How to break the habit of a too long backswing?

I think my forehand stroke is too long and that I rotate my upper body too much on the backswing (my blade can be seen on the opposite side). I also open the angle between upper arm and forearm too much (backswing). Especially on counter topspin I can see the problem

Check out this match of me playing (I'm blue guy): 1:38,
What are your thoughts on this, do you notice any other technical problems? Are there any tricks that can help me get the correct execution in my subconsciousness, or do I just have to train it very often?

Moved to Video Safe Thread: https://www.tabletennisdaily.com/for...515#post367515

The other thread is locked to select few experts so I will give you my feedback here, maybe it will be useful, maybe not.

I saw 2 things that seem to cause your fh shots to miss:

• You are stretching your arm of the the table i.e. you are too far back
• You are missing the timing.

I think this might be cause by the fact you are almost parallel to the table. You can standing closer to the table with your left foot and maybe a tiny bit further with your right.This will cause you body to naturally rotate your body towards fh side of the table and will give you bigger space to properly hit your ball.

That being said this will probably give you easier FH but will require position shift for BH shot.

My humble €.02 is: I think I see a pattern of you moving backwards at impact time at precisely those moments where things go wrong, and I think there's a relation beyond correlation there.I tell my pupils to always visualize going through the ball, and upon occasion that has helped them maintain their forward momentum.

Originally Posted by Wrighty67

Coincidentally this device just came up on the video footage thread as a really useful tool - I have spent the last few days trying to find something with no luck. Where can I get one of these Duke?

I bought one for myself and one for my girlfriend on taobao.com, here's the link to the product (it'll probably ask you to register) https://item.taobao.com/item.htm?id=606717725155

I then used https://superbuy.com to ship it to the states. You could just use this website to buy it directly too, just paste the link above in the search bar and it'll give you the options and translate it into English. Also if you need a lefty version you'll need to mention that to the seller.

I bought this since I'm teaching my girlfriend how to play, and thought might get one for myself to check my own form, and I also want to see if it works before I let others try. I can confirm it helps a lot to solidify a proper form, after only a week my gf can now do an awesome looking forehand drive and loop, but it could also be my awesome teaching skills lol

Another way is to use your step to the FH to open the hips and thus eliminate the need for a huge torquing windup. How does this work? You are in middle of table or BH corner and now you have a ball going to the FH corner or past it... you step to the ball with your hitting foot (Right foot for RH players) and step/plant with the foot pointing to side of the table... with your arm, you are only extending it to the side some and a little down depending on the ball... now when you plant, you are well positioned with open hips that will add leverage and power/spin to your FH.

All that happens with a simple step and sticking out your arm a little in place of all that windup. The result is much more direct path to impact and much stronger/consistent impact.

Actually, for that ball to the FH or wide FH, you are fighting against your body if you try to rotate waist/shoulders and you would have less power and many more errors.

Originally Posted by Der_Echte

Another way is to use your step to the FH to open the hips and thus eliminate the need for a huge torquing windup. How does this work? You are in middle of table or BH corner and now you have a ball going to the FH corner or past it... you step to the ball with your hitting foot (Right foot for RH players) and step/plant with the foot pointing to side of the table... with your arm, you are only extending it to the side some and a little down depending on the ball... now when you plant, you are well positioned with open hips that will add leverage and power/spin to your FH.

All that happens with a simple step and sticking out your arm a little in place of all that windup. The result is much more direct path to impact and much stronger/consistent impact.

Actually, for that ball to the FH or wide FH, you are fighting against your body if you try to rotate waist/shoulders and you would have less power and many more errors.

Is this in line with what I wrote couple of posts above? I have hard times visualizing what you are saying.

Try it out yourself. Take one step to your right (if RH) right along the same line as end line. Just stick out bat to your side a foot or tow as you step. Once you plant your foot (foot facing almost sideways 30 degrees forward or so) stop and take a look at your hips. They are big time open and it is SO DAMN EASY to start a stroke from this position and hit for power.

One of the things that Ma Long does to force his rotation is to punch towards where he wants to hit the ball with his left hand so he gets the rotation he needs to support a long atm backswing. Maybe you can try this

Very frequently, you will hear Kim Jung Hoon explain this concept in his vids when discussing how to generate power with the body. Even on BH shots he advocates using the free hand to leverage power during the stroke. He advocates pulling in the free hand as a way to get more shoulder turn and change the course of the shot from down the line to BH corner and get an extra 10% power.

I think your footwork is a bit slow and not enough body weight transfers from right to left foot.
Your right foot can step closer towards the contact point (FH topspin)
I don't really see an issue with your backswing/movement, you seem tall.

You stepping back/away from the table because you are tall is also fine, but that just means you need to move better, otherwise you will always be a bit slow and not ready for the stoke and cause unforce errors.

playing a match is difficult to look good, there isn't too many fh shots for me to see too (I didn't watch the full video, just jumped through).
If you want to improve, then get a multiball feeder, and practice 2 or 3 point fh shots, and practice the movement.

I think your movement is just not smooth enough, and you think it could be your backswing. I just think it is your footwork.

Tttttooooooooooooooooonnnnnnnnnnyyyyyyyyyyyy !!!!!!!