How to keep a consistent forehand topspin ??

This user has no status.
This user has no status.
Well-Known Member
Dec 2010
3,779
4,569
16,162
I saw Carl like your post a minute or two before I did , so I let him take the first stab. I of course agree with what he is saying. You should consider yourself lucky you have a good practice partner though if he focuses a bit more when he is blocking it will help your game as well as his block . My 2 cents ... You are really doing well for someone who has started just 9 months back , I think you could work on the following :
1. Forehand : Pinch the rubbers with your fingers instead of holding the handle. I felt like sometimes your index finger is slipping forward when you are looping , you are the best person to tell if that is case, if it is then your fingers are loose and your pressre is on the fingers holding the handle , it should be the other way round , with firming up of the index when FH looping contact is made and firming up of thumb when backhand looping contact is made.
2. BH Strokes : Try to keep your elbow stable and rotate around the elbow with a frisbee throwing action ..

The key thing is that your fingers should hold the "blade of the paddle " and not hold the handle ... your strokes are a little big but it should evolve and you will learn to adjust the size of the swing ..
 
This user has no status.
This user has no status.
Well-Known Member
Jan 2016
4,018
4,578
19,072
So here is the footage of my training session. (Im the taller asian guy)
In this session I didn´t feel like im having those Topspin issues.
I felt like I´m loosing control while playing as you might see in this footage.
Btw. pls dont judge me :D The first time I see myself playing :D

If you see something I´m doing wrong or something I can improve on feel free to tell me :)
Thank you in Advance

Hi first of all, like others said, for someone who's been playing only 9 months, its very good.

Here is what i saw:

FH: i don't know why you're complaining, in the 1st minute of the video, its actually quite good drive, you take a lot of backswing, that gives you power and spin and your opponent can never block more than 2 or 3. Difficult then to talk about consistency because your opponent is not feeding you consistently... Try to not move forward that right foot after you swing, and transfer more weight into the left foot.

BH: you're way too tense, relax more. shorten the stroke.

serves: they're all too high, some of them are illegal you're not throwing the ball. You have to contact the ball as low as possible

receive: I saw you pushing many FH in the net on short serves. Yes you are stepping to the ball, (thats a good thing) but way too late. you have to aim to contact the ball right after the bounce for a short receive , and in the ascending phase for a long push. be more relaxed as well

footwork: you're very young but i felt its quite slow. at 1'50 you could not pivot correctly.

the general posture and attitude is good, you're tall but trying to keep both lower body and upper body low.
 
This user has no status.
This user has no status.
Member
Dec 2011
71
62
148
Hi :)

you are just playing for 9 months now? Seems like you really have a talent for this sport.

May I ask your age? You seem still to be in the "growing phase" of your body, so the problem you describe is just natural.

Three things you should work on:

1. You definitely need to do a lot of coordination and balance practice to counter the "negative" effects of growing up. Juggling while standing on one foot or rotating your arms counter direction aso. Just google some chores for that or I am sure someone in this forum has the time and muse to write a wall of text for you.

2. Practice! Set a goal, for example 10.000 forehand drives a week. But try to include chores in which you have to move. As a warm up it is alright to play from a standing position, but after that you should always have to move to the ball for a forehand drive.

3. Don't be afraid of making mistakes! If you are afraid of making mistakes, you won't improve!
 
This user has no status.
This user has no status.
Well-Known Member
Dec 2010
3,779
4,569
16,162
@Der_Echte : Sure this is not your long lost brother ? especially the "any ESN rubber" part seemed too familiar ..
Hi :)

you are just playing for 9 months now? Seems like you really have a talent for this sport.

May I ask your age? You seem still to be in the "growing phase" of your body, so the problem you describe is just natural.

Three things you should work on:

1. You definitely need to do a lot of coordination and balance practice to counter the "negative" effects of growing up. Juggling while standing on one foot or rotating your arms counter direction aso. Just google some chores for that or I am sure someone in this forum has the time and muse to write a wall of text for you.

2. Practice! Set a goal, for example 10.000 forehand drives a week. But try to include chores in which you have to move. As a warm up it is alright to play from a standing position, but after that you should always have to move to the ball for a forehand drive.

3. Don't be afraid of making mistakes! If you are afraid of making mistakes, you won't improve!
 
says 2023 Certified Organ Donor
says 2023 Certified Organ Donor
Well-Known Member
Sep 2011
12,801
13,180
30,332
Read 27 reviews
I gotta say Schlafftablette's first observation is the best one.

Khang is not on balance. Often, he hits the ball not in his optimal strike zone, doesn't position himself well for the next ball, and by the third ball, he is hitting the ball way out of his effective zone. Some of it is balance. Some of it is not taking micro step hops. Some of it is trying to put way to long a swing on the ball. Some of it is positioning too far back. Some of it is not reading the bounce on the ball well enough.

Either way, he is hitting out of zone off balance with too much force trying to play macho man table tennis. Khang needs to learn how to be a little more loose, use shorter strokes and transfer power more effectively.

If Khang is Korean, I would tell him to look at every Kim Jung Hoon vid on his youtube channel and study. If he doesn't know Korean, then he could search for the KJH vid threads I jisted, I did 6 or so of them. KJH throws out a lot of useful nuggets.

One day, I will go back to Korea and visit him in his new club, and also RSM with Joel.

I agree with Schlafftablette's recommendations to address some of this - exercises that emphasize balance. That will help half his problem right away. STL's recommendation to do 10 Billion practice is also a measure that will get him "There" wherever that is.
 
says Spin and more spin.
says Spin and more spin.
Well-Known Member
Super Moderator
Dec 2010
16,140
17,681
54,733
Read 11 reviews
Another detail is the feet and hips. When he is hitting FH his feet and hips look like they are too squared towards the table. Sometimes it even looks like his right foot is closer to the table than his left foot on FH strokes. Having the right foot a little farther back and the hips turned a little to the right before the stroke will help the balance and the stroke.
 
This user has no status.
First thing I am going to say is, one thing you are doing right is that most of the time you get pretty nice spin. When you fix the followthrough on your FH, that will increase. But your touch is good.

Two things you can work on to improve very easily:

1) Return of serve.
2) FH followthrough.

1) For practicing return of serve there is something simple that will help you. You are naturally gifted and learn fast. If you are only playing for 9 months, you really are playing quite well.

Just have a few different people serve to you over and over again. Play out the points. But focus on the return of serve. Have them serve as though they are trying to win the point whether that means the serve wins the point or that they set you up for their third ball. Practice that drill for a decent amount of time. It will help your level improve.

2) Your FH followthrough is inconsistent. The good news is that this is because you are trying to adjust to each separate ball. The bad news is, the followthrough really should still be consistent. Ultimately, you should adjust to each separate ball and the stroke and followthrough should still be consistent.

One thing that could help: Shadow Strokes. If I was you, I would do these in front of a mirror so you can see and hopefully correct your form so the followthrough is complete, and the reset is fast.

You should do a decent amount of FH shadow strokes and BH shadow strokes. FH may be more important for you right now. But both will be useful.

If you did about 3000 FH (approx 30 min) and 3000 BH (approx 30 min) shadow strokes 3-4 times between now and next Monday, my money says your stroke will improve a certain amount without any other instruction. If you got a decent TT coach to show you what that shadow stroke should look like, beforehand, it will improve a noticeable amount more. But you may not need that part.

With the shadow strokes, just simple, loop, loop, loop, loop....as though someone very precise keeps blocking back to the same location for you.

After you have done that 3-4 times, you could start adding footwork to it to make it more fun.

Here is footage of shadow stroke + footwork:



Sorry. I don't have footage of just the stroke without the footwork. But both will help.

After that. A little time with a coach could really help. If you get the mechanics of a good stroke into muscle memory first and then take 2-4 lessons, your level will jump.

If your receive of serve improves, you will Jump even more. But you are doing the most important thing well. You have good touch and contact for spinning the ball.


Sent from The Subterranean Workshop by Telepathy


Okay I will keep your tips and exercises in mind for the future.
Thank you guys (especially Carl) for taking time helping me out ! :D
 
  • Like
Reactions: UpSideDownCarl
says Spin and more spin.
says Spin and more spin.
Well-Known Member
Super Moderator
Dec 2010
16,140
17,681
54,733
Read 11 reviews
Okay I will keep your tips and exercises in mind for the future.
Thank you guys (especially Carl) for taking time helping me out ! :D

Just for info, here is a story. The shadow stroke drills I suggested, I originally got that from a coach named Alex Perez who lives in my area and who I am friends with. He is an excellent coach. This was about 8 years ago.

He was having problems with his back and he heard that in my work, one of the things I do is help people who have back problems get better. So he asked if we could do an exchange: I show him some things to do to help his back and do a session with him that makes his back feel better. And he would give me a lesson.

When I agreed to the exchange he watched me play some matches. And then he called me over and he said: "I have to tell you, my back, its not so bad. Your table tennis, it is worse." :) I laughed and he was really correct. I was pretty bad back then. My technique, my form, was pretty bad. You are better than I was back then. :)

So he brought me to a mirror, showed me what a stroke for FH and a stroke for BH should look like. He actually showed me a FH counterhit stroke and larger FH loop stroke. And he did the same for BH. He showed me in front of the mirror until he was satisfied that the form of the Shadow Strokes were decent. Then he told me pretty much what I told you. He told me, 3000 FH and 3000 BH every day, from when he showed me till the next week when he would give me a lesson.

He also told me that he would know if I practiced or not. I actually like doing shadow strokes. I find it fun. I will do them whenever I can't get to a table. I actually do them lefty and righty. And I have found that doing them lefty helps my stroke righty, which is kind of cool.

But, anyway, after I did the shadow strokes the first time, the next time I was at the table, I could feel the difference. By the time I did the whole week, doing shadow strokes every day, I could definitely tell. When I did the lesson with Alex, he told me he knew that I did the shadow strokes. He could tell. He saw the difference in the stroke; he saw the difference in my contact. I could feel the difference in my stroke and contact as well. To me, back then it was kind of cool to feel the extra power with seemingly less effort: better mechanics does = more power + less effort.

And when I added the footwork with the strokes, that really helped as well. I am pretty confident that without those shadow stroke/footwork drills, my technique would still be pretty terrible because I started playing at the age of 44 years old. :)

And I am confident shadow strokes will help your mechanics too. If you really do them, I have a feeling the people around you will be amazed at how fast you will get better. And they already should be impressed with how far you have come in just 9 months. But I am pretty sure the shadow strokes will make the next jump of improvements go even faster.
 
Last edited:
This user has no status.
Just for info, here is a story. The shadow stroke drills I suggested, I originally got that from a coach named Alex Perez who lives in my area and who I am friends with. He is an excellent coach. This was about 8 years ago.

He was having problems with his back and he heard that in my work, one of the things I do is help people who have back problems get better. So he asked if we could do an exchange: I show him some things to do to help his back and do a session with him that makes his back feel better. And he would give me a lesson.

When I agreed to the exchange he watched me play some matches. And then he called me over and he said: "I have to tell you, my back, its not so bad. Your table tennis, it is worse." :) I laughed and he was really correct. I was pretty bad back then. My technique, my form, was pretty bad. You are better than I was back then. :)

So he brought me to a mirror, showed me what a stroke for FH and a stroke for BH should look like. He actually showed me a FH counterhit stroke and larger FH loop stroke. And he did the same for BH. He showed me in front of the mirror until he was satisfied that the form of the Shadow Strokes were decent. Then he told me pretty much what I told you. He told me, 3000 FH and 3000 BH every day, from when he showed me till the next week when he would give me a lesson.

He also told me that he would know if I practiced or not. I actually like doing shadow strokes. I find it fun. I will do them whenever I can't get to a table. I actually do them lefty and righty. And I have found that doing them lefty helps my stroke righty, which is kind of cool.

But, anyway, after I did the shadow strokes the first time, the next time I was at the table, I could feel the difference. By the time I did the whole week, doing shadow strokes every day, I could definitely tell. When I did the lesson with Alex, he told me he knew that I did the shadow strokes. He could tell. He saw the difference in the stroke; he saw the difference in my contact. I could feel the difference in my contact and stroke as well. To me, back then it was kind of cool to feel the extra power with seemingly less effort: better mechanics does = more power + less effort.

And when I added the footwork with the strokes, that really helped as well. I am pretty confident that without those shadow stroke/footwork drills, my technique would still be pretty terrible because I started playing at the age of 44 years old. :)

And I am confident shadow strokes will help your mechanics too. If you really do them, I have a feeling the people around you will be amazed at how fast you will get better. And they already should be impressed with how far you have come in just 9 months. But I am pretty sure the shadow strokes will make the next jump of improvements go even faster.

Hahaha nice story :D
I will try practising whenever I can and after all your tips from all over the world I feel very confident and more motivated playing TT.

Thank you guys so much ! :D
 
This user has no status.
This user has no status.
Well-Known Member
Jul 2015
1,716
1,986
6,397
Read 1 reviews
Khang09, I think that your forehand is very good :) But if you struggle with consistency, just practice consistently. Slow down your shot so that you don't overpower your partner. In the video you seem to make every next shot faster than the previous one. Instead, try to make 10, 20, 30, ... 100 loops in a row in the same rhythm. Then try to play two-point forehand: ask your friend to place the ball one to the forehand, one to the middle and so on and practice it. Again, go for consistency and maintain the rhythm. Then practice a random forehand where your friend places the ball randomly to a half-table (or 2/3) and you play to the same spot. Good luck!
 
This user has no status.
This user has no status.
Well-Known Member
Mar 2015
1,308
1,001
3,858
Read 3 reviews
Hi Khang,

pretty much everything is mentioned above. It's natural that you have problems with consistency, with time it will improve. I know, I've started at your age. What is important to find the right place for you to play (if you are the best there train with the coach or find stronger partners. Keep training and the results will come!
 
  • Like
Reactions: Suga D and Khang09
This user has no status.
I saw Carl like your post a minute or two before I did , so I let him take the first stab. I of course agree with what he is saying. You should consider yourself lucky you have a good practice partner though if he focuses a bit more when he is blocking it will help your game as well as his block . My 2 cents ... You are really doing well for someone who has started just 9 months back , I think you could work on the following :
1. Forehand : Pinch the rubbers with your fingers instead of holding the handle. I felt like sometimes your index finger is slipping forward when you are looping , you are the best person to tell if that is case, if it is then your fingers are loose and your pressre is on the fingers holding the handle , it should be the other way round , with firming up of the index when FH looping contact is made and firming up of thumb when backhand looping contact is made.
2. BH Strokes : Try to keep your elbow stable and rotate around the elbow with a frisbee throwing action ..

The key thing is that your fingers should hold the "blade of the paddle " and not hold the handle ... your strokes are a little big but it should evolve and you will learn to adjust the size of the swing ..

Very important what ttmonster is saying ! It is VERY important to use the fingers to hold the blade (that is the thumb and index finger) . There is a video from Ben Larcombe on this :
And a video from Emrattich too :

After trying this , i do believe this is really important ! Check it out guys !:)
 
This user has no status.
This user has no status.
Active Member
Aug 2016
869
1,202
2,883
I think this was touched on by others so I'll try to be quick.

I play penhold short pips so I won't really comment on whip mechanics or spinning it up on your FH. While it's good to want to improve every aspect of your game (here you were talking about FH consistency), I think you should focus on your short game. Namely in service return. Too many pure backspin serves pushed into the net. I'd shore that up first before I'd worry about your FH. You had some nice FH & BH rips in there.

Not trying to be harsh or anything. I think I need to work on my push game also.

But that's what I see from the video.
 
This user has no status.
Re your FH loop, I don't know if this has been said already or not, but I did notice on quite a few of your forehand loops during warmup, your upper body was rotating at the waist and your hips were not engaged. (Your feet were heavily planted, so there was some discontinuity in your follow through).

Other than that, it is now merely a matter of familiarizing and cementing, which will only come through practice, where you "trim off the excess fat" in your stroke.
 
This user has no status.
This user has no status.
Well-Known Member
Jul 2015
1,716
1,986
6,397
Read 1 reviews
Here is another tip. Relax your face while looping

cache.php


fanzhendongjapanwinner0216.jpg
 
Top