UFO shot (ie BH topspin with FH side rubber)

[blahness]

After some experimentation at home, I found a pretty good way to get the blade angle for this "UFO" shot without adjusting the grip too drastically. So what I did was to curl the index finger while maintaining the tip of the index finger at its original position (this is important otherwise you can't go back to the normal grip very quickly). This enables a more open angle which has better contact with the ball.



I already have some ideas for some point patterns. Serve heavy pendulum sidebackspin, they push to my BH, I loop with anti to their deep BH and then use this 'UFO shot' to fade them hard to their wide FH then attack full table with FH. Or if they attack the serve directly i can use this 'UFO' shot to directly fade it to their wide FH to gain a decisive advantage.

 

[Ghostzen]

A type of Seemiller grip springs to mind.

 

[Scarfed Garchomp]

Time honored tradition:

 

[blahness]

This is not a Seemiler grip which has more limitations with conventional BH shots, and also has the issue where you can't get back to the conventional shakehand grip afterwards.

The seemiler grip has the index finger tip on the sides of the blade or even on the other side (ie instead of index finger on BH rubber it actually rests on the FH rubber instead). This makes it impossible to utilize the finger assisted supination in the modern BH shots using the BH rubber, unless you switch index fingertip position which is too costly in terms of switching time.

tldr: the index fingertip position matters a huge deal.

 

[NextLevel]

One of my late coaches Enoch Green, who was.a 2300 chopper from Philly, used to play around with this again lot and did it. Enabled him to backhand topspin with long pips on the other side for chopping. He practiced it so much I am sure there has to be video of him doing it. He used it in matches too. If he was younger or more active it might have been a bigger deal. He was already almost 60 when I met him and died of cancer later.

 

[blahness]

With this new grip, you can simply return to the standard shakehand grip by pressing on the index finger to straighten it (which also rotates the blade clockwise). Since the fingertip position is exactly the same between the traditional shakehand grip, the switch can be super fast between traditional shakehand and this 'UFO' shot grip.

 

[blahness]

There are a lot of ideas to this - this naturally does a BH fade topspin to the ball without using the body to adjust which can be very devastating for the opponent who suddenly needs to deal with a super wide angle fast topspin shot to their wide FH just like Harimoto's fav shot. This would also be very unexpected, coming from BH LP or anti play because they typically expect some kind of chopblock or slow ball from the pips/anti side.

This is a bit similar to what LP/inverted Cpen can already do, using LP TPB shots and suddenly switching to inverted RPB to make a BH topspin.

 

[Ghostzen]

Time honored tradition:

Definitely innovative all those years ago....

I remember reading something about the modification options over at OOAK 10-12 years probably now.

If Sabine can make her "UFO" work long term will be a step forward for the style.

 

[Ghostzen]

One of my late coaches Enoch Green, who was.a 2300 chopper from Philly, used to play around with this again lot and did it. Enabled him to backhand topspin with long pips on the other side for chopping. He practiced it so much I am sure there has to be video of him doing it. He used it in matches too. If he was younger or more active it might have been a bigger deal. He was already almost 60 when I met him and died of cancer later.

I've read about Enoch Green!.
Larry Hodges had some very kind words to say about him and those innovations.

High praise indeed.

 

[Ghostzen]

Swiss player Elia Schmidt seems to have another hybrid type Seemiller style grip.

Strong player as well. It looks as if he uses inverted both sides possibly?

 

[greenbeanmachine]

There's a little kid who plays with something like this and he calls it "tiger wing grip". He's very good at it!

TigerWing Table Tennis 翼虎乒乓

TigerWing - Make the strong stronger, Make the Impossible Possible 翼虎 - 如虎添翼, 化不可能為可能

iftt04.com

 

[Ghostzen]

There's a little kid who plays with something like this and he calls it "tiger wing grip". He's very good at it!

TigerWing Table Tennis 翼虎乒乓

TigerWing - Make the strong stronger, Make the Impossible Possible 翼虎 - 如虎添翼, 化不可能為可能

iftt04.com

Little powerhouse isn't he!

 

[blahness]

There's a little kid who plays with something like this and he calls it "tiger wing grip". He's very good at it!

TigerWing Table Tennis 翼虎乒乓

TigerWing - Make the strong stronger, Make the Impossible Possible 翼虎 - 如虎添翼, 化不可能為可能

iftt04.com

Yes it is the same concept basically, except that he uses some kind of exotic grip.

I'm merely trying to use this with conventional shakehand grip.

 

[ViperTableTennis]

Yes it is the same concept basically, except that he uses some kind of exotic grip.

I'm merely trying to use this with conventional shakehand grip.

I experimented a bit with different grips last year. Inspired in part by the Seemiller backhand but also the Tiger Wing grip mentioned above.

What I came up with was a modified bat design and a modified grip.

The bat design is basically the same as a standard bat except that you only have handle on the backhand side of the blade (this handle is extra thick - about 20mm).

In terms of the grip, its a variant of the shake-hand grip where the thumb goes on the backhand side of the blade rather than on the forehand side (the thumb wraps around the top of the extra thick handle for the forehand stroke but can be straightened out a bit when playing a backhand).

With these modifications, you can play forehand topspin and backhand topspin both with the forehand rubber (the red rubber in this case) pretty easily. I didn't stick with it long enough to master using the "3rd" rubber (i.e. the backhand rubber which in the photos below is a non-regulation short pimples that I ripped off a recreational bat). I may well go back to this style at some point, but I would use a dead anti-spin on the backhand side, I think.

 

[blahness]

I experimented a bit with different grips last year. Inspired in part by the Seemiller backhand but also the Tiger Wing grip mentioned above.

What I came up with was a modified bat design and a modified grip.

The bat design is basically the same as a standard bat except that you only have handle on the backhand side of the blade (this handle is extra thick - about 20mm).

In terms of the grip, its a variant of the shake-hand grip where the thumb goes on the backhand side of the blade rather than on the forehand side (the thumb wraps around the top of the extra thick handle for the forehand stroke but can be straightened out a bit when playing a backhand).

With these modifications, you can play forehand topspin and backhand topspin both with the forehand rubber (the red rubber in this case) pretty easily. I didn't stick with it long enough to master using the "3rd" rubber (i.e. the backhand rubber which in the photos below is a non-regulation short pimples that I ripped off a recreational bat). I may well go back to this style at some point, but I would use a dead anti-spin on the backhand side, I think.

View attachment 34540

View attachment 34536View attachment 34537View attachment 34538

This is essentially the tiger wing grip I think which is super different from the conventional shakehand since the thumb and index finger are on the same side.

With shakehand the thumb and index finger works as a lever arm pair to exert force from the fingers, which is what most ppl have been used to. Lol i dont want to do that since I want the option to play standard 2 wing inverted shakehand too.

 

[blahness]

More theorycrafting and I will test it on the table maybe these few days. I can probably even make chiquita work with this grip as you do get a lot of swing power from the forearm supination and extension. I can easily get into the chiquita backswing stance with the blade pointed towards the stomach, and parallel to the table. But i highly doubt it can work against medium to heavier short backspin because the natural angle is not sufficiently open for that. Against heavy short backspin the anti receive can be even more devastating so I am not too worried about it.

However it seems that against longer balls, achieving very spinny loops against underspin may be very possible once the legs and body are incorporated. I reckon it will actually be spinnier than regular BHs, the swing actually feels faster and smoother for me.

This will be a major surprise for any opponent attempting to float nonsense balls back to defeat the anti, as they would be faced with this fully functional UFO BH topspin.

 

[blahness]

Did some training and it does works, just that timing it is a pain, and will take quite a while to train it up. First thing is that you cant make this shot if your centre of gravity is higher, you absolutely have to be low otherwise the racket angle becomes too closed and it is not possible to even make a shot. The topspin is decent although im still getting the hang of it. Matchplay wise i only managed to do it twice.

With this it is easy to make topspin and it is super weird as there is some kind of natural fade topspin to it, but hitting the ball hard is not easy since the swing is too spin oriented.