The power of the 'flick'

Just stumbled across this amazing video that demonstrates the power of flicks from a serve and receive position. In this video, I am highly impressed by the way Fang Bo waits that second later to disguise the direction of his flick.

I have noticed Ma Long does this with his backhand a lot. He goes in to push, and then last minute he flicks which really throws the opponent of position.

What do you think of this shot? Video below


Photo by: Remy Gros



So, will you try to implement this shot in your armoury? Have you seen or done anything like this before

May need to think of a name of this shot... the disguise flick?

We used to be put into drills for this shot. Instead of the normal flick where some players have big swings that comes from way back, for this shot our coach always say timing is the key. Timing of taking the ball at the max heights with the roll of the wrist. Much of the strength of this flick comes from the shoulder, elbow, forearm and wrist. Synchronizing all these is the tricky part. But above all, we have to choose the ball. Heavy short low underspin is a no no, even at max height, in which case opening the bat and lifting the ball with a forward drive is the order of the day (this is what Fang Bo did by pushing the ball to the BH side of his opponent on the 2nd clip).

I still do it now, just on some lose balls, or my coach used to say, bad balls. If the ball is bad, punish it he said. It's the only thing that I have now, deception. I just don't move well nowadays hehehe

Originally Posted by azlan

We used to be put into drills for this shot. Instead of the normal flick where some players have big swings that comes from way back, for this shot our coach always say timing is the key. Timing of taking the ball at the max heights with the roll of the wrist. Much of the strength of this flick comes from the shoulder, elbow, forearm and wrist. Synchronizing all these is the tricky part. But above all, we have to choose the ball. Heavy short low underspin is a no no, even at max height, in which case opening the bat and lifting the ball with a forward drive is the order of the day (this is what Fang Bo did by pushing the ball to the BH side of his opponent on the 2nd clip).

I still do it now, just on some lose balls, or my coach used to say, bad balls. If the ball is bad, punish it he said. It's the only thing that I have now, deception. I just don't move well nowadays hehehe

I love the way you say the impressions your coach use to tell you I can imagine them. I use to have two Chinese training partners, they were awesome! They use to always tell me.. Little more spin.. come on, come on. Ha

But yeah, your right about the flick. Its timing and practice. I think multi ball could improve this shot very well for players

Accidentally used this technique for quite some time already
Now I know and I wanna develop this technique further.

Thanks for the awesome vid

Check out at 0:57 in the video below, this is Teng Teng Liu (Yongshuai Liu) at the Australian Open. He goes in to backhand push a ball and then flips his wrist over and flicks the ball out into the corner, he usually does this when he's a set point down or something like that. Real risk player.



Also there is another really good feint flick but I can't find it. It's in the match between Xu Xin and Kenji Matsudaira from World Uni Games this year and Kenji goes in for a short push, stomps his foot and then jumps back out and flicks it, it's probably one of the better flicks I've seen.

Some of them could be called feints as the players try and deceive the other player by appearing to move in for a short touch but then change and flick.

I would call it *puts on glasses* the FeignFlick

Originally Posted by WiWa

This type of flick has always been one of Oh Sang Eun's trademarks Love it!

An old-school Korean coach here tells me Oh Sang Uhn did wrist curls with weights to develop his wrists that allow him to use his BH as a formidable weapon. BH topspin is so much involving the wrist and needs explosiveness. Funny how even advanced players seemed un-accustomed to players with a good BH and a good BH topspin.

Oh dear, if I am not mistaken one of the greatest match in TT history was ended with this technique.

6:03 is it?

There could also be a discussion on the "Bananna" flick and how to place the ball.

still, even with a flick, there are more fast footwork and ready considerations to cope with the return, becuase if you play high level players, you can count on it coming back most times and you better be ready to implement another strong plan "A" or else.

Originally Posted by YosuaYosan

Oh dear, if I am not mistaken one of the greatest match in TT history was ended with this technique.

6:03 is it?

Great spot Joo lover :P

Looks like this shot has been going on for years by the pros.

I like the name, the delayed flick to

I've always loved this match, it's so good! I think really one of Joo's better matches in time!

LOL Dan, I am always a Schlagi lover

That is a great shot by Kong. That is the precursor of the over the table banana loop that Zhang Jike has mastered and a few other people like Ma Long and Kishakawa use.

The details of what are different is that the handle and the elbow point forward and the tip of the blade points back in the banana, and that they are doing this over the table, and the wrist is a huge amount of the stroke.



and



The advantage of the extreme position of the wrist and upper arm, I believe have to do with how much spin you generate.

At Match point, Joo's serve goes off the table and he should be expecting the ball to come back with pace. What Kong does there is a great shot because Joo cannot see that he will go inside out with the backhand till the very last moment and then it is too late.