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It's really funny, but this was the video I was trying to find for you at the time and I finally found it:It's funny that you mention the leg pushing thing, because it was you who gave me similar advice and as you saw the very next session I had, it made some difference.
I can only speak for myself here, but I've had many many misconceptions about technique and getting these perceptions kind of corrected or developed did make a difference to me. Though this understanding is ever evolving and what one thought was right before may very well change. I played with terrible technique for years, I even unknowingly played with an antispinracket for years which for sure messed my progress up. But I wasn't that interested in TT the first few years.
My changes in training environment made the biggest differences, but having a better understanding of what to do did help me a lot. With that said, my technique is never going to be perfect and I'm kind of done with the obsession over improvement.
But misunderstandings and preconceptions can absolutely get in the way. NL recently talked about the "taking the ball where it shows up" and that really revealed this notion that I've had to try to setup perfectly etc.
We should be careful with too rigid and too detailed approaches imo. It all depends on so much..
This sport is damn hard.
Obviously, we all want to and ideally should play shots in balance, but balance is not the same as being in a set position and being precisely ready. Balance means having good posture and co-ordination to play a shot, and you can have this if you have good arm positioning to take a swing on the ball and the physical strength to make it with the legs. Most footwork drills are tied to this in some way, and as you get more advanced, you connect more and more movements to keep you ready to play the ball even when you are supposed to be out of position. In fact, it is interesting to watch Dima and Jorgic closely and even Pitchford sometimes and to try to see whether they are out of position or baiting you to think they are out of position and daring you to put the ball where you think they can't get a great shot from and then they kill it with their backhand.