Why does this happen?

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Sometimes when I play (happens mostly on my forehand), something quite annoying and weird happens. I don't think it's something that one does on purpose. Maybe bad timing? Lack of confidence? Misreading spin or the direction the ball is going?
I don't think I can explain it really well, but... When playing forehand, there are moments where my regular stroke motion kind of changes on the last second and it ends up turning into something... weird. It's as if your racket shaked without you wanting it to.

It's kind of what happens here with Adam, when blocking for Lin Gaoyuan (starting at 1:07):

Or here when Dan misses a shot (at 1:35)

Is it possible to "fix" it? Where's the actual problem?
 
says Shoo...nothing to see here. - zeio
says Shoo...nothing to see here. - zeio
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Anticipation. Actual shot quality > expected shot quality.

In both of those cases, the ball kicked and dropped more than they were expecting and so they tried to "offset/correct" their stroke to compensate.
 
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Brs

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Brs

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When your body does something you don't want it to do, it sometimes helps to review all the instructions you gave it. In your example, you told your body to use a certain form that you practiced and you think is correct. And it didn't use that form so you are unhappy with it. But before the instruction about form you told your body to touch the rubber to the ball. That takes priority. So if you are standing in the wrong place or posture to put the rubber to the ball using your desired form, whatever funky wrong swing your body has to do to touch the ball with the rubber, that's what it does. Don't get mad at your body. It is only following orders.
 
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Relax and focus on the ball again right before you hit. There is a tiny adjustment to “catch the ball” before you actually strike, after you have got ready.
 
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says Spin and more spin.
says Spin and more spin.
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Adam B is a pretty darn good player. I have hit with him. He is pretty decent. What is happening to him is that the ball coming at him has more spin than he is used to handling and where he thinks the ball is going to be as he is starting the stroke, and tracking the ball to try and intercept it mid-stroke, is different than where the ball actually ends up. As he realizes that, if he continues with stroke trajectory he had originally adjusted for, he realizes he will miss the ball, so he does something funny to make contact with the ball rather than completely missing.

So answers from Zeio, Scrubplayer, Lula and Brs all are right on target.

The real answer to this dilemma is that as you get to higher levels, you get to more used to higher levels of incoming spin and therefore read and adjust to higher level shots that come at you (even if the higher levels of spin are on balls that are slow like the ones Adam B is facing).

However, there are always higher levels. So, I have seen guys like ML do that to pros who are lower than top 20 but higher than top 50.

So, until you are Ma Long, a higher level player can still sometimes do this to you.

Keep trying to read the arc and bounce of the incoming ball. Don't stress when you misread. But keep trying.
 
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What is happening to him is that the ball coming at him has more spin than he is used to handling and where he thinks the ball is going to be as he is starting the stroke, and tracking the ball to try and intercept it mid-stroke, is different than where the ball actually ends up. As he realizes that, if he continues with stroke trajectory he had originally adjusted for, he realizes he will miss the ball, so he does something funny to make contact with the ball rather than completely missing.

I would just add it's not only depending on amount of the spin, but also the type (direction). If someone is not used to playing against side-top spin. If you do a gentle fade to opponent FH or a hook to opponent BH you can hit his finger if you are lucky :cool::cool::cool: It's worth keeping in mind that we human beings live in 3-dimensional environment and trajectory may be bent in different ways. It's worth playing with players who can put different spins on the attacking ball to learn to react to those balls.
 
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