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I hope you are writing all this down somewhere , it might become a nice little book someday !
Daily Table Tennis Chit Chat
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says
Spin and more spin.
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You have good touch on your FH and nice spin. Good stuff.
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Question for anyone that wants to answer:
Does it make any sense for someone who has not yet seriously practiced the FH pivot to serve a standard pendulum serve? Even if the opponent misreads my serve, the ball usually pops up high to my BH corner and right now I am not well trained in dealing with those balls. I'm not sure if I should continue to serve pendulum and start learning to pivot and crossover step, or if I should switch to an underspin/dead ball combination at the opponent's elbow or maybe more reverse sidespin serves to the FH.
In other words, my best serve and the serve I have the most control over (forehand pendulum) is not the serve that best fits my current skillset. Should I shelf the serve for awhile until I learn to pivot?
Does it make any sense for someone who has not yet seriously practiced the FH pivot to serve a standard pendulum serve? Even if the opponent misreads my serve, the ball usually pops up high to my BH corner and right now I am not well trained in dealing with those balls. I'm not sure if I should continue to serve pendulum and start learning to pivot and crossover step, or if I should switch to an underspin/dead ball combination at the opponent's elbow or maybe more reverse sidespin serves to the FH.
In other words, my best serve and the serve I have the most control over (forehand pendulum) is not the serve that best fits my current skillset. Should I shelf the serve for awhile until I learn to pivot?
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yes its not probably the best idea unless you have a strong dynamic backhand that can take care of those popups . In my case , because I have knee and weight issues , I don't want to pivot but then there are easy scoring opportunities I miss but I keep doing it because I want to figure out my backhand issues ... the actual issues I face are in those long balls to the middle where instead of favoring my forehand I tend to favor my backhand and it does not work out in all cases if I am not able to generate enough whip in time
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Pivoting to kill easy balls is easy. Stop wasting time and do it. Pivoting to kill or loop tricky balls is hard work. That's an entirely different story and is optional. You should not be playing shots that result in you having to do a crossover when the ball is easy.
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Knee and weight issues prevent you from pivoting a lot. But they are not a strong reason not to pivot on easy balls. Using your backhand is asking for trouble especially if you play matches that mean something to you.
You're right. I am going to have to learn to pivot at some point to reach my full potential anyways. When I play a chopper, I cover the entire table with a forehand, so I don't have much of an excuse.
I think the issue for me is going to be recognizing which balls constitute as "easy balls" and which balls constitute as tricky balls. That will take alot of game reading skills, but I don't get to play a whole lot of matches so that's a difficulty skill for me to acquire.
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Yes, and NL is absolutely right in this case as well. The more you focus on winning the matches that mean something the more you realize you need to pivot and the choice of ball is the key.
The other problem I have with the approach is I often find myself hitting balls with my backhand which are clearly in the forehand half of the table . Earlier, when I was a forehand oriented player I had the opposite problem where I would pivot too soon . So I believe I need to train more on these dicey balls to make the correct choice ... and there is a plethora of factors to be able to recognize quickly , spin , placement , etc.
The other problem I have with the approach is I often find myself hitting balls with my backhand which are clearly in the forehand half of the table . Earlier, when I was a forehand oriented player I had the opposite problem where I would pivot too soon . So I believe I need to train more on these dicey balls to make the correct choice ... and there is a plethora of factors to be able to recognize quickly , spin , placement , etc.
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If you are on TTEdge and see ETTS 34, which is basically an analysis of how I use those shots, you will see how often I get it wrong. The main thing is that you have to know what you served, what the reasonable response is, and what the common mistakes are off the return as your opponent approaches the ball. Too many people serve backspin and act as if anything can happen - errr - NO! You prepare for a push or a slow flick if the serve was low. If your spin is heavy, the opponent will mostly try to push long to avoid the risk of putting the ball in the net.
When I serve no spin, I get ready to use a forehand vs any ball on the table if the ball is long. If I serve sidespin or side top after serving side backspin for a few times and getting pushes, I expect that my opponent will be fooled at least once since I try to make all my serves look like backspin. I get ready to use my forehand on those balls as well. If I serve backspin or play a better player, I stay in position to use my backhand as pivots will get punished unless the balls are really easy.
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Nothing wrong with hitting backhands from the forehand side if your backhand is a quality shot. The main issue is whether your backhand can track tricky balls.
The problem with not pivoting is the amount of risk when a ball shows up where you do not expect and you are playing a backhand. Adjusting to ball height and spin is not easy.
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Agreed, the degrees of freedom on backhand is more restricted compared to a forehand so it needs more precision of execution and better ball reading skills
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Why you can and should pivot on easy balls - they are EASY balls.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=9e8N0DIltW8&feature=youtu.be&t=713
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=9e8N0DIltW8&feature=youtu.be&t=805
And as for why you have to win the point:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=9e8N0DIltW8&feature=youtu.be&t=1206
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=9e8N0DIltW8&feature=youtu.be&t=713
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=9e8N0DIltW8&feature=youtu.be&t=805
And as for why you have to win the point:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=9e8N0DIltW8&feature=youtu.be&t=1206
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says
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Gene, as good as my serves are in both singles and doubles, often effective vs the 2200 plus crowd, they can always be better.
I may be abnormal, but if you slow motion a lot of my short servers, you can see I impact the serve many cm above net.
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I may be abnormal, but if you slow motion a lot of my short servers, you can see I impact the serve many cm above net.
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Hitting a BH from FH side exposes the BH side. thats the main problem, need to recover more quickly and move to cover (and anticipating too much means the risk of getting off-balance if the next ball comes again to FH side)
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Yeah, but how often is someone ready for a BH down the line from the FH corner?
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High balls to BH unexpected (especially when you are stuck like glue close to table) are Trouble with a Capital T.
You could step in and take it on the rise with your BH using a loose then firm grip pressure, you could step around and kill, you can bend and 50/50 attack, or go for broke and miss. YOU are there and get to decide.
I would say practice both. (Step a bit forward to impact zone) and take it on rise BH, or step around. The step around will take more time to train, but will profit you later. The step up and use BH is easy and intuitive. Either will finish the point with good percentage, I say try out both for your future.
I would also add that you develop really mean nasty deceptive FH pendulum serves. One day, you will be a natural step around FH killing machine, you should have the serves developed, they will help you regardless of your response. The BH can still win. Mostly, a player is not having self on balance knees bent on opponent's touch.
There is more than one response and I would say keep working the serves, the touch you gain carries over into your push returns.
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NextLevel said:
There was an opponent in NA teams, Brian Maxwell I think. If you push to his BH, he would have a snap short fast BH punch to win the point. That makes you do a quick bump to the FH. Guess what ??!!! He saw that coming and to a step to his FH and crush kill with a Dr. Neubauer style BH from wide FH where you lift elbow way high and to the side and hinge the elbow for leverage, a kinda reverse BH.
Man, this cat was KILLING me with that sequence. His 4 consecutive BH winners on BH side made me play to his FH and my troubles got worse. He quickly got up n me 2-0 in games and it was a real fight just to win game 3. Slowly, I discover his tendency, find his true middle some more, and have courage to use my BH strongly.
BM's rating must have been mid 1900s or more and he was solid at his level. I coulda lost 0-3 if I kept feeding his BH or FH.
His unconventional use of BH at his level should be proof to other players that there is more than one response and they can all be effective. He was eating me up and prolly inside giggling like Muttley.
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Yes, but that is worth it if it is a quality shot. It is the same thing as pivoting to play a forehand - if it is not a quality shot, then you have exposed your wide forehand. If you have a real good backhand and can kill the ball both down the line from the forehand into the backhand or inside out to the wide forehand, then the shot has the advantage of being hard to read. You can watch the matches of Adrian Crisan if you need an example of someone doing this often. Ovtcharov and Henzell also used to have moments when they did this. The opponents not used to reading those shots would struggle to deal with them. If your opponent is making shots you can't anticipate then your shots to him are low quality shots.
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actually I have been doing it myself too much, especially after a playing a wide FH in a FH topspin to topspin rally, and i don't have time to come back. When i do it its to try to finish the point down the FH line ! if I try to play cross court i miss it all the time. Surprise effect is guaranteed, but its a risky shot. I try to get a faster footwork and get this ball with the FH but i still go for this shot.
Also, my BH block is better than my FH block so if my opponent has the initiative and i'm blocking with BH, then i position myself more to the middle of the table to do a 2nd, 3rd, 4th... block with my BH, i.e. i cover more space with my BH block instead of FH block. I feel quite confident when the rally is going like this. Of course, i may need to play a FH block or FH topspin, but from a better position (i would not be too far from the ball)
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