Trying to fix my robotic forehand

[Novarac23]

I had an unplanned training session last night with one of the guys visiting for the tournament. Awesome dude, pretty high level. We were trying to fix my robotic forehand. As you watch the video you can see my fh getting better and better and towards the end its honestly the best it ever felt and looked. Still need to work on standing wider and being more consistent, but man did this make a big difference. Towards the end I'm waiting and watching the ball, hitting through the ball and following through it. I also left some of his advice uncut in case anyone benefits from it. Any feedback as usual is welcome!

 

[plunder]

i comment the efforts no offense well done

 

[olive-nguyen]

I can see the change. This is what I have to learn.

 

[Novarac23]

i comment the efforts no offense well done

Thank you!

 

[Novarac23]

I can see the change. This is what I have to learn.

Thank you, thank you! You can do it 💪 it helps out tremendously when you have someone 50x better then you to practice with you of course!

 

[olive-nguyen]

Thank you, thank you! You can do it 💪 it helps out tremendously when you have someone 50x better then you to practice with you of course!

Waiting to find that someone. For now it's old penhold uncles who don't understand what you mean and when you want to play forehand the hit short and into your backhand.

 

[Angerer]

Good efforts, mister!

I would recommend getting rid of the "crab" posture. You don't need to "sit" by bending this low during shots--you could rather transfer this power into shots.

 

[Novarac23]

Good efforts, mister!

I would recommend getting rid of the "crab" posture. You don't need to "sit" by bending this low during shots--you could rather transfer this power into shots.

Thank you, thank you! I think standing wider, but less lower will fix that weird crab effect. Also not leaning too forward. I'm still trying to figure out that one out.

 

[Gozo Zyreruna]

Waiting to find that someone. For now it's old penhold uncles who don't understand what you mean and when you want to play forehand the hit short and into your backhand.

at least it is not long pips blocking. Blessed indeed you are young padawan.

 

[Gozo Zyreruna]

I had an unplanned training session last night with one of the guys visiting for the tournament. Awesome dude, pretty high level. We were trying to fix my robotic forehand. As you watch the video you can see my fh getting better and better and towards the end its honestly the best it ever felt and looked. Still need to work on standing wider and being more consistent, but man did this make a big difference. Towards the end I'm waiting and watching the ball, hitting through the ball and following through it. I also left some of his advice uncut in case anyone benefits from it. Any feedback as usual is welcome!

Why are you holding back my friend?

On my mark, unleash hell! - Maximus.

What you do today, let it echo in eternity! - also Maximus

Gozo, what are you doing? Give me those 500 lbs feeling from your forehand! Stop giving me pussy shit! - My old coach.

 

[olive-nguyen]

at least it is not long pips blocking. Blessed indeed you are young padawan.

They use antispin.

 

[Novarac23]

Why are you holding back my friend?

On my mark, unleash hell! - Maximus.

What you do today, let it echo in eternity! - also Maximus

Gozo, what are you doing? Give me those 500 lbs feeling from your forehand! Stop giving me pussy shit! - My old coach.

Haha some of those shots I was just focusing on technique not power. Some of those were very close to my 100% power (towards the end at least)

 

[dingyibvs]

I had an unplanned training session last night with one of the guys visiting for the tournament. Awesome dude, pretty high level. We were trying to fix my robotic forehand. As you watch the video you can see my fh getting better and better and towards the end its honestly the best it ever felt and looked. Still need to work on standing wider and being more consistent, but man did this make a big difference. Towards the end I'm waiting and watching the ball, hitting through the ball and following through it. I also left some of his advice uncut in case anyone benefits from it. Any feedback as usual is welcome!

You definitely made some progress through the session, though not so much in terms of fixing the "roboticness". If you look at your stroke, your arm/wrist is at its most stretched at the beginning of the forward stroke. But if you look at pros, their arm/wrist is actually at their most stretched quite a bit AFTER starting their forward stroke. That's because they keep their arm/wrist loose and activate them later than the lower body. This way, when the forward stroke starts with their legs and body their arm actually stays in place, thus getting stretched before the arm muscles start to contract as well. Ma Long is probably the most extreme example of this, but even those with more compact motions do it. Timo Boll demonstrates it quite well in this video, see how his arm is at its most stretched when his body is almost almost done rotating (ironically in real matches he typically keeps use a much more compact motion and only his wrist demonstrates this degree of "stretch", so he was more demonstrating a Ma Long stroke ):

This is Timo's actual stroke, note how the wrist becomes maximally stretched by quite a bit AFTER the forward stroke initiates. All Chinese pros are fairly pronounced with this, but many European pros, especially older ones, are not that pronounced. But even if you can't see it clearly on video, they all utilize this method, and you'll always perceive them as looking less "robotic".

 

[Novarac23]

You definitely made some progress through the session, though not so much in terms of fixing the "roboticness". If you look at your stroke, your arm/wrist is at its most stretched at the beginning of the forward stroke. But if you look at pros, their arm/wrist is actually at their most stretched quite a bit AFTER starting their forward stroke. That's because they keep their arm/wrist loose and activate them later than the lower body. This way, when the forward stroke starts with their legs and body their arm actually stays in place, thus getting stretched before the arm muscles start to contract as well. Ma Long is probably the most extreme example of this, but even those with more compact motions do it. Timo Boll demonstrates it quite well in this video, see how his arm is at its most stretched when his body is almost almost done rotating (ironically in real matches he typically keeps use a much more compact motion and only his wrist demonstrates this degree of "stretch", so he was more demonstrating a Ma Long stroke ):

This is Timo's actual stroke, note how the wrist becomes maximally stretched by quite a bit AFTER the forward stroke initiates. All Chinese pros are fairly pronounced with this, but many European pros, especially older ones, are not that pronounced. But even if you can't see it clearly on video, they all utilize this method, and you'll always perceive them as looking less "robotic".

When I said robotic I mostly meant not following through the shot when performing my FH stroke. Previously I would stop half way through and that looked very robotic to me

I don’t think I’m following 100% of what you’re saying. When you say pros arms and wrist is at their most streched after the forward strole do you mean that their arm is more “straight” after the stroke? Straight might not be the right term but maybe “extended”?

 

[schrodingerskoalabear]

Great job! Definitely saw the improvement in quality and speed of the stroke.

I am on the same journey and attempting to add more quality to my shots too.

I didn't think your FH follow through was initially all that bad though it improved at the end too. IMO the improvement came from transitioning from a spin-upwards stroke to a more horizontal-forward hitting stroke. As someone who suffers from finishing their FH shot too vertically, I am training to change my form to this more forward motion stroke.

 

[Novarac23]

Great job! Definitely saw the improvement in quality and speed of the stroke.

I am on the same journey and attempting to add more quality to my shots too.

I didn't think your FH follow through was initially all that bad though it improved at the end too. IMO the improvement came from transitioning from a spin-upwards stroke to a more horizontal-forward hitting stroke. As someone who suffers from finishing their FH shot too vertically, I am training to change my form to this more forward motion stroke.

Yeah agreed. I didn’t it think it was bad either but then towards the end of the video when I was properly following through the entire fh motion felt different for sure. What helped me change the most is trying to push through the ball as opposed to lift the ball up. Hard to explain with words, gotta do it irl haha

 

[K.K]

you can try to be a bit more relaxed. i think your roboticness comes from beeing to tense.
first thing: try to let your arm and hand be loose and let the movement start from your hip. your arm should follow your hip naturally and this creates the swing. the only moment you tense up is in the moment of contacting the ball.
second: you need to transfer the weight on to your left leg to finish the stroke. sometimes your left leg is in the air for the full stroke

 

[K.K]

Good efforts, mister!

I would recommend getting rid of the "crab" posture. You don't need to "sit" by bending this low during shots--you could rather transfer this power into shots.

i would second that and add that you round your shoulders to compensate maybe for your height and then your stroke is compromised. you should definitely work on your stance, really important!

 

[Novarac23]

i would second that and add that you round your shoulders to compensate maybe for your height and then your stroke is compromised. you should definitely work on your stance, really important!

I’m assuming I shouldn’t round my shoulders? For context I’m 6”5’

 

[K.K]

I’m assuming I shouldn’t round my shoulders? For context I’m 6”5’

don't need to focus on that, just have a wider stance, a loser arm and do the right weight transfer. here is a video of tomislav pucar, that is the same height as you and maybe it helps for reference of how wide you need to stand