Questions about "feeling"

It means to be able to quickly and accurately judge the trajectory and rotation of the ball.

Then you can reply to the ball correctly, and if you do, you feel it in the contact with the ball. But this good contact and shot are only feedback that you 'felt' the ball. The actual 'feeling' of the ball was while the ball was still in the air.

Feel is important because it helps you with delicate shots that needs placement and accuracy. This is also very important with dropshots and service receive.

As far as I can see, "feeling" is one of those terms used in sport to label something which simply can't be quantified. (Much like "talent", but that's an argument for another day.) In reality, it's simply the result of countless hours of intentional practice aimed at learning to play the widest range of shots in the widest range of situations. The ultimate example of a player with great "feel":

I would devide "feeling" to two stages - ability to decide what you have to do in order to return the ball in the most effective way, and ability to execute this. The synergy between these two is the "good feeling".

Either you have it, or not.

For me a very concrete definition is 'how you brush the ball', the contact you make with the ball, because it have a lot of impact on your shot. When you have a good feeling, you are more aware of how you contact/brush the ball

A great way to enhance you feeling is to grip the bat more with the two fingers on the grip than the whole hand. I think the finger are more accurate. Also i feel a big difference when i mentally focus on the feeling on my hand when i shot and then i focus on brush and acceleration (on having a good contact). I'm more aware on how i brush = i have a better feeling

bircham boi said:

As far as I can see, "feeling" is one of those terms used in sport to label something which simply can't be quantified. (Much like "talent", but that's an argument for another day.) In reality, it's simply the result of countless hours of intentional practice aimed at learning to play the widest range of shots in the widest range of situations. The ultimate example of a player with great "feel":

Click to expand...

Excellent example. Which is why I think it's very easy to quantify, as I previously did.
It's simply the ability to accurately judge the spin and trajectory of the ball. That's all it is.

Feeling is, above all, knowing, having a picture in your head of where the ball's gonna go if you hit it in any particular way. It's about making it all look calculated without actually calculating any of it, the shot comes instinctively.

We're all used to hitting balls that have a certain speed and rotation and those are the ones you encounter 90% of the time in rallies. If you're good at table tennis, they're easy, they're bread and butter and people won't refer to someone hitting those sort of shots as someone with great feeling. When, however, an awkward ball comes - the ability to put it anywhere on the table, as if by hand, is the Feeling. That's why you usually hear it from the commentators when there's a net ball, side spin, a touch or drop shot, these kinda things involved.

Practice is paramount, when you've seen them all and hit them all, the more the better, your brain will just do the maths on its own without your interruption.