Practice drills for lefty

[cosgg100]

Hi, as a lefty i know i have to train a little bit different like focusing having a good serve and a good 3rd /5rd attack especially with bh.

Im interested in seeing others practice session and how they look like. What drills they do most often and overall how they see important to improve as a lefty. Thx

 

[hclnnkhg]

Hi, as a lefty i know i have to train a little bit different like focusing having a good serve and a good 3rd /5rd attack especially with bh.

Im interested in seeing others practice session and how they look like. What drills they do most often and overall how they see important to improve as a lefty. Thx

as a lefty, my coach advises me to:

use FH to cover more table I.e. pivot more, because that usually goes towards my opponents' BH (and it's weaker generally)

if I attack with BH, try to make it wide to move my opponent away from the table, otherwise they would have a comfortable ball to hit FH counter topspin.

 

[Dominikk85]

Watch some of the videos of victor who sometimes posts here.

He plays penhold but modern style so it it pretty much like SH

You can also find training videos by elite lefties like boll or wang chuqin. Also watch their matches to see what strategies they use and then practice those in practice. For example you can use a down the line backhand to provoke a ball into your Wide forehand and then pin him into the BH but that is risky top because you might need to cover a long ground to get to that wide FH.

Also tactics for a lefty against a righty is the same (but reverse of course) as tactics for a righty against a lefty (we are just getting a lot more practice at it) so search for "strategies against lefties" to get pointers for your own game.


To me as a lower level lefty the game of lefty vs righty is often a fight for the diagonals. Both player want to get into their forehand diagonal (Your FH to their BH) and use strategies to get there.

Thus I find there often is more "action" in a lefty vs righty match-up because you don't have that BH to BH diagonal rally as a "home base" where both players almost cooperate a little because they both have the same goal played in the same diagonal line while left vs right is a fight from ball one. I think because of that many lefties are very offensively minded and looking for shorter rallies.

But take that with a grain of salt, I'm not a very good player.

 

[cosgg100]

Watch some of the videos of victor who sometimes posts here.

He plays penhold but modern style so it it pretty much like SH

You can also find training videos by elite lefties like boll or wang chuqin. Also watch their matches to see what strategies they use and then practice those in practice. For example you can use a down the line backhand to provoke a ball into your Wide forehand and then pin him into the BH but that is risky top because you might need to cover a long ground to get to that wide FH.

Also tactics for a lefty against a righty is the same (but reverse of course) as tactics for a righty against a lefty (we are just getting a lot more practice at it) so search for "strategies against lefties" to get pointers for your own game.


To me as a lower level lefty the game of lefty vs righty is often a fight for the diagonals. Both player want to get into their forehand diagonal (Your FH to their BH) and use strategies to get there.

Thus I find there often is more "action" in a lefty vs righty match-up because you don't have that BH to BH diagonal rally as a "home base" where both players almost cooperate a little because they both have the same goal played in the same diagonal line while left vs right is a fight from ball one. I think because of that many lefties are very offensively minded and looking for shorter rallies.

But take that with a grain of salt, I'm not a very good player.

Thx for tips!
I did look at the top players and i see that most of them use pendulum serve short in forehand and ofcourse from time to time long in backhand.
As for playing backhand, these days i feel like you dont need to pivot to much you can just do a lot of damage with right technique and being more close to the table.

 

[songdavid98]

Thx for tips!
I did look at the top players and i see that most of them use pendulum serve short in forehand and ofcourse from time to time long in backhand.
As for playing backhand, these days i feel like you dont need to pivot to much you can just do a lot of damage with right technique and being more close to the table.

You are correct. You don't need to pivot so much these days, especially as your backhand gets better and better.

However, at lower levels, you can easily do big damage by playing forehands into the opponent's forehand, which is often more applicable and easier to learn.

If your forehand is already fine, then go ahead and practice your backhand 3rd and 5th balls.
Personally, my favorite backhand 3rd ball is just fast and diagonal. But I wouldn't force a backhand 5th ball unless it actually goes there (if it does, bh down-the-line and fast should win). Usually, you should try to do a backhand-forehand combo (you bh to their fh, and then you fh to their bh, point over). I suggest you focus drills like this.

I actually disagree with the other comments.
You don't actually want to attack into a righty's backhand because they generally practice backhand blocking all the time, but not forehand blocking.

I suggest simply looping hard into their forehand (using your forehand or backhand) because they generally won't be able to handle it and don't practice it often.

If they prove they can turn the point around with their forehand, then I would aim for their backhand corner and play positionally. But this only happens at higher levels.

 

[cosgg100]

Great info! Thx! Also i feel like when i open up with bh (from underspin) in their fh most of the time the ball comes back on the bh again so, for 5rd attack i can go down the line with bh or pivot. Thx!

 

[Tony's Table Tennis]