What do you do to keep your hand relaxed?

[tabaradumitru]

No problem happy to help! If you are lower, and try to focus only on hitting with the leg, you will improve rapidly. It's easy to practice this at home, you let your arms hang fully loose, zero tension, and then do the recoil with right leg and hip, and release with the leg, like pressing the leg forward, and see how your arm will naturally go forward with the inertia, that's the feeling

Also, can you take a look at my short push serve receives?
Because of the stiff arm, even in the video it seems like a pirate hook on my arm, not a table tennis racket. Seems like I don't rotate the wrist/fingers at all and the racket points in the same direction all the time. my pushes are like fencing Wait a second... maybe I should stop playing TT and start fencing, maybe I'll be good there

 

[victormanriquey]

You're right that I focus on the wrist but to keep it tense not to have it flexible and focus more on fingers. Also, because of how I'm playing at the moment, I put a lot of force but not in the good way, and this force doesn't actually generate more spin or power but does nothing. I think because all this force is focused on the arm but not on the lower part of the body, so It does nothing but I only get tired.
The concept of using the lower body is pretty hard to understand. When you look at pro's, you see some movements but it doesn't seem to have so much importance because the movement is short, it's not like jumping in the sand, where you see a clear legs movement. My brain is lazy and doesn't give importance to the legs. I have to change this fact.

The better somebody plays or does something, the more natural and easy it looks, that's always the illusion of mastery at anything

But with TT, the illusion of leading with the arm is really hard to distinguish unless somebody tells you, you look at the pros, and all you see if big arm swings haha

 

[Tyce]

You're right that I focus on the wrist but to keep it tense not to have it flexible and focus more on fingers. Also, because of how I'm playing at the moment, I put a lot of force but not in the good way, and this force doesn't actually generate more spin or power but does nothing. I think because all this force is focused on the arm but not on the lower part of the body, so It does nothing but I only get tired.
The concept of using the lower body is pretty hard to understand. When you look at pro's, you see some movements but it doesn't seem to have so much importance because the movement is short, it's not like jumping in the sand, where you see a clear legs movement. My brain is lazy and doesn't give importance to the legs. I have to change this fact.

Think of moving your core as moving a bicycle wheel. Your core is the center of the wheel, and making a small turn in the center will make the tyre spin quite a bit of length. Of course your arm won't stay completely still, because that would require tension to hold. Instead, you can nudge your arm slightly to keep up with your core's rotation and have a quick tense-up on contact.

Yes, I am one of those who can teach much better than they play

 

[victormanriquey]

Also, can you take a look at my short push serve receives?
Because of the stiff arm, even in the video it seems like a pirate hook on my arm, not a table tennis racket. Seems like I don't rotate the wrist/fingers at all and the racket points in the same direction all the time. my pushes are like fencing Wait a second... maybe I should stop playing TT and start fencing, maybe I'll be good there

hahaha don't go for fencing! cool sport though

It's hard to say, the opponent didn't give you much heavy spin though, but a bit yes, maybe with another vid where the opponent is higher ranked

 

[Wrighty67]

I remember this video, I found it really useful as well. Made me realise I had a habit of locking my arm up after the first backhand hit and then not relaxing after. Sometimes it's hard to think about the body mechanics involved, but it's all linked.

Ben made some good content back in the day.

I agree - watched this a long time back but found it again today and found it super relevant.

 

[golden_son]

Thank you! I know that I'm not using my legs almost at all, I mean I use them just not to fall on the ground and to sustain all the fat that I have sometimes I force myself to lower up stance but I can't keep it for long, it's a habit to go up back ASAP.

I'm sure there are plenty of folks on this forum bigger than you, myself included. My training partner is around 110kg; if we can do it, so can you! Work on standing on your toes, less flat-footed. I even bring my heels off the ground when I'm in recieve position. It will help keep your center of gravity forward. The more you catch yourself standing too high and remind yourself to get low and on your toes, the more you'll ingrain the habit. You can also widen your stance to lower your body. Just don't neglect your glute and hamstring exercises and end up with a back injury 🤐🤡

 

[merlin el mago]

You're right that I focus on the wrist but to keep it tense not to have it flexible and focus more on fingers. Also, because of how I'm playing at the moment, I put a lot of force but not in the good way, and this force doesn't actually generate more spin or power but does nothing. I think because all this force is focused on the arm but not on the lower part of the body, so It does nothing but I only get tired.
The concept of using the lower body is pretty hard to understand. When you look at pro's, you see some movements but it doesn't seem to have so much importance because the movement is short, it's not like jumping in the sand, where you see a clear legs movement. My brain is lazy and doesn't give importance to the legs. I have to change this fact.

In the moment you are tense you don't made spin, playing concentrate to tense the core when doing the topspin (the arm, forearm, wrist & hand always relaxed) and after relax, serving you don't need to tense the core but if you use your body movement you increase the spin so your serves improves quality.

Link to video for Chinese forehand topspin detailed.

 

[merlin el mago]

When you learn how to do it, you'll see like a natural & relaxed motion not forced. Concentrate only in the feeling the blade brushing softly the ball.

 

[tabaradumitru]

Thank you everyone. I can't wait to go to the venue and apply what you suggested .

Also, my current main racket has 205g(Yinhe PRO-01 - 92g + H3 BS Prov 40deg + H8-80 38deg - both boosted 2 times) and my second racket has 192g. and the Yinhe PRO-01 blade has a thick handle in my opinion, this is why I think I also try to squeeze the handle and hold it tight, to not drop the racket since it's pretty heavy. I also have a 3rd racket: a 188g one, a Nittaku Violin blade + rubbers, and I feel an immediate difference. Also, the Violin is not so thick so it's easier to hold the racket.
I will try to find another alternative for the blade(even if this(Yinhe PRO-01) was basically my alternative for Viscaria), maybe this will let me use my hand in a more relaxed way.
Also, what I noticed, is that if do some drills or loops for 20 mins for example, my shoulder hurts and the arms hurt because I tend to keep them tense, I don't feel any pain in the legs or core body. This is also a sign of not using these.

 

[merlin el mago]

Heavy weight combos (blade+rubbers) if you wrist allows are excellent to made FH topspin because favors the arm, foream, wrist & hand to be relaxed. I forgot you don't have to take the blade strongly with your hands, apply only enough force to not loose the racket.

 

[job59]

I have large hands, and I find that having a blade with a suitably large handle mitigates a lot of these issues, which I experience more severely when having to compensate my grip for smaller handles.
Might not be an issue for you, but worth mentioning IMO.

It works the other way round too. I don't have small hands, but I realized, using the original handle of my Long 5X, my BH was less accurate (and then tense). Using the 301X is a complete different experience, as it is much, much leaner. So I sanded the handle of my L5X. Works.

 

[job59]

Heavy weight combos (blade+rubbers) if you wrist allows are excellent to made FH topspin because favors the arm, foream, wrist & hand to be relaxed. I forgot you don't have to take the blade strongly with your hands, apply only enough force to not loose the racket.

... but tighten the grip (squeeze thumb and index finger) on contact! Then start relaxing during the follow through. Something like: 30 % - 70 % - 30%.

Need to quote Tyce:

Yes, I am one of those who can teach much better than they play

 

[BackhandSteve]

Hello my friend.

Simple answer: it is normal to be tense in a match. By learning how to relax during them these issues will go away. It is only an result of being tense during matchplay. Which you should be! Because its exciting!

keep on playing matches, learn to relax. It will sort itself out. I doubt you have the same issues in training 😉

All the best 😎