Pushing with gooses neck

Can you elaborate on what on earth is 'the gooses neck technique'?

Is that you at the picture?

It seems to me - and I may be completely wrong here - that you're wanting take one particular grip and apply it to all strokes regardless of whether or not the grip is appropriate. What you're describing as "goose neck technique" is meant to be used for the forehand topspin (which is what we can see in the image you posted) but it's not meant to be used for anything else, as far as I can see. It's certainly not suitable for forehand pushing or serving or chopping on either side.

Dmitrij Ovtcharov does do something strange when he pushes with his backhand (see attached low quality image!), but you should note he's the only one who plays with his wrist cocked like that. Again I might be wrong, but I think you're much better off developing a more standard approach for pushing.

Pushing can be done a lot of ways but if your wrist is flopping all over you are going to be erratic IMHO. You also need to be relaxed. So you need to find the happy medium, not rigid, not flopping. Try videoing yourself doing the shot in various ways. You will learn a lot. A cell phone is adequate.

Like I said video yourself. It is better to keep strokes as simple as possible to do the task at hand. You are not trying to whip the ball when you push. You are trying to keep it low and exactly where you want it.

It can work if you stay loose as a goose.

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Read again what Baal and Der_Echte have said and try to do it.
TT is a very dynamic and sophisticated game where every single shot is of unique degree of complexity and variations.
For a beginner its very important to start with developing correct general skills and the best way to do it is to be coached.
You say that you have a coach, which is good, but I see that you get confused by his advises and you don't know how to implement them. If you want to really improve tremendously, you have to play more with your coach and get help with th implementation of his advices right during the session. Otherwise it will take you a lot of time wandering what and how and what if. Once you get the right basics, these question will start to help you improve quickly.

Anyway, about the gooses neck in a push - generally pushes have not to be made with gooses neck.
But because of the complexity of the game you may, or have, or should use it. The above picture of Dima is an example - he uses the goose neck just because of the particular situation. Another situation in which you have to use the goose neck is if you have to meet the ball just in front of you and push it like you poke with a knife. In order to take the the right decision your body have to be loose and your mind have to be focused, but both have to be well acquanted how to respond and this comes with a lot of training and a lot of coaching.

janovewaldnerstwin said:

So be relaxed? Oh so u can push with gooses neck.Ok I’ll try that

Click to expand...

Like langel says in the post above, not being a tight-wad trigger finger sociopath can really help your performance in a lot of tasks in TT.

When I encouraged you and the rest of TTD to be loose (as a goose - pun certainly intended), it is three fold.


1) Loose and easy-going not stressed relaxed attitude. Obvious benefits in many situations. langel already said it.


2) Keeping muscles loose and not tight. Tight muscles do not accelerate and transfer force. Tightening or firming for power too early will SUCK AWAY your power and control. You are actually fighting against the force you generated and in the same moment trying to generate a large force without any leverage using the only small muscles... it isn't gunna work.


3) Having a very loose grip at impact on the push to receive a short ball is absolut essential to return it short and low. Loose muscles before and during stroke maximize acceleration and control to allow a very short movement to be controlled and explosive. This results in heavy spin when you want it (if you firmed a little at the right time) or a dead ball (if you loosened at the right time and used a different bat angle.

The push should be a very easy shot to execute... since beginning players to not generate heavy topspin with 80% or better success each attempt, they generally resort to pushing...it is a task they do a LOT, but they generally SUCK ROCKS doing it to boot.

Why? Just what we discussed.

But wait !!! There is more !!! for the price of $19.95 + Shipping and Handling, you get a three months supply. Sound too good to be true? It is.

The wait, there is more part is that on a push, it is like any other shot. You need to do a few other common tasks just like on other shots.

If the player is a low level, there is a very good chance the player is not very good in all the very fundamental things I list below common to each shot.

1) Reading spin.
2) Judging depth.
3) Staying crouched.
4) Getting into position on time or ahead of time or allowing the ball to come to the right place.
5) Impacting the ball at the right part of its flight for the result you are trying to achieve. (right off the bounce for a push)
6) Control of where to impact the ball in the strike zone.
7) Leverage and effective transfer of force.
8- Decisiveness of what you want to do with the ball.
9) Effective bio-mechanics for the given stroke attempt.
10) Balance/Recovery.


I am going to stop at 10 (although I could go to well over 50... and DID a number of years back on OOAK forum). I stop at ten to keep it simple and keep the spotlight on the main point.

Main Point -

(Qualification Statement) In Table Tennis, one has to repeat a number of fundamental concepts in a different and dynamic environment with a very high degree of precision and execution, plus adapt these to the situation.

(Main Point) If a player fails to be effective on the common fundamentals for each shot, that shot will be either a failure or not very effective. That includes an insanely EASY shot like a push.

Der_Echte said:

(Main Point) If a player fails to be effective on the common fundamentals for each shot, that shot will be either a failure or not very effective. That includes an insanely EASY shot like a push.

Click to expand...

Why, in the men's US National Singles Final last week, did the players probably average, 2-3 points per game each, pushing with unforced errors mostly on short pushes ?

What is your solution for them ?

Good clickbait LoopyDoop,

You, Lou, Blue, or any of the Goon Squad are not gunna get me to use TTD as a platform to tell players of that elite level what to do or how to do it... unless those players say a certain something to Der_Echte... and that is very darned unlikely.


In those situations you describe in the quote, one player put the other under pressure and in a bad or non-optimal position to respond the way the player wanted. That caused the other player to take a risk to avoid a worse risk on the next ball... That is tactical warfare in action, whether it is a strong shot to one's middle, or a sudden soft ball to sucker the other player into something they will regret. Players at that level play and compete in that realm more than we do.

Let's keep it to the context of the OP's post and the level of the OP and the level of advice offered.

As a Long Pips player LAD, you know very damned well that a point earned from a soft shot like a push, retrieve, chop or bump or black is a point earned just the same as if they did a macho-man loop for a winner or block out.

At that level you quoted (men's national finals), often the decisive skill comes down to reading the player and that is a damned difficult task as players at that level are pretty darned good and have an arsenal of ways to play shots.

My advice for the OP and anyone reading the forum is proper for the level of the OP and many levels above that... but c'mon... let's not get carried away and extend that to an elite amateur or pro level. Sure, at that level they gotta do the fundamentals effectively, but they are all so well trained that isn't their Achilles heal. They missed a few responses to pushes for reasons OTHER than poor fundamentals.

I get it that my approach and beliefs about TT and how to do things in TT aren't always exactly PUNDIT. However, if there is something I say that is clearly bullshyt, please clearly identify it and articulate the point why it is so. I am not the absolute warehouse of information. I might sound like it as I talk confidently and relate experiences and concepts, but don't let that fool anyone. If I am full of it, I deserve to hear about it as much as anyone, but let's quantify it and bat it around.