Your backhand sucks? It's ok brother, don't cry! We're in this together for the long run....

[Gozo Zyreruna]

Your BH sucks? Wanna give up TT and gasp! take up Pickleball instead? It's ok brother, don't cry! We're in this together for the long run....

1. Thinking about long pips / antis? But you deem them to be too g_h_3_y ? Or too distant from your current technique and you have to unlearn and learn again? Too tedious, right?

2. Learn better BH technique? Attend coaching clinics? Learn from 1,001 different YT TT gurus? But you are still back at square one?

3. last option here. This is it, your final chance at redemption. If this does not work, then honestly, pickleball is your better calling.

So what is this option Nos. 3?

Old school classic non-tensor grippy Japanese rubber such as Sriver, Sriver Fx, Saphira or Flextra. Rubber that makes the ball go over the net, stay on the table and give your FH a fighting chance. Increased survivability so that your big guns can come out to play. It is the middle ground, block all you want ( yes, you can do this all day & night ). Or perhaps loop brush a slow spinny opening to break the rhythm? These old grandpa still has some fight in them.

 

[Amayzde]

As someone that has had an awful backhand untill recent developments, I would like to add a 4th point to hopefully help alot of people:

4. Finish your (damn) stroke(!).

2. Learn better BH technique? Attend coaching clinics? Learn from 1,001 different YT TT gurus? But you are still back at square one?

You talk about being at square 1. but most people forget what exactly is square 1 of the backhand (or any stroke)?

The starting and the finish position. (Aka backswing and follow through).

This goes back all the way to the very basic backhand stroke: the backhand counterhit. Alois from PingSkills explains it very good in this video:

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I have started doing this recently and it has made a massive difference in both my topspin and counterhit. Although my bad habbits often still kick in when playing matches, every time I miss a backhand shot, 9/10 times I realise I missed because I didn't finish my stroke.

 

[Tyce]

@Amayzde this is so true. It's easy to think that because BH is more compact, it's OK to make an unfinished stroke. While in reality it's probably the other way around: you have limited space, so you have to make full use of it. 1cm less stroke on BH will have more impact than 1cm on the looong FH stroke.

Instinct can make you hold back in fear of the ball flying out of play, but hold on, stay true, and finish it!

 

[Amayzde]

@Amayzde this is so true. It's easy to think that because BH is more compact, it's OK to make an unfinished stroke. While in reality it's probably the other way around: you have limited space, so you have to make full use of it. 1cm less stroke on BH will have more impact than 1cm on the looong FH stroke.

Instinct can make you hold back in fear of the ball flying out of play, but hold on, stay true, and finish it!

It is definetely a fear thing. For me personally I was affraid to follow through on dead balls, because I was affraid I wouldnt lift the ball enough if would strike the ball and finish with the racket head foreward. So I would always tilt my racket a bit backwards when striking the ball. Kind of like revving a motorcycle instead of tossing a frisbee.

But the outcome of this 'revving' was inconsistent. Sometimes the ball would drop down anyways, sometimes it would go on, and sometimes it would fly out. But when I started to implement the proper follow through I realised that finishing your stroke actually contributes to getting a better grap on the bal!

Something I would also like to add to your comment regards the backhand being a more compact stroke:
When you have less time, cut the backswing, not the follow through!

The backswing will differ depending on the incoming ball. Lower for backspin, higher for topspin, longer for slow balls and shorter for fast balls. But the finish position will be roughtly the same for all of them: racket head pointing out completely:

 

[vanjr]

train more BH. I do not know a single player who trains their BH anywhere near as much as their FH. Most it is like 10:1 FH:BH

 

[backspacer]

Ever since I started to watch backhand videos my strokes became so short to the point I was trying to use wrist only and it makes table tennis life impossibly hard. Don't be afraid to use your forearm/arm.

 

[Der_Echte]

Figure out how to use mostly lower arm. Figure out how to use a compact stroke. Figure out how to make your strike zone 30 to 40 cm from body. Figure out how to NOT make huge twisting of body. Figure how to firm up at impact to deliver more force when you want. Figure out how to NOT go for too much too soon.

Figure out those things, then your BH becomes much easier and consistent.

 

[NextLevel]

The backhand topspin, while having more solutions than the forehand topspin, is a harder stroke to get to a high level because timing the ball in order to hit it when your stroke is directing the ball where you want it to go is difficult. It takes time and a lot of practice. The use of the elbow and forearm are extremely important. The positioning of the elbow to get leverage and integrate it properly into your game are not natural (in fact, if you were to look at the most common reason amateurs don't develop good looking strokes (not ineffective, but the appearance), it is because their elbow positioning is not what the pros use and this creates problems hitting the ball consistently straight). And then most people fixate on the wrist because of that tip, not realizing that the wrist usage is a misleading term of what often happens on the backhand topspin.

Find a really good coach and get a lot of practice. There are no substitutes.

 

[ericd937]

train more BH. I do not know a single player who trains their BH anywhere near as much as their FH. Most it is like 10:1 FH:BH

Oddly, I’m one of those rare players who picked up the backhand faster than the forehand. I started out using short/medium pimples on my forehand and stuck with them for years. Back then, a lot of opponents avoided my forehand smash and sent most of their shots to my backhand, which naturally gave me more practice on that side. Nowadays, I often get compliments like, “Wow, your backhand is really good.” On the other hand, people occasionally comment on the spin in my forehand, but no one ever says, “Wow, your forehand is amazing.”

Also, you’re absolutely correct, most players focus on training their forehands far more than their backhands. Ever since I switched away from short pimples on my forehand, I’ve noticed that most players prefer to warm up on the forehand side two to three times longer than they do on the backhand.

 

[Gozo Zyreruna]

Gozo also has amazing, fantastic and marvelous BH, as long as I am standing on the same spot and doing stroking drill. It become suckish when I am in game where the ball is randomly placed, with various spin ( sometimes very spin, sometimes with little spin ) then my brain get all confused and seized up during the BH-FH fast rally exchange. So how?

 

[mcfly]

the real secret is the face expression

 

[Lazer]

Gozo also has amazing, fantastic and marvelous BH, as long as I am standing on the same spot and doing stroking drill. It become suckish when I am in game where the ball is randomly placed, with various spin ( sometimes very spin, sometimes with little spin ) then my brain get all confused and seized up during the BH-FH fast rally exchange. So how?

Start moving Your feet, even when the ball arrives at the same spot...
Always always move Your feer...

Cheers
L-zr

 

[Milton Table Tennis Club]

Thanks for all the tips. I watch training vids regularly and am making some progress.
This video I watched yesterday seemed to be pretty good.

 

[olive-nguyen]

Instead of really trying to whip around the ball on the backhand, you can try more on active blocks, shoto, chop block and smaller drives, with the need of less power but to step around to get the forehand in the game.

This has been very helpful to improve my backhand, now I need to improve my forehand and rpb.

As the big captions suggests, the sooner the lower the better. It gives you more time to go around to the forehand. Plus, as you can see, some of the shoto are very fast, possibly giving you a better chance pushing the into more defensive mode already before you even go to forehand.

 

[Brs]

Anti is actually quite fun. Many loooong rallies.

 

[Gozo Zyreruna]

My BH training drill:

and the outcome is...BH that looks like these during active game play:

 

[TampaBayTableTennis]

nice. i think return board is really good for backhand practice

 

[Jslick89]

Figure out how to use mostly lower arm. Figure out how to use a compact stroke. Figure out how to make your strike zone 30 to 40 cm from body. Figure out how to NOT make huge twisting of body. Figure how to firm up at impact to deliver more force when you want. Figure out how to NOT go for too much too soon.

Figure out those things, then your BH becomes much easier and consistent.

Can confirm. In 30 minutes @Der_Echte helped me take my backhand from a complete liability to something that could get back on the table by using those simple concepts. Many months later, I occasionally score some kill shots with my backhand haha

 

[Der_Echte]

I can confirm that @Jslick89 is seeing the ball WAY better than just 6 months ago and soon his tourney rating will take a small to large jump due to just that area of improvement (which is the number 1 skill in TT IMO)

 

[WingTT]

I got it! I figured out whats wrong with Gozo's BH. It's that extra 30 lbs. The video reminded me of the way I used to play when I was at 195 lbs. I did not play like that when I was at 165 lbs.