Help me to fix my FH loop :/

[jonol]

On many of these shots, you are shifting your body weight in a straight line directly forwards. But because of your footwork this is the only way you could possibly play some of these shots.

You mention that your elbow is 'too bent' but with your positioning in this clip, but if you were to try and straighten your arm out further, then you would be hitting the ball with your elbow instead of the bat because of how you've positioned yourself.

If you want to straighten out your arm to get a longer stroke and generate more spin, then you will need to open your stance by pivoting and stepping back with your right foot. If the incoming ball is aimed close to your body, then you will also need to pivot your left foot out to create the space for the shot. Unless you can fix your footwork, you will not be able to fix the bent elbow "problem".

I write this as "problem" because you should remember that there is not one correct way to play a forehand. Depending on the depth, speed, height and spin of the incoming ball and your own relative position, you are always going to need to make adjustments to your shot. However if you're having trouble playing more full strokes, then based on this clip the main limiting factor will be that you need to change your footwork to create space for proper hip rotation and a larger swing.

Once you have worked out how to create this space to allow a larger swing, you should focus on loading some of your weight on your right leg, using hip rotation to shift that weight to your left leg and allowing your arm to follow the shift, closing your forearm and wrist angle as you contact to generate more spin at the contact point.

That's about as helpful advice as I could give over text with just the 40 seconds of clip. You could try this out for a few weeks and then see if another coach might be able to help, or post another video.

 

[NextLevel]

My stroke is almost perfect, but my critical mistake of engaging forearm early makes it very weak... I polished most of the aspects of FH loop like fingers engagement, and proper whip muscle engagement, but they stop too early after my backswing... If i'll fix it, then it will look like a normal chinese FH loop. I was hoping that people can notice any other mistakes i make, because there are many great players here, and i need a lot more to learn

How many players do you admire who are not Chinese have a "Chinese forehand loop"? How many players who you admire do not have a Chinese forehand loop? The valley of mimicry of form has consumed many good players, it is more important to be able to execute required functions with a stroke than to have the stroke look a certain way. When those functions are not bring fulfilled, then fix or expand the form to fulfill the function, focusing on the Chinese generally will stagnate your game in the absence of huge technical deficiencies. You *may* have some deficiencies but those are easiest to discern when you know what your forehand needs to execute more shots and not by some abstract attempt to copy a Chinese forehand, when even the Chinese can't often agree or whether Fan or Ma Long has better forehand form (and they have different form in nuanced ways).

 

[Denso]

Overall, I think that your FH is not that bad.

I notice three (minor) issues that have been basically already mentioned:
- You should avoid jumping too much and focus on a stable stance before executing the shot
- Try rotating your hip more while taking care that you hit the ball directly in front of you, normally that should settle the problem of the "elbow being attached to the upper body"
- Conciously train taking the ball early (rising phase), at the highest point and late (falling phase), and try to impart more spin on the ball (with a closer bat angle) in all three situations. In the video, you get very high returns, so that a focus on power is in principle not wrong. However, this technique will have its limits when you get higher quality returns, as you will require more spin for safety.

 

[Gozo Zyreruna]

1. Stay firmly grounded first before executing the stroke.
2. Hit using full body momentum, that is, full commitment, that is to say, put your weight into the shot.

The antithesis of the above is like doing monkey kung-fu. Jumping here and there with no proper grounding.

 

[BackhandSteve]

I would like to address your racket - its good to know that, if you dont have an actual table tennis bat you cannot play properly. If you have a racket with stars, like 3 stars.

Buy:
Blade separately and rubbers separately from a table tennis shop. And let the shop glue the rackey together. You can ask the shop for advice on which blade and rubber you should use. Probably something ”allround”. 😊