Forehand and Backhand
Nomad asked 5 years ago
Hi Dan
I have been looking at some of the technical enquiries from members relating to forehand and backhand strokes
and I would like to express some of my own thoughts for your views.
Regarding your recent comments on forehand and backhand technique I totally agree that body rotation is an extremely important pre-requisite to a powerful forehand and backhand stroke. Timing is also a key factor so that the body rotation shoud have occurred before the arm comes through to complete the forehand or backhand stroke. As I do not have a table at home and am unable to send a video, I resorted to viewing my own action in a full length mirror!!
On the forehand drive my trunk rotation is such that my left shouder (as a right hander) points almost towards the net with my left leg only just slightly in front of my right to ease rotation. When the trunk of my body is rotated, there is a slight pause before my arm comes through. At this point most of the weight is on my right leg (I can lift my left leg for a few seconds without losing balance). My left arm is used for balance and also as a ‘sighting aid’. When the right arm comes through to complete the drive, weight transfers back to the left leg (similar to that of a right-to-left swaying motion). Throughout this action my head remains still, focused on the opposite side of the table.
My left arm which is used for balance and sighting drops back and outwards to waist height to compensate for the force of the foreward drive so there is no restriction on the trunk rotation when it turns back from right to left. Using this technique I find that I can get a lot of power on the forehand by simply speeding up the follow through without having to significantly adjust the backswing. My body keeps low throughout and my legs are bent to enable me to move quickly from one side to another.
Once the club reopens, how do I send a video. Do I need a Youtube address or can I send it by E-mail?
Best wishes
Alex
Dan Academy Coach answered 5 years ago
Hi Alex, yes body rotation is absolutely key to generate power on the forehand and good use of the body means you can keep the arm more relaxed to accelerate too. All the technical parts you’ve listed here sounds spot on and are some of the key things to getting solid shots and being consistent. Playing your shots in a mirror is a good way to look at your shots without a table for sure!
We’d be happy to take a look at a video and give you some feedback, the best way to do it is upload a video to YouTube and put it as unlisted, and then send us the link in coach corner. Video files don’t generally send well over email because of the file size. All the best, Dan
