Well-Known Member
Yeah, as we get older, those pesky disks ruin all kinds of things. It is one of the reasons why I am reluctant to comment on video sometimes. So always caveat these pieces of advice as limited perspectives.
Basically, part of the reason your forehand stroke comes across your body when you finish is that you are taking it too far in front of you with insufficient torso twist or abdominal fold or left knee lunge to get the upper body side on so you can come into the shot with more power. Your right leg should be a bit more side on to the table when you get into the backswing. Again, none of this is a big deal relative to how you want to play. I managed to get to the USATT 2000 level with a forehand that technically wasn't much better than yours - may have been more powerful on some days, but technically, it was just like as yours in many ways. You should consistently finish your strike at eye level or in front of your body but not past the center line when hitting a powerful topspin with a few exceptions for compromised movement. Coming across the body with the racket finishing at shoulder height usually means you didn't line up with the ball for a long time and you engaged too much upper arm either on the backswing or follow through. If I had good skills editing images, I would show it to you. You do it a good and proper topspin sometimes, but you deviate a bit at other times.
There are some German and French coaches who would argue that what I am saying above doesn't matter too much as long as you use the body correctly and I understand that somewhat, though I would argue that there are timing issues introduced with the approach you are taking, especially against backspin. In any case, it is just food for though. some of it is tied to use of the lower body, but if you have lower body limitations of any kind, just ignore this. It can be annoying and painful to continue to seek improvement while dealing with injuries. I learned this the hard way.
The key to table tennis improvement is almost always the backswing and the preparation to get to the backswing. It is almost never in the forward swing. On the backhand, you don't backswing close to far back enough. There is a letter C shape that your arm and elbow need to take to play a modern backhand loop. Your arm never gets close to it so you are basically only able to hit the ball with an open racket. I think Richie posted a video of Liam Pitchford teaching the technique somewhere earlier on this thread.
https://www.tabletennisdaily.com/forum/showthread.php?26467-Video-Footage-Safe-Thread&p=363753&viewfull=1#post363753
It has something in common with a frisbee tossing motion, and it can be compact or it can be large. But it is the element of the frisbee tossing motion that shapes the arm that you need to imitate what your coach is trying to show you.
Thanks for the explanation. I’m going to explore the FH movement more, as currently I can’t see any real left leg lunge in my movement at all. I notice my finish when I’m hitting down the line is lined up with my right eye but the cross table shot always sees me cross body finish - is it just the cross table shot that’s problematic here?
My coach describes the movement as like lifting a box from front to 90 deg and back again in order to achieve the upper body pivot.
On the BH side I am trying in the video to hit the shorter drive shot as opposed to the longer more wristy topspin shot (the one you describe with the C shape) In these drills my coach is asking for a short swing, early hit ball with a very short movement (drive return against no backspin - maybe a serve return or early rally point) The goal being a short sharp controlled return and avoiding being driven backwards by the pace by taking it out in front. I often see these types of shots and rallies and it’s the shot Tom Lodziak is hitting in the video attached. Does this make sense?
https://youtu.be/cgdeQllLahE