Feedback on my loops against backspin

[Novarac23]

One thing I can’t remember if I mentioned or not is that I am 6’4. I did get advice from the coach at the club that I should try and spread my legs a bit more because I’m so tall. Will try that as well and see how it goes. Alongside all of the other feedback

 

[Loop Lob Smash]

Looking at the video around the 7 minute mark...
Do you find that your left Achilles is under stress when playing forehand? I wonder if using more pronation and less heel lift is going to result in a safer, more athletic, balanced and powerful position? You have good range of motion in terms of body turn, however I think changing your left foot may result in better weight transfer, resulting in better power and shot consistency. As others have stated, you seem very close to the table. I think if you have more room, this presents more opportunity for an athletic forehand stroke.
Happy for others to reply to these ideas in case I'm talking crap. You're nearly a foot taller than me so the mechanics are going to be different!

 

[Novarac23]

Looking at the video around the 7 minute mark...
Do you find that your left Achilles is under stress when playing forehand? I wonder if using more pronation and less heel lift is going to result in a safer, more athletic, balanced and powerful position? You have good range of motion in terms of body turn, however I think changing your left foot may result in better weight transfer, resulting in better power and shot consistency. As others have stated, you seem very close to the table. I think if you have more room, this presents more opportunity for an athletic forehand stroke.
Happy for others to reply to these ideas in case I'm talking crap. You're nearly a foot taller than me so the mechanics are going to be different!

Hmm that is interesting I haven’t even thought of that! Just to make sure I understood, you’re saying I should be using more pronation on my left foot? And thankfully so far my achelles has been fine but I have been back in the game regularly for only a month so will want to fix any issues that can cause future PT visits 😂

 

[Sherpa]

To me you look a little stiff and mechanical and not really fluid in your movements. Keep your head down and eye on the ball. There are different types of looping and they will require a different angle of the bat. If the ball is a little higher on the table you can close the face of the bat and hit with more power and less spin, if the ball is lower it is more difficult to get it up and down and will require a more open face, more spin, and less forward motion. You have to able to self analyze on the run when you're playing. To me you look confused as to why some shots go over and others don't. Try different things, change the angle of your bat, try to brush the ball more than you are currently. Try some heavy slow spiny loops, try some faster lower loops and enjoy experimenting

 

[greenbeanmachine]

So I have noticed that I have issues doing a fh or bh loop/topspin when someone does an underspin. If its topspin and or a flat ball my loops (especially on the forehand) are fine.

Here’s a video of me doing forehand / backhand agains “medium” underspin on the robot. Feel free to provide any feedback you have!

Some pointers:
- Use your legs. All of your stroke is coming from your arms.
- Open your racket more
- Focus on making a slow brushing loop. You're trying to smack the ball really fast, which is too advanced for you at this point. Just try to put the ball on the table, and do it slowly.

Also, it looks like you are pretty big and strong. I am also 6'5 and well-built, and I'd recommend trying some harder rubbers. They'll give you a bit more control when spinning and you seem strong enough to hit hard when you want to. Most people use soft rubbers because they aren't strong enough to use hard rubbers to hit hard.

Hurricane 3, Tenergy 05 Hard, Dignics 09c, Rasanter C53 or R53 are all good options for harder rubbers.

 

[Loop Lob Smash]

Hmm that is interesting I haven’t even thought of that! Just to make sure I understood, you’re saying I should be using more pronation on my left foot? And thankfully so far my achelles has been fine but I have been back in the game regularly for only a month so will want to fix any issues that can cause future PT visits 😂

Compare this:

..to this
(Looks very stable and able to transfer weight L-> right and back again in a repeatable and safe way):

 

[iammaru]

you are still learning the strokes, so there are a lot of things to fix/improve. Mechanics, legs, wrist, whatever… but the biggest problem and the first problem that you need to fix is the timing. You often rush and hit the ball when it didn’t even reach the top of the bounce. For underspin, you need to wait until the ball reach the top of the bounce and fall down a bit. Even pro players will do that. Notice whenever you do that in the video, your shot will land. If you fix the timing, your success rate will increase significantly. Then you can start working on other things, like how to use your body for power, instead of using only your arm.

 

[Novarac23]

All amazing feedback, thank you folks again ❤️I’m excited to start working on these when I practice next time!

Compare this:
View attachment 30509

..to this
(Looks very stable and able to transfer weight L-> right and back again in a repeatable and safe way):

I was thinking about this last night. I watched a few tall players and they stood wideeeeee when they were doing their loops. I tried it a few times (just the movmenet no balls etc) and I could do what ma long did on that video. Also it felt a lot easier to “generate power” from the legs when they were wider.

 

[Der_Echte]

If I were you give you 1 tip, it would be to use your legs more to lift the ball up.

....

YES. This is what I emphasize with new and adult players. DOWN and UP (and forward)... but generating the kinetic energy going down and up (with a squat and un-bow) so one can transfer it to the ball.

This is often in direct conflict to those who highlight the use of excessive waist and shoulder turn.

You also correctly emphasize a strike zone that is not too far in front of body. This is big-time important for looping underspin, especially if you want to loop with extreme heavy spin and slow speed.

 

[Der_Echte]

One thing I can’t remember if I mentioned or not is that I am 6’4. I did get advice from the coach at the club that I should try and spread my legs a bit more because I’m so tall. Will try that as well and see how it goes. Alongside all of the other feedback

YES. This is important for taller players to enable them to get low or lower.

 

[Novarac23]

YES. This is important for taller players to enable them to get low or lower.

I'm actually very excited to try this out tomorrow. I feel like it will make a decent difference Tried it without any equipment and it already felt a lot better (in terms of "power output" from the legs)

 

[Novarac23]

So following up on this, so far things that help the most:
* Waiting a bit longer then I did in those videos
* Paddle has to be below the ball (at least in the context of heavy-ish backspin)
* wide legs and squat and try and generate power through legs first. Almost like a thurst. Still getting used to this but im at least aware
* Surpisingly biggest change is for me to not “stand up” after I perform the shot but rather stay low. I noticed this one after filiming myself playing a tournamnet last week. I just have a tendency to stand up a ton after every shot and as soon as I stop doing things and stay low things are a lot smoother. Like night and day.

Posting this in case there are other 6’4 215lb guys in my situation I watched a few tall players play as well so that helped, just in the way they move etc.