FH/BH stroke evaluation
ttvrn asked 5 years ago
Hi, Dan and Tom!
I have been a member of the Academy for more than six months and finally got to this section, recorded few videos due the coronavirus time and absence of typical training.
I want you to evaluate my technique, bh and fh shape of my strokes, and I will be grateful for advice on its development.
What should I focus on during my robot sessions? What the best drills could you advice to progress in such coronavirus situation at home with the robopong?
There are links to my videos:
Forehand: https://vimeo.com/407343612
Backhand: https://vimeo.com/407343501
Tom Academy Coach answered 5 years ago
Hey ttvrn! We hope you’ve been enjoying the Academy and found it helpful so far. That’s great, now is a good time to get some feedback and watch yourself on video whilst the normal training isn’t available. I’ve had a look the videos and I think you have very solid technique overall on both sides, just a few small things that will help.
With your forehand your action is nice and smooth and you have a good acceleration and contact on the ball, I would say try not to let the bat drop too low between shots, try to back swing on a slightly higher level, this will help a lot when having to recover quickly and switch from forehand to backhand. Right now in this drill it’s fine as you know where the ball is coming but for development in random and match situations that will be important. Also just remembering to keep your nice low base with the legs and your body forward, which mostly you are doing.
On your backhand, again very nice technique overall! The main thing I would say is your follow through can shorten down and this will save you time on recovery and make it easier to stay compact. At the moment your follow through is a bit long and your bat finishes across to the side of your body, if you can focus on finishing the shot more in front and keeping the swing a little shorter. I think by doing this you will achieve the same shot quality if you can keep the acceleration but you’ll be much quicker at recovering and it will be less effort too. It does also look like you are a bit square to the table when playing your backhand and could bring the right foot back slightly so your feet position is closer to what you have on your forehand. The things I have mentioned are pretty small changes and I’m very impressed with your technique in general!
I think you are definitely at the stage where you should try to work on switching between backhand and forehand and doing in movement drills, so for example 2 backhands 2 forehands and practice linking the shots smoothly together and the recovery from each one. Not sure if it’s possible on the robot you have but I would also suggest some irregular drills which really test your technique under pressure as you don’t know were the ball is going, but for you I think that’s what your next stage is to improve as in static positions you look very solid.
I hope that all makes sense, any questions or things you aren’t sure on just comment back to me below.
ttvrnThanks, Tom! I really appreciate your valuable feedback! You just proved my thoughts both about by fh and bh “shapes”. For sure I was training a lot before, including multiball sessions, 2-2, triangles and so on. (now I’m top20 in my region, on 16-18 pos) I’m trying to improve, inspite of all this situation (we had or trip in London this may with my wife, I was dreaming to visit SPiN club and etc., but unfortunately… you know). I’ll record new videos on the next session “in dynamic”. Without any doubts, your and Dan’s advices will help me to rush into top10 🙂
No problem at all, ahh that’s good, at least you can stay in shape using the robot and I’m sure you will make it into the top 10 the way you are going! That’s a shame the trip to London was affected by this situation hopefully you can still visit in the future. Glad you are enjoying the site and I’ll look forward to seeing some more videos 🙂
Today I was focusing on your previous advices – to shorten fh stroke (tried not to drop the bat lower than belt zone, but it required more acceleration from my core), to make bh form more compact with the peak of the acceleration on the ball). It is hard to take the benefit and make advanced exercises on my simple robo, but I tried 2-2 also. The problem is that robo couldn’t give permanent feeding, made pauses…
Video links:
fh upd: https://vimeo.com/407743225
bh upd: https://vimeo.com/407743143
2-2: https://vimeo.com/407742988
Hey ttvrn, Yes that’s true it does need more help from the core when trying to shorten strokes and maintain the bat height I understand as well that the robot might not be perfect but at least keeps you ticking over and on the table playing.
To me you forehand looks good in this video you are using your body and rotation better and with more training this will keep improving, just be sure to keep your arm loose and relaxed so you can really accelerate through the contact point. On the backhand I think something to try would be getting your elbow slightly higher and a little more forward too, this means more of the shot will be generated from the elbow and lower part of the arm and means you can keep it shorter and finish in front more easily. As long as you can stay relaxed and comfortable like this and get the peak acceleration through the ball still I think you will be able to be more compact, again it’s not a big change because overall your shot is still good but something small to try.
Lastly on the 2-2 drill I actually really like this, it’s getting you moving and playing and it might not be a bad thing that the robot isn’t giving you a perfect feed, it makes you have to be aware and watch carefully and make adjustments just like a match so keep going with that focusing on the points I mentioned. Great work!
