forehand topsin stroke

The wrist comes into play as a result of being relaxed and having fast forearm snap. If your arm is relaxed and your forearm accelerates to a high speed, the wrist will whip. If you have good timing with the mechanics of your stroke, the whipping action from the wrist will be well timed with the contact of the ball. That being said, it can take years to have good timing with the mechanics of the stroke sometimes.

Table tennis is less about muscle and strength than many people realize. The ball is quite light and you do not have to hit it very far. So the speed of the racket at impact is actually more important than the force behind the racket on contact. In the end, if you have both, it is better. But the mechanics of the stroke are fairly technical as a result of the importance of speed of the racket rather than overall force behind the ball.

Here are two videos from Brett Clarke. Brett can be a little silly. But the information is really useful. This first video is about how to use the wrist in the serve. But really it is the same in any stroke that relaxedness that gets the wrist to whip:


The second video sort of shows how to apply that relaxed wrist and whip to any stroke.


These may seem an exaggeration. But, the whip of the wrist should be unconscious and based on being relaxed while the rest of your mechanics are good.

There is a lot of debate on how much wrist and the type of wrist to use on the fh.

Easy answer is every ball is different, every player is different, each has different ideas for the shot.

I use little to no wrist for drives and a very long wrist for loop vs under spin. I use a grip mod for some of my fh that gives me even more use of wrist and would make a coach cringe.

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On the tt forums, we are curious about the technical specs of equipment and the details of tecnique... righteously so... we all want to know for fun and profit to our level.

What we rarely discuss are the more profitable things... some of which...

- how to find a players middle.

- how to adjust the shot

- how to modify grip and pressure

- how to construct a point

- how to serve and vary

- how to move to position

- how to read opponents and tendencies

- how to make tactical adjustments

- how to to away a players strength and make them play your level

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Personally I use very little wrist for forehand and only wrist on backhand.
Like DerEchte said it depends on a lot of things.

With practice you can get anything to work out for you.

That said, I find that wristy-forehand players are easy for me to beat since their spins are too slow. Too much spin and too little speed. Ever seen that? Like, those guys that don't really move their arm/body but just flick the wrist? Lots of spin, for sure. Not fast enough tho.

yes, that's a popular topic to discuss.

So to make a good FH topspin, you don't need a wrist. If you use it, it should make your topspin on another level. But that's more of an advanced technique. (I personally 99% of time don't use it).

In FH topspin wrist can be used not only to add more spin by whipping it at the time of the ball contact, but also to add side spin to the topspin by making a "hook" to contact the ball not directly at the line of it's movement, but wrapping your racket a little bit around the side of the ball moving. This can be done to both sides -right and left. But that's also more of an advanced technique.

There are some jaw-dropping examples of players doing it during the match, but didn't find them right now. But it's smth like that
and Timo ~FH topspin with left sidespin in his glorious hand switch point at about 9nth second

I agree with Carl that the wrist is more a result from the acceleration with the forearm. I think we more use the wrist in the forehandloop by turning the wrist and get a different angle so we can play a fade or a hook. You can look at waldner, he did a great hook alot by turning the wrist. I also think we use the wrist to open and close the angle of the racket which help us to play with more spin or a flatter hit.

I think it is important to know that spin mostly comes from the forearm and power comes from the body. So if you want more spin you should try maybe closing the angle more so you hit over the ball and accelerate more with the forearm. And if you want more power you should try using the body more.

It is important to explode just at the impact so you get all energy in the ball when you are hitting it. I feel that good backhandplayers show this the best, they accelerate really good exactly when they are hitting the ball. I also think it a big different between speed and power. If you want more power it is important as i said before to use the body, but to be able to do so you need to step out a bit so you have the room to use the body.

I also think that you would get best help if you post a video. I know it is scary as hell haha, but it is easier for people to give you tips of how you should execute different kind of shots.

Der_Echte said:

On the tt forums, we are curious about the technical specs of equipment and the details of tecnique... righteously so... we all want to know for fun and profit to our level.

What we rarely discuss are the more profitable things... some of which...

- how to find a players middle.
- how to adjust the shot
- how to modify grip and pressure
- how to construct a point
- how to serve and vary
- how to move to position
- how to read opponents and tendencies
- how to make tactical adjustments
- how to to away a players strength and make them play your level

Click to expand...

This should be a 'sticky' - no one talks about these, and yet they help you win points. Paradox...