Backhand-dominant players: what are your favorite tactics?

[RefereeNumber2]

I consider myself a forehand-dominant player: my gameplan is built around setting up a big forehand attack, and the sooner in the point the better. All of my habits like table positioning, footwork, serve/receive and in-rally patterns/combinations are supporting a forehand-based playstyle.

However, due to some recent shoulder pain (and generally not being as fast as I was as a teenager), I want to be less reliant on my forehand. But it's been challenging to find information on tactics/patterns for a "backhand-dominant" game. In particular, which serve/attack combinations and rally patterns favor players with good backhands? I understand these are player- and opponent-dependent, but I'm looking for even some basic "bread-and-butter" patterns that I can practice to develop muscle memory and build variations on.

So if you're a backhand-dominant player, what tactics/point patterns do you like to play? And if anyone has gone through a similar evolution in their game, do you have any tips?

 

[greenbeanmachine]

The basic one is:
Pendulum serve side-top or side-under from the forehand side of the table --> ball comes to your backhand --> you put it away cross-court. Serve should either be to wide forehand or to the middle -- don't make it easy to attack. Vary the serve by going down the line sometimes.

A lot of other tactics are built on this principle -- putting spin on the ball so that it comes to your backhand. Inside-out forehand shots should also return to your backhand (if your opponent returns them at all). If you hit from the outside of your backhand (like a banana flick) then the ball comes back to your backhand.

Watching pros with good backhands can help. I would look at Noshad Alamiyan, who has some amazing combos. Lots of them involve sidespin. Felix Lebrun employs many of these tactics as well. Fan Zhendong and Lin Shidong have a more pure-topspin playing style, and they rely on extremely precise technique. Working on these muscle-memory things will help a lot: try to practice fast backhand-backhand rallies, and then send the ball in a different direction on your second/third/fourth hit.

More generally, staying close to the table and keeping a low square stance (feet parallel to the table) will help you put your backhand into play. You can even try to place yourself slighly on the forehand side of the table to center your backhand -- I assume that right now you stand on the backhand side of the table to center your forehand.

I would say that backhand tactics are generally built around either
(1) having a fast precise backhand which can change direction quickly, or
(2) having a dangerous spinny backhand loop

Fan Zhendong, Lin Shidong, and Felix Lebrun fall into category (1), whereas players like Simon Gauzy, Darko Jorgic, and Noshad Alamiyan fall into category (2). Category (1) players should practice reflexes and precise placement, and category (2) players should train for strength and body positioning (you want to be in a good position to hit a high quality loop).

I'm definitely a category (2) kind of guy -- my backhand loop is my best shot, so I build my game around it the way that most forehanders build their game around the forehand loop. My main tip for a deadly backhand loop would be to practice throwing a frisbee. Practice throwing it as far as you can, and then imitate that motion in your backhand. Think about throwing a frisbee when you go for a backhand (counter)attack: curl your wrist, put your elbow out, and step into the motion with your body like when you throw a frisbee. Also, stay relaxed and loose, and use your body and shoulder -- you want to whip your arm using your body. If you try to do it with a tense arm and hinge from the elbow, you won't have any power.

For category (1) playing style, I'm not sure I have much advice to offer. I'm not very good at rallying with my backhand, because I play RPB and my fingers cover half the racket. If I get into a backhand-backhand rally, I usually just switch to punching with TPB or chop-blocking to disrupt the rhythm. Chop blocking is an underrated tactic though, and you might consider working on it!

Hope this helps!

 

[blahness]

For BH players there is one shot that will own a lot of players - it is the BH loop down the line. There are 2 aspects to this, either direct from the opening loop, or a switch during topspin countering battle. I have not seen many ppl which can deal with a quality BH down the line loop.

The other shot that will own a lot of players is chiquita just because how flexible it is. You can pretty much kill any slight short pop ups using the chiquita movement.

If your BH is good then you can serve short sidetopspin without fear, they pop it up and then you just kill it. If they flick it you loop and enter a topspin countering battle which will favour a BH dominant player.

The other thing is fast and wide long serves to their BH. With a quality serve you can pretty much force an weaker opening for you to counter, thus forcing a topspin rally which you aim to switch them down the line to their wide FH to gain a decisive advantage.

When switching down the line using BH during topspin countering it is much better to fade it (opposite sidespin) so that the angle becomes wider. I almost almost win all the rallies when I successfully execute this shot. It is tough as nails to execute it properly though as rallies can be quite fast and furious.

 

[Kopp]

My fav technique is to put the ball in with placement no matter how.

 

[matt243385]

I serve short underspin to middle from the middle of my side and stand to a right a little and you usually get a easy backhand loop for a quick point

 

[Tony's Table Tennis]

I consider myself a forehand-dominant player: my gameplan is built around setting up a big forehand attack, and the sooner in the point the better. All of my habits like table positioning, footwork, serve/receive and in-rally patterns/combinations are supporting a forehand-based playstyle.

However, due to some recent shoulder pain (and generally not being as fast as I was as a teenager), I want to be less reliant on my forehand. But it's been challenging to find information on tactics/patterns for a "backhand-dominant" game. In particular, which serve/attack combinations and rally patterns favor players with good backhands? I understand these are player- and opponent-dependent, but I'm looking for even some basic "bread-and-butter" patterns that I can practice to develop muscle memory and build variations on.

So if you're a backhand-dominant player, what tactics/point patterns do you like to play? And if anyone has gone through a similar evolution in their game, do you have any tips?

BH dominating is all about placement and moving the opponent around.
So make your aim accurate, and know how to land the ball on all different parts of the table, especially the center to backhand corner.

your bh to downline also need to be great
and also from center of the table to opponent fh corner.

bh placement, you can also make sure of different weight (power) and spin on the ball, to mix it up and allow the opponent to make errors.

summary - its all about moving the opponent around.
so hopefully this strategy can help you

 

[PhoenixTT]

The basic one is:
Pendulum serve side-top or side-under from the forehand side of the table -->

I can't recall seeing a pendulum serve from the forehand side. Almost always they see to be doing it from the backhand side or at most the middle of the table (eg FZD). Appreciate a YT link if you have one handy.

 

[greenbeanmachine]

I can't recall seeing a pendulum serve from the forehand side. Almost always they see to be doing it from the backhand side or at most the middle of the table (eg FZD). Appreciate a YT link if you have one handy.

Yeah, you make a good point actually. Pendulum serve from the forehand side to your opponent's forehand side is maybe not the best tactic -- it's somewhat extreme in that it presents a good opportunity for your opponent to counterspin. It does usually put the ball to your backhand, though. I'm not a pro, but I've had reasonable success with it at the ~1500 level. The main thing about it is to stay unpredictable -- pendulum to the forehand on every serve is a losing strategy. Pendulum serve down the opponent's backhand line often catches people off guard, in my experience.

Pendulum serve in general, even from the middle or backhand side, is a good way to ensure that the ball comes to your backhand. Be careful of counterspin though.

I think another major reason pros don't do pendulum from the forehand side is because it's a hard serve to hide, and pros like to hide their serves.

Pros do it in doubles, though, when you want the ball to come to your opponent on the backhand side of the table.

 

[banbekas]

For me, BH dominant is actually more demanding technically than FH one. BH dominant play demands more precision as you can see just how incredible FZD, LSD, ZJK when it comes to precision. BH loop or counterloop down the line is just so risky it's not even worth it. That kind of precision is unsustainable without consistent training time, IMHO. I'd rather set up for a big forehand loopkill.

It's also actually easier to predict the opponent's move and thought process when you are an FH dominant player. No one in their right mind would give it to the FH side knowing you will have the attack initiative.

 

[Tony's Table Tennis]

For me, BH dominant is actually more demanding technically than FH one. BH dominant play demands more precision as you can see just how incredible FZD, LSD, ZJK when it comes to precision. BH loop or counterloop down the line is just so risky it's not even worth it. That kind of precision is unsustainable without consistent training time, IMHO. I'd rather set up for a big forehand loopkill.

It's also actually easier to predict the opponent's move and thought process when you are an FH dominant player. No one in their right mind would give it to the FH side knowing you will have the attack initiative.

BH requires a lot of time to train
Most people train mostly FH and don't focus too much on BH.

FH down the line and BH down the line is the same risk
high risk is due to little training and vice versa.

In the more modern game, BH is more important than FH
You will probably notice a trend of more BH strong players than only FH players in to the top 10 for the past few years and likely the future few years.

 

[banbekas]

BH requires a lot of time to train
Most people train mostly FH and don't focus too much on BH.

FH down the line and BH down the line is the same risk
high risk is due to little training and vice versa.

In the more modern game, BH is more important than FH
You will probably notice a trend of more BH strong players than only FH players in to the top 10 for the past few years and likely the future few years.

I'd say FH down the live has lower risk than BH down the line because we actually bring the ball down with the body, giving more safety even when you put more power to it.

Similar argument for why we train FH more, IMHO. Bigger movement, stronger result, better control than BH especially from a distance. FH is just safer as compared to BH.

Of course, it's been that way for a while now, but the top 10 or the pros are hardly a good indicator for us amateurs. For low level players like us, ending the point with FH is actually better considering just how much time we have to spend to learn that precision.

 

[Tony's Table Tennis]

I'd say FH down the live has lower risk than BH down the line because we actually bring the ball down with the body, giving more safety even when you put more power to it.

Similar argument for why we train FH more, IMHO. Bigger movement, stronger result, better control than BH especially from a distance. FH is just safer as compared to BH.

Of course, it's been that way for a while now, but the top 10 or the pros are hardly a good indicator for us amateurs. For low level players like us, ending the point with FH is actually better considering just how much time we have to spend to learn that precision.

BH down the line is inside the table.
FH down the line, a lot of the time, the ball path will be outside the table.
There is a bigger chance that the FH ball might not land on the line and be outside of the table.

For me, if I was to have 10 hits, I am sure my BH down the line target will score higher than FH down the line.

And next is to talk about what happens next
FH down the line, the opponent can just block it
BH down the line, most of the time would open up the opponent's position and create forced errors for them in the next 2 balls