. as you progress through the drill you alter your stroke through all the above steps ?
My son does a blocking drill but wants to be a bit more aggressive when he has enough reaction time to be so
A lot of coaches will do a drill where coach hit s a BH to player's BH, then player has to do a re-loop. Initially, this re-loop is weak, but gets progressively spinnier and faster/powerful as player's touch improves.
Player uses a soft hand, takes ball off bounce, but explodes through ball a short little bit. Initially, control of grip pressure is bad and shot is inconsistent, but as feel of touch is better, player gets more consistent and spinny or fast or both depending on what they are trying to do.
For more spin, use more acceleration with initial soft had, but increase pressure progressively some at impact... always trying to take ball right off bounce.
Later, take ball on rise with more grip pressure for much faster shot... same grip change concept at impact to make more speed and spin.
It doesn't take a long stroke... this stroke is a micro stroke, often inches or a foot if real powerful. Since this is a very quick shot and does involve a high level of speed, the stroke most be short, quick, safe, repeatable.
This stroke is a foundation piece at a certain stage of BH development. Many coaches have players start practicing this shot way before they are USATT 1500 for strategic reasons... this shot develops off the bounce touch at the table... which is a very flexible skill that will add a lot of safety (you are keeping it one the table), pressure (this is quick and you rob opponent of time, while you are still safe. Even if a player will not play like this in a match at USATT 1500, it is important to start growing this shot in many coaches' opinion... it as direct carry-over to later growth and types of shots.
This even helps a player develop easier touch of the ball away from table.
The shot Coach Li is showing in his vid is a counter-drive from the block position. It isn't so powerful, but if placed right it will win point or be strong pressure. many coaches will not want a player doing that shot too much... but that shot has its place. Often, you will get a higher, weaker ball to your BH and you may need to be able to quickly and safely drive it with enough power to win the point.
I described other ways to add better power with a more compact stroke.
What Coach Li showed is a safe way to drive ball with some power when you were determined to be in a blocking position... so that shot still has safety and tactical flexibility/importance... I just do not advise to seek to use that as the primary way of BH offense... it is simply a way to add power suddenly when you were gunna block it.
