Who has the world's best backhand?

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But no one has seen your backhand - only your imagination. People who have played me and watched me comment on the sheer awesomeness of my backhand.

Its ok, we believe you, but opponents i won still remember when i won some games against with using only BH the whole game, even returning their serves, anyway, i didn't see your backhand as well, so we keep our secret or powerful BH to ourselves, i retired from BH world and i am just sitting on my thrown yawning.
 
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No one mentioned wang hao, thought his backhand was mental especially as it was a penholder!


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No one mentioned wang hao, thought his backhand was mental especially as it was a penholder!

You must have missed these when reading the thread:

<-- WangHao

placement, variation & effectiveness (all kinds of bh strokes) : zhang jike and wang hao by far. People say zjk most of the times because he beat wang hao and he has a more explossive BH overall but WH is the best in variation by far from everyone.

There is no question that Wang Hao's backhand was pretty amazing. I would say TTFrenzy's quote is top notch.
 
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says Spin and more spin.
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Its ok, we believe you, but opponents i won still remember when i won some games against with using only BH the whole game, even returning their serves, anyway, i didn't see your backhand as well, so we keep our secret or powerful BH to ourselves, i retired from BH world and i am just sitting on my thrown yawning.

I have seen video of NextLevel playing and he indeed was ripping the ball past people with his backhand. I have seen BHMan from MyTT play, and his backhand is pretty darn good. That guy Der_Ecthe has a pretty decent backhand also, but I think he copied it from BHMan. hahaha.

So, TareqPhoto, since you are the Emperor of backhands, why don't you post a video of you playing so we can see.

Der_Ecthe can tell you about my backhand. I think it does a few things okay. Not as good as Der_Echte's though.
 
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That worthless BH-Man is only a joker who beat me to that screen name, but give him credit, he also beat Kreanga to dibs on that screen name, so I guess that counts for something.

I have several very good BH shots, but vs incoming topspin I am not as god as Carl, who can reloop it right off the bounce BH and VERY consistently.

Right now, I am barely on the upswing from a light grade 2 muscle/tendon tear in my upper hitting arm, so I am not exactly playing TT a lot, as if I had TT anywhere close to me anyway.
 
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I have seen video of NextLevel playing and he indeed was ripping the ball past people with his backhand. I have seen BHMan from MyTT play, and his backhand is pretty darn good. That guy Der_Ecthe has a pretty decent backhand also, but I think he copied it from BHMan. hahaha.

So, TareqPhoto, since you are the Emperor of backhands, why don't you post a video of you playing so we can see.

Der_Ecthe can tell you about my backhand. I think it does a few things okay. Not as good as Der_Echte's though.

I would like to watch that video too.

I will try one day to video myself playing or using my BH, and then i will post here [and forget about the emperor thing, it was a joke, heehehe].

So, what is your measurement about the greatest BH player, is it how many times he is doing it or how he is doing it during the games or how good he is using his BH? many players have great BH, i saw Wang Hao and i agree his BH is amazing, but is he the greatest? why so him and not others Chinese players who are also great such as ZJK and FZD and ML/XX and whoever?
 
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I would like to watch that video too.

Well, I guess you don't have much of a memory. Both Next Level and Der_Echte posted videos of their play in your first thread, the one on which blade you should get. I know you quoted and commented on NextLevel's video. But, some people can't remember what they did yesterday so, just go back and read your own thread.
 
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So, what is your measurement about the greatest BH player, is it how many times he is doing it or how he is doing it during the games or how good he is using his BH? many players have great BH, i saw Wang Hao and i agree his BH is amazing, but is he the greatest? why so him and not others Chinese players who are also great such as ZJK and FZD and ML/XX and whoever?

From my perspective there is really no such thing.

Traditionally the Chinese game had a huge forehand and a weak backhand. Traditionally, the European game had a strong backhand and an adequate forehand. When the Swedes started dominating in the late 1980s into the 1990s, China sent a player to Sweden to learn their style. That was an unprecedented move. The player was Kong Linghui: World Champion and Olympic Gold winner. However, Kong was still a forehand dominant player who had a solid and adequate backhand.

Wang Liqin was in the same mold where the forehand was a beast of a weapon and the backhand kept him a 3 dimensional player but was not really something you had to be worried about as a weapon.

Ma Long is actually still in this mode. Perhaps he is the last Chinese player in that mold. And his backhand is awfully good, but it is not the kind of weapon his forehand is, and it is not the kind of weapon that Wang Hao, Zhang Jike or Fan Zhendong are able to use their backhand as.

Those three, if they want to, can dominate a game and an opponent by pinning him to the backhand side and forcing them to go backhand to backhand, or to try and turn to the forehand where they will be vulnerable to a down the line punch.

History aside, a great backhand could be many things. Kreanga's is a monster backhand. But it might not be as versatile as some of the newer players. Still, that is a beast of a backhand. Persson has said himself that his swat kill backhand, that made his backhand so powerful and effective in the 1990s is a shot you can't live and die with in todays game. In todays game you have to be able to spin the heck out of the ball with the backhand loop so that the two sides both have powerful spin. Still, it was an amazing backhand.

The kind of things that guys like Dima, ZJK, FZD and Wang Hao are able to do with their backhands really cover such a broad range of skills, from looping over the table (what people often call banana or flick), to long distance bombs.

There are so many great backhands. Maze's backhand might not be well rounded but some of the shots he makes with his backhand when he gets backed up on defense and gets a chance to counter loop are pretty darn amazing.

In 2003, great serves and a solid, steady backhand, that did everything people did back then with a backhand won Werner Schlager the World Championships.

Today there are a handful of players who really can do everything well with the backhand and can dominate an opponent by not letting them get to their forehand, or forcing them to give up position at the table if they try to turn to their forehand. It is great to watch someone who can really control a whole match with their backhand and dictate the pace and tactics.

Who is the best, several people.

Oh, and by the way, Xu Xin really does not use his backhand much or effectively because his forehand is so good. But when he uses it, man, it is a crazy thing to watch. Some of those sidespin loops he gets with his backhand, unreal. But it is also not fully developed or so well rounded.
 
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Well, I guess you don't have much of a memory. Both Next Level and Der_Echte posted videos of their play in your first thread, the one on which blade you should get. I know you quoted and commented on NextLevel's video. But, some people can't remember what they did yesterday so, just go back and read your own thread.

Right, i forgot they were the ones posted in my thread, i went back and so that, thank you and sorry for that i forgot about it.

From my perspective there is really no such thing.

Traditionally the Chinese game had a huge forehand and a weak backhand. Traditionally, the European game had a strong backhand and an adequate forehand. When the Swedes started dominating in the late 1980s into the 1990s, China sent a player to Sweden to learn their style. That was an unprecedented move. The player was Kong Linghui: World Champion and Olympic Gold winner. However, Kong was still a forehand dominant player who had a solid and adequate backhand.

Wang Liqin was in the same mold where the forehand was a beast of a weapon and the backhand kept him a 3 dimensional player but was not really something you had to be worried about as a weapon.

Ma Long is actually still in this mode. Perhaps he is the last Chinese player in that mold. And his backhand is awfully good, but it is not the kind of weapon his forehand is, and it is not the kind of weapon that Wang Hao, Zhang Jike or Fan Zhendong are able to use their backhand as.

Those three, if they want to, can dominate a game and an opponent by pinning him to the backhand side and forcing them to go backhand to backhand, or to try and turn to the forehand where they will be vulnerable to a down the line punch.

History aside, a great backhand could be many things. Kreanga's is a monster backhand. But it might not be as versatile as some of the newer players. Still, that is a beast of a backhand. Persson has said himself that his swat kill backhand, that made his backhand so powerful and effective in the 1990s is a shot you can't live and die with in todays game. In todays game you have to be able to spin the heck out of the ball with the backhand loop so that the two sides both have powerful spin. Still, it was an amazing backhand.

The kind of things that guys like Dima, ZJK, FZD and Wang Hao are able to do with their backhands really cover such a broad range of skills, from looping over the table (what people often call banana or flick), to long distance bombs.

There are so many great backhands. Maze's backhand might not be well rounded but some of the shots he makes with his backhand when he gets backed up on defense and gets a chance to counter loop are pretty darn amazing.

In 2003, great serves and a solid, steady backhand, that did everything people did back then with a backhand won Werner Schlager the World Championships.

Today there are a handful of players who really can do everything well with the backhand and can dominate an opponent by not letting them get to their forehand, or forcing them to give up position at the table if they try to turn to their forehand. It is great to watch someone who can really control a whole match with their backhand and dictate the pace and tactics.

Who is the best, several people.

Oh, and by the way, Xu Xin really does not use his backhand much or effectively because his forehand is so good. But when he uses it, man, it is a crazy thing to watch. Some of those sidespin loops he gets with his backhand, unreal. But it is also not fully developed or so well rounded.

Nice detailed post, you explained it well, not many did that, so now i can see the difference, as i watched many players and wondered why they don't use their BH when they are good at it, I felt like it is not that hard as long they are good in TT, but i know many depending on their FH that made them less using of their BH, in the past my BH was my weapon, nowadays i try to have both my weapon, and yesterday i was practicing only in the club with 2 players, the first one my FH was 90% success and my backhand was about 20% success, and the other player who is a chinese new to the game i was like showing off to him, and i did smashed him with some BH that he was so impressed how i did it, then i taught him few tricks but i know i am not a good trainer at all because i am not good at TT yet, also he is still too early and young to learn, but i was happy that he managed to make few BH he was dreaming about and i am sure he will grow up and improve better than me in no time if he keeps training and playing and had a coach.
 
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I heard an old Chinese man say this once: "The backhand is the shield, the forehand is the sword!" That is based on the old Chinese style that revolved around the penhold grip, a very powerful forehand and a blocking backhand, which requires very intense footwork.

In todays game, it is very hard to be successful at the very top levels with that kind of style. Ryu Seung Min is Korean but he is the best examples I can think of in modern table tennis where that style was successful, but when he was in his prime he was sooooooo fast and so amazing. But then he faded because you have to be in such amazing shape physically to play that style.

Because you are covering both the forehand and backhand sides of the table primarily with the forehand in that style, you have to do 3-4x more footwork and expend that much more energy to play that style than a player who has both wings well developed.

Ma Lin and Xu Xin are a similar style but they can use the reverse penhold backhand when they want and need to so they are not stuck with only the traditional penhold backhand. Where Ryu Seung Min doesn't even have rubber on his backhand side.

In the finals of the 2004 Olympics, you can see how much Ryu Seung Min moves over to the backhand side to use his forehand against Wang Hao:


And that style of play always gave Wang Hao a lot of trouble even though, after this match he figured out how to handle Ryu and nullify his power from a tactical standpoint.
 
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If I think of a versatile backhand then Aleksandar Karakasevic from Serbia comes to my mind immediately. I had an opportunity to watch one of his matches through youtube subscription and boy, what a backhand. Being a lefty, he has the ability to match a forehand counter topspinning rally against a right handed player with his backhand. Talking about versatility, he can loop slow, hit a winner against a backspin, can play a jab or puch, do a side spin both curving ways and has a fantastic backhand flat flip.

He is not that high rated as other players which are being discussed in this post, but if you watch his matches, then you will understand what I am trying to convey. Since we are talking about an outstanding backhand player, I think he is a very worthy contender.
 
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Well, I guess you don't have much of a memory. Both Next Level and Der_Echte posted videos of their play in your first thread, the one on which blade you should get. I know you quoted and commented on NextLevel's video. But, some people can't remember what they did yesterday so, just go back and read your own thread.

Carl, don't DIVERT the Philly Goon Squad on Tareq for forgetting about how BOTH NL and DE posted vids of themselves on his thread... Heck, I forgot about it myself.

One thing though... NL is Philly based and isn't harrased by the Goon Squad and Next Level uses some rubbers on the Goon Squad hit list..

COULD it be that Next Level took evading and BAITING the Goon Squad to a WHOLE NEW LEVEL and never went public with it yet? Maybe Nexy Level has a bunch of HILARIOUS vids of the Goon Squads in compromising situations and is saving them to enhance his retirement income ???

Let's not sell NL short, maybe he is a whole NEXT LEVEL of bad-ass we haven't seen yet. Maybe he wants it that way.
 
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