Can i make it better? (Forehand)

[pedro.dantas]

I’m just not sure if this is allright or no, i feel like i’m too upright and stiff but even so i’m hitting the ball at my chest height, so with a lower center of gravity i would hit at my head height? Just a small video from warming up

 

[pedro.dantas]

Here

 

[GhostBackhand]

I saw that your forehand lacks waist, hip, and leg movement — you’re only using your arm.

 

[chandyrandy]

I saw that your forehand lacks waist, hip, and leg movement — you’re only using your arm.

i don't think its all arm, thats a bit of a stretch

 

[GhostBackhand]

i don't think its all arm, thats a bit of a stretch

yes, but all most is his arm,
In a real match, the ball comes very fast and he won’t have time for a long swing — he has to use his waist to generate explosive power. I think Timo Boll does this very well - just play like him haha

 

[blahness]

You cant bend down too much because youre not tall enough yet. If you watch Koki Niwa he also doesnt bend down that much, but he is clearly a lot stronger and better coordinated.

The problem now is that your coordination between the lower body and upper body is not really there yet. You must be able to feel the lower body directly powering the stroke. It is about timing but also about your core and lower body strength. Some bulgarian split squats and ab wheel work will do a lot of good.

 

[blahness]

One thing that you might want to experiment with is where your right foot is pointing. Right now they are pointing mostly forward, so that limits your hip rotation magnitude - if they are pointing towards the right side (say 2 or 3 oclock) and then rotate them back, you get better hip rotation magnitude which may help with power.

 

[pedro.dantas]

You cant bend down too much because youre not tall enough yet. If you watch Koki Niwa he also doesnt bend down that much, but he is clearly a lot stronger and better coordinated.

I’m not getting any taller 😔, i’m 25 years old, unfortunately i have spent many years only playing videogames, started eating ok only at 19 years old, and physical activities only at 23 years, started table tennis last year with really weak legs due to knee surgery. But yeah, trying to do what i can.

 

[Tyce]

I think you look pretty good there. Rather than bending down, try and just slightly stick your butt out which will help you brace your weight against the incoming ball. Keep your knees the same (ever so slightly bent, or "unlocked" is enough).
Honestly your swing and contact are good here. Distributing your weight and putting more stability into the shot will bring the best improvement at this point.
With that, you have a very solid base to use. In time you will find more improvements but they will be smaller, more detailed.

 

[Tyce]

Also, don't worry about your height. You can make powerful contact at shoulder height if needed. Just look at some of the Asian women at 1.50-something. I actually don't quite understand the whole height comment as you're clearly well above the table.

Another thing I was thinking of reading all the comments here: There are multiple ways to do something, and there are a few posts giving advice that you will find countered in one Youtube video but praised in the next.
Don't get confused over contradicting advice. Rather, pick a source you want to put your trust in for detailed advice, and only take the generic stuff from other sources.
As for your initial comment of stiffness, try and feel what muscles are under tension and when. Keep things relaxed that you don't need, and only tighten them up when you do need them. Keep your grip relaxed before the contact and tighten up just when you're about to hit the ball. Then relax as fast as possible after the ball has left your bat so you can start over again. Not only does a loose arm swing easier, it also simply costs less energy.

 

[blahness]

I’m not getting any taller 😔, i’m 25 years old, unfortunately i have spent many years only playing videogames, started eating ok only at 19 years old, and physical activities only at 23 years, started table tennis last year with really weak legs due to knee surgery. But yeah, trying to do what i can.

Dont worry about height in table tennis! In fact, not having to bend knees is a huge plus lol, i am sure there are many tall ppl in this forum who hate bending knees.

This is Koki Niwa:

You can check his form out, i think it is a pretty good reference. TT form can be very different depending on your height. I wouldnt bother about copying the form of someone with a different height...

 

[Tyce]

Dont worry about height in table tennis! In fact, not having to bend knees is a huge plus lol, i am sure there are many tall ppl in this forum who hate bending knees.

This is Koki Niwa:

You can check his form out, i think it is a pretty good reference. TT form can be very different depending on your height. I wouldnt bother about copying the form of someone with a different height...

I love how he gets so properly annoyed at missing a ball... at 1.40 he has just missed one and just has to kill the next with a BH smack before moving on

 

[Gozo Zyreruna]

In the vid; your stroke is like a balding retired realtor cruising in his convertible along sunset strip.

I know what you really dezyre. You want to be like Takumi touge'ing in his eighty-six along the slopes of Gumma instead.

So, put some acceleration into it young padawan.

 

[FH_Project]

I think your timing is not right. You contact the ball where almost your stroke ended, where you relaxed, because you need to be relaxed to reach. You should contact the ball little bit more close to your right leg foot projectively.

 

[PenHoldSandro]

This is my review as a beginner myself lol. Take my claim with a grain of salt since I also have a lot of problems with my game 😂.

Firstly, I would like to say you are surprisingly consistent in your placement to the table, the ball lands in the correct general area almost all the time, and based on the sound and trajectory has good speed and spin. Bravo to you, man! However, there are a few glaring problems with your game.

Firstly, you move your body too little, just a little. This makes it so that your max speed and spin are greatly dimished and that you don't have as much consistency as you should have. Another thing that the other comments fail to notice about this is that not having enough body motion causes you to not be as prepared for the next shot. Keeping your body very active will have your mind ready for anything, and it'll boost your footwork and reaction time.

Secondly, you also aren't that relaxed. Since you don't use your body enough, you tend to try to swing your arm, WITH your arm. This makes it very stiff and uncontrollable. Your body movement isn't stiff though, looks nice enough 👍

To what @FH_Project said, I agree, but only somewhat. Your timing is pretty nice already, so you don't need to focus on that right now. It's mostly in front of you, and it's at the peak of its bounce. However, @FH_Project does say a good point. You do time it a little early sometimes, causing you to push forward more, causing most misses. Don't worry, that's my problem too haha.

I would like to quickly talk about your ball feel. How is it, and can you feel the rubber spinning the ball? I feel like since you don't have nearly enough body movement, it would suffer.

Lastly, I would like to discuss about your setup. Of course, I will ignore backhand since idk how that looks like, so I'll focus only on the forehand rubber and blade. Your forehand rubber, Rakza Z, is a very nice choice. It gives good consistency and good power and spin. I have no complaints, except maybe try to spin it better. As for your blade, it's a 5+2 carbon blade. I don't think it'll work very well and unless you have a good coach, I suggest a fast all wood like YEO or Korbel. Don't worry though, this part is all my opinion and you can choose to just ignore this. I just like talking about equipment 😁😁😁

Overall, you are a very good developing player, and even with quite a few holes in your game, I am sure you can grow past that and become a great player!

Keep Pinging, Ponger!

 

[Tyce]

The shots in the video won't be much different with a Korbel. Yes he plays a carbon blade, but it's inner fiber, and the impact isn't very high.
The rubber will also take a bit of speed off compared to complete non-tacky options.

 

[PenHoldSandro]

The shots in the video won't be much different with a Korbel. Yes he plays a carbon blade, but it's inner fiber, and the impact isn't very high.
The rubber will also take a bit of speed off compared to complete non-tacky options.

That's a good point. But as I said these are really just my opinion on the matter, and anything against it I am willing to accept. But I would say even inner fiber blades would be quite a bit faster than pure all wood options. Feeling would also go to all wood, for better and more comfortable development.

As for the rubber, I would agree. However reducing the speed might actually help @pedro.dantas because he needs to learn how to speed the ball up himself.

Like I said I'm not arguing with you, I'm just starting my opinion

 

[pedro.dantas]

This is my review as a beginner myself lol. Take my claim with a grain of salt since I also have a lot of problems with my game 😂.

Firstly, I would like to say you are surprisingly consistent in your placement to the table, the ball lands in the correct general area almost all the time, and based on the sound and trajectory has good speed and spin. Bravo to you, man! However, there are a few glaring problems with your game.

Firstly, you move your body too little, just a little. This makes it so that your max speed and spin are greatly dimished and that you don't have as much consistency as you should have. Another thing that the other comments fail to notice about this is that not having enough body motion causes you to not be as prepared for the next shot. Keeping your body very active will have your mind ready for anything, and it'll boost your footwork and reaction time.

Secondly, you also aren't that relaxed. Since you don't use your body enough, you tend to try to swing your arm, WITH your arm. This makes it very stiff and uncontrollable. Your body movement isn't stiff though, looks nice enough 👍

To what @FH_Project said, I agree, but only somewhat. Your timing is pretty nice already, so you don't need to focus on that right now. It's mostly in front of you, and it's at the peak of its bounce. However, @FH_Project does say a good point. You do time it a little early sometimes, causing you to push forward more, causing most misses. Don't worry, that's my problem too haha.

I would like to quickly talk about your ball feel. How is it, and can you feel the rubber spinning the ball? I feel like since you don't have nearly enough body movement, it would suffer.

Lastly, I would like to discuss about your setup. Of course, I will ignore backhand since idk how that looks like, so I'll focus only on the forehand rubber and blade. Your forehand rubber, Rakza Z, is a very nice choice. It gives good consistency and good power and spin. I have no complaints, except maybe try to spin it better. As for your blade, it's a 5+2 carbon blade. I don't think it'll work very well and unless you have a good coach, I suggest a fast all wood like YEO or Korbel. Don't worry though, this part is all my opinion and you can choose to just ignore this. I just like talking about equipment 😁😁😁

Overall, you are a very good developing player, and even with quite a few holes in your game, I am sure you can grow past that and become a great player!

Keep Pinging, Ponger!

I’m not using these rubbers, just the blade, i’m using hurricane 3 OS with 3 layers of FTL and fastarc G1 BH

 

[latej]

Hey Pedro, I think you're on a good way. The basic structure of your stroke is good, you also move after each hit, and just need to continue practising.

There is a thread about FH, where @K.K posted this video:

Check it, I really like it. You can develop a feel of having the arm's motion induced by the body rotation. You can close the eyes, feel how the arm moves because of the body rotation, not because of muscles, and slowly you can be aware of it also during play. Of course there are differences in how much the body "pre-rotates" before the arm shoots. In drive it's almost negligible, in full power FH topspin it is significant. You can be aware of those differences and still know they are from the same source/concept.

Another thing which can help you to be sure your arm is driven by the body rotation, is the position of your non-playing hand during ball contact. If during ball contact your non-playing hand is still on the right side (so to say), it means there has not been much of a body rotation, and also the chest can't really be open. Esp. on stronger hits there is no other way, and let's say one of the proofs is, that the non-playing hand is "on the left side". It's hard to express properly. But the point is you can experiment of being aware where your non-playing hand is, during the ball contact. If the body properly "pre-rotates" - here "pre" means before the ball is contacted - you'll realise the non-playing hand must have moved to the left, sort of before the playing hand shoots. It then accelerates more to make up for this delay. Obv. there is also a danger of over focusing on it, even though this principle is important, it is not as important as a principle of feeling natural ;-)