I have a return board I got off of Amazon. My experience with it is that it's pretty good for BH practice, I thought that was really helpful when starting to practice my BH. It wasn't very helpful for FH practice though, my FH shots have too much power for a return board to handle. The margin of error is just too small for something static like a return board.
Interesting. You are probably above my level, but I have also found that the types of balls I can do on a return board with forehand are too much restricted and that I really prefer to put more power into the ball and lower the arc while still loading it with spin. I am playing with hard tacky forehand rubber (Rakza Z).
However, one time I tried multiball practice with a trainer he pointed out that I should hit more "thinly" and that he really didnt understand why I put so much force into the ball when learning the basics. My perspective is that the ball is still spinny when I hit hard because the hard rubber is able to grip the ball at high impact forces, and that an adult beginner might as well learn with hard rubbers.
Its normal to have softer catapult-effect rubbers on backhand, and so the spin mechanics are different, and I suppose the backhand stroke is more difficult since the feet have to be more accurately placed when receiving the ball. I think this might be why you found the return board practice more fruitful on the bakchand, since the hand movement is smaller and so the arc can be more pronounced with a bouncy rubber with high throw angle, right? I think they have return boards that are larger on wheels that you can move back from the table. Maybe those are better for forehand training?
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