Technical question about forehand topspin stroke
darion888 asked 2 years ago
Hello guys,
I watched your Liam Pitchford’s masterclasses where he talks about backhand topspin, where he starts with his bat angle slightly open and then he closes it on contact and brushes through the ball, which gives him more flexibility, speed and spin as well giving him a better opportunity to adjust to block easier. My question is if I can apply the same technique to the forehand? I saw on the internet that some players does it but I’m not sure.
Tom Academy Coach answered 2 years ago
Hey! With the forehand it’s more difficult to use this technique because the wrist can’t help as much. I think using the wrist with the forehand is still important to add acceleration and spin though. It’s important to be relaxed and free with your wrist, there’s definitely no harm in experimenting with the feeling of using it and seeing if you feel comfortable and consistent bringing in the wrist slightly more!
darion888Thanks for the answer Tom :). I mean something more like starting with your elbow a little bit more straight before the contact and then closing it a little more while pushing forward during the contact (I mean more in situations like to topspin against no-spin ball or top-to top… Against backspin ball I normally brush more forwards and upwards without changing bat angle that much). I saw somewhere this kind of technique on the internet but I’m not so sure if I got it right. I tried to implement it and I notice that when I have my elbow slighlty more straight at the start than it gives me more flexbility, power and spin.
Of course I also try to use some wrist the way Liam demonstrated on his table tennis classes where I slighlty bend my wrist backwards. I have to admit that when I get this movement right with all these details there is a killer topspin for the opponent during the match :).
No problem! Yes a really strong topspin needs a lot of different elements to come together to work like you said. But straightening the elbow and closing it is a great way to get snap and acceleration into the shot. This is what the Chinese players do very well if you watch them playing forehand topspin shots. If you can get this along with the wrist that Liam mentions you’ll have a very strong shot! If you want to send us in a short video of you playing this shot of course we’re happy to give you feedback and analyse it for you to give you some points to work on 🙂
Hello,
I was today at the club and recorded a video of my forehand topspin with all those elementes mentioned before. Not all of the strokes were so hard, because I sometimes wanted to play the first ball a little bit safer with more rotation. My today’s sparing partner also struggled to return those topspins cause they were hard to receive and it wasn’t a more skilled person to play with :). Unfortunately, at summer time, after the season there are not so many people playing. Anyway I want you to analyse my video if you have any other suggestions what I can improve in this shot, I would be grateful for it :). The link to youtube is below.
