• Be in a ready position. Keep you stance low and in balance

• Weight shift from left to right, using your right leg and rotation of hips

• Use your elbow as a pivot point and not to move it, accelerate movement of wrist to brush the ball, but the whole arm movement should be slightly horizontal

• Contact the middle-lower part of the ball and the timing should be the second point

Welcome back to Rational Table Tennis Analysis. Today we’ll explore how to play powerful and spinny backhand topspin against backspin. The backhand loop against backspin is an essential skill to improve your game on the table. Here is why. Imagine you’re playing against a pusher, he keeps pushing to your backhand but occasionally down the line to your forehand. To attack you’ll have to play a forehand stroke from your backhand side but you might be worried that the opponent will push down the line to catch you off guard. If you can manage to loop with both your backhand and forehand, you will be able to open up the play against any opponent. Here is how you perform the stroke. 

First of all you should be in a ready position. Try to position your feet slightly wider than your shoulder and keep your stance low. This will provide you with the perfect set-up for the stroke. If you can set-up perfectly, you have already done half the work to succeed. As you can see, Ma Long keeps his centre of gravity low. This allows him to create stability to his legs, body and core, so he can develop the power to lift the ball against the backspin.

The next step is to manage the weight shift. Remember to stand on your toes so you can be ready for the next shot. In a forehand stroke, you shift the weight from your right leg to your left. The backhand stroke is the other way round. Your weight should shift from your left leg to your right leg. So before hitting the ball you should put weight on your left leg, then as you start your arm movement, the weight shifts to your right leg. Your core and the rest of your body should follow the same weight transfer. Try to rotate your hips to generate more power into the ball. Your hip should rotate clockwise horizontally. This should be a small and sharp movement so you get lots of spin and power from the shot. 

Now let’s talk about the arm movement. You should use your elbow as a pivot point. It must not change its position at any point during the shot. Your bat should be lower than your elbow, then rotate your forearm at a 45 degree angle towards the right. You should contact the lower-middle part of the ball,  accelerate the whole movement with the help of your wrist to further brush the ball, this creates even more spin to your stroke. The whole arm movement should be slightly horizontal to the right instead of vertically upwards. 

Another very useful tip is to hit the ball at the second point, which is between the point where the ball bounces on the table and its highest point. By doing this, it takes less energy to lift the ball against the backspin over the net. This is due to the fact that the later after the ball bounces on the table, the spinnier it will become. So remember to hit the ball early for the stroke. This can also apply to the forehand topspin. 

Hi guys, welcome back to Rational Table Tennis Analysis. In this video we’ll continue to focus on the backhand loop. If you haven’t already, make sure to check out my previous video as you will get all the fundamental techniques for the stroke. Today we will study a clip from the table tennis masterclass given by Chinese National Team Coach - Li XiaoDong. Li XiaoDong is the man who guided the fortunes of Ma Long in his teenage years; the fact Ma Long rose to become the Olympic champion underlines the pedigree of the highly respected Chinese coach. He’s a man with a very caring attitude, he has a wealth of experience and knowledge.

In this masterclass every player is given approximately 2 and a half minutes to get coached by him. The coach will give important and condensed feedback and concepts to the player in a short amount of time.  

In this case the player is asking for tips to improve the backhand topspin loop against backspin, and also the difference in the swing between playing crosscourt and down the line. The coach said he will see how the player does first by feeding multiball. 

After a few shots, the coach said that his backhand is decent. The player mentioned that his backhand is inconsistent , especially during matches, and he is not confident on his backhand loop.  And also after he loops the backhand topspin, when the opponent returns with a topspin ball, he struggles to combine these two shots together in a rally. The coach now feeds him with both backspin and topspin balls, towards any place on the backhand side of the table. 

The coach agreed that his backhand is not consistent. Here is the problem. In his arm and wrist movement, his swing is described as “unclean”, because he tries to play over the ball too much. The whole arm movement should be in a straight line, after hitting the ball the head of the bat should be facing outwards, not downwards. Pointing downwards will create unnecessary movement, leading to inconsistent contact points. The bat should be placed around the belly button, if the ball is wide, you move your legs, but still your arm is still in front of your belly-button. 

When the contact point is consistent, the contact timing will also be consistent. The contact timing for backspin can be the second or fourth point, for topspin you should hit at the highest point. The distance between your bat and your body should always be the same, after that your contact timing should also be consistent. 

Now he tries some multiballs again. We can see it is a little bit better than before. But there is another problem which is that the height of your bat should be adjusted according to the ball, his arm is slightly too low. This is fine and comfortable for backspin, but not for topspin. For topspin your arm should be higher, and then the arm movement direction should be towards the right or even bottom right. The thumb controls the whole movement of the bat in the backhand, so moving your thumb towards the bottom right will create a bottom right arm movement which is what we want. 

We can see now his backhand is much better. So three main points in this lesson. First, adjust the height of your forearm according to the ball. Second, consistent contact points require the same distance between the bat and your belly. Lastly, constant contact timing, 2nd or 4th point for backspin, the highest point for topspin. 

This is the end of the video. Thanks for watching. If you enjoyed watching this video, please leave a thumbs up and if you haven’t already, subscribe to this channel. I have a lot more videos coming soon, so make sure you don’t miss out on any table tennis actions. 

Welcome back to Rational Table Tennis Analysis. In this video we’ll focus on 5 different ways to force your opponent out of position. This allows you to win points much more easily. At the advanced level, good ball placement is crucial to winning points. You can see top players playing the ball onto some crazy areas of the table to make life difficult for the opponent. Table tennis legend Jan-Ove Waldner is a master at this, often varying his shot placements, forcing his opponents out of position. There are a number of ways to effectively force an opponent out of position. You can do this by either moving him side to side or in and out or some combination of this. 

Here are some practical ways to do so. 

The first thing you could do is to play the ball to wide corners. You can play one ball wide to either the forehand or backhand. At a more advanced level, players usually cover their backhand side well, so playing to their wide forehand might be more effective. But at beginner or intermediate levels, playing to either wide backhand or forehand will be equally effective in most cases. After all, it really depends on the opponent you’re playing, for example, if he is weaker in his backhand, then play to his wide backhand more often. As the opponent moves wide to return the shot, there are two possibilities. He will either leave the other wide corner open, in this case you can easily play the ball to that corner. Or, he will move to cover that side quickly, leaving the other corner open. In this case you play to the same corner twice. 

The second thing you could do is to play to the middle, the opponent’s elbow position. You go to the opponent’s middle, either spinny or aggressive with speed to not set him up for an easy shot from his stronger side. At beginner to intermediate levels, many players are not conditioned to moving their feet so you may win the point straight away. At a higher level, players do move their feet between every shot. If the opponent moves to cover it with his backhand, he leaves his backhand side open. If the opponent moves to cover it with his forehand, he leaves his forehand side open. In the next shot you can just easily go wide into either of the corners.

The third thing you could do is to go short to the forehand, then deep to the backhand. You serve or touch the ball short to the opponent’s forehand, bringing him in over the table. As he steps in and is jammed over the table, he’s vulnerable to a deep ball to the backhand. You can also play deep to his elbow position, this will be extremely awkward for him. Sometimes the opponent will quickly cover into his deep backhand position, in this case you can play another shot touch to his forehand short. At international level, we often see players repeatedly touching the ball short during a rally. This is because they can move so quickly that after they step in, they can step out immediately. If the next ball is short, they step in quickly again and touch the ball short and low. Of course you can use this tactic the other way round, going short to the backhand, then deep to the forehand. This will be a bit more difficult as it requires more control to go short crosscourt and play deep down the line as a right-handed player. However it could be more effective as most players tend to cover their backhand better than their forehand. 

The fourth thing you could do is to vary the depth of your shots during a rally, moving the opponent in and out. Most players learn early in their table tennis lives the importance of moving side to side, between backhand, middle and forehand. However, not many players learn to move in and out, forward and backward. Therefore playing in and out could be much more effective than playing side to side, as many players, certainly at beginners or intermediate level, aren’t conditioned to moving in and out and also, it is more difficult to move in and out than side to side, because in table tennis our natural position is squat with low stance, which allows us to move rapidly from side to side, but it doesn’t really help moving in and out. There are plenty of ways you can do so. In backspin rallies you can touch short and then dig spinny and deep in the next shot. In topspin rallies you can do a few topspin shots then play a dead block, or even a chop block. When your opponent is fishing and lobbing you can smash hard for a few shots, then go for a drop shot. Keep in mind that you don’t always have to go short and then long, or long and then short. Sometimes it’s better to go short twice in a row or go long three times in a row, which can effectively confuse the opponent.

Last but not least, if you are playing against a forehand-oriented player, you can play the ball deep to the backhand again and again. The opponent will then turn round and play a forehand shot from the backhand side, leaving his forehand side open. If the opponent always tries to turn around for his forehand, you can occasionally play deep to his forehand to confuse him. This will force him to play with his weaker backhand the next time you play deep to his backhand, which will create a killer shot opportunity for yourself. 

These are the five ways to force your opponent out of position. Do you have any other tactics to outplay your opponent? Feel free to comment below! This is the end of the video. If you enjoyed please subscribe to the channel, hit the like button and share this video among your friends. I have lots of videos coming soon, so stay tuned. 

Welcome back to Rational Table Tennis Analysis. In this video we will focus on the 4 very effective training methods to improve your technique. It is very important to train with a purpose in table tennis - that you actually focus on developing a skill when you train. There are players who are very committed, playing table tennis 4-5 times a week, but don’t seem to improve that much. There’s no point turning up to training when you are just hitting forehand to forehand for half an hour without any purpose. Therefore, to improve your technique, you have to train purposefully and effectively. Here are the 4 training methods to do so. 

The first method is multiball. It is the most important and efficient way to improve your technique. Multiball is a method of table tennis training that was first introduced by the Chinese. Multiball is not only for advanced players, but for players of all levels . It is extremely beneficial to all areas of your game. Firstly, it increases the quantity of balls you receive in a short period of time. You can get your feeling and adjust your technique quickly based on your previous shot. Secondly, multiball is extremely versatile and you can try all sorts of combinations of strokes, from backspin push to forehand counter topspin, you can all practise with multiballs. At the same time it will help improve your footwork, endurance, speed, fitness, anticipation and reaction. And finally it is great for trying new things as it removes the fear of missing the table. This helps increase your confidence and you will feel more encouraged and motivated to improve on your technique. You don’t need a coach to feed you multiballs. Simply ask your practice partner to try it out. You can also feed multiballs to him and take turns. Don’t be worried that you can’t feed well… Everything comes with practice, so the more you do it the better you will become at feeding. 

The second method is to do regular training drills. These are exercises where you know where the ball is going. They are essential for beginners and intermediate players who are learning how to play. Regular drills are also important for advanced players to maintain their technique, or to develop their technique further. If you don’t need to worry about where the ball is going, you can simply focus on the technique. Let’s take learning the backhand loop as an example. If I know the amount of spin on each ball, I can really focus on the mechanics of the shot - the backswing, weight shift, the swing trajectory and the wrist snap. I don’t have to worry about footwork, watching the opponent and trying to win a point. I can just focus on the execution. This makes life much easier to learn or to develop a new technique.  Another example. If you want to improve your footwork, you can do two backhands and two forehands. At first you should only do drives which will allow you to focus on your footwork. As you start to manage your footwork well, you can still do the same exercise, but add more elements to it. What I would do is to add more topspin in shots with the footwork going. Once I manage to do this well I will stay back a bit from the table and go for two backhand and two forehand topspin loops. Regular drills are vital for developing technique, but you don’t want to spend all of your time doing these types of drills. You also need other training methods. 

The third method is to do irregular training drills. These are drills with some element of randomness. You don’t always know where the ball is going to go. Let’s say you want to improve your forehand technique. A classic exercise would be middle - backhand or forehand - then middle - backhand or forehand again. For all middle shots you are only allowed to play with your forehand. In this exercise, a default position would be preparing for the forehand shot. However, you also have to be aware of the backhand as well, because in every two shots, there is a possibility that the ball will land on your backhand. This will give you a great combination between forehand and backhand, more forehand to improve your technique, occasional backhand to make the exercise more match-realistic. If you just want to improve your overall attacking techniques in all areas, here is the perfect drill for you. You start with a backspin serve, your partner pushes long to anywhere on the table, then you topspin, after that your opponent can block anywhere onto the table but you can only topspin to his backhand side. This will also improve your consistency and reaction. Keep in mind that irregular drills are generally harder than regular drills. You feel more pressure and tend to make more errors. This is normal, don’t try to go for big shots,  the most important thing is consistency.

Finally, after you think you have managed the technique, try it out with some match-play. Match-play includes exercises involving playing out a point. It could always involve an element of regularity. For example, to improve your backhand topspin, you and your partner can play up to 11 points, but you two can only play with your backhand or crosscourt. If you use your forehand or play over the middle line, you lose the point. You can also do exercises that are more flexible and free, for example you serve with a backspin, the next shot you topspin then the rally is free, you play up to 11 points. This exercise improves your mindset, forcing you to attack in the third-ball. When you do match-play training, you develop additional areas of your game, including dealing with pressure, using serves and tactics effectively and winning points. 

To improve your technique, you should involve all four training methods - multiballs, regular drills, irregular drills and match-play. Multiball help you to get the basic feeling of the shot. Regular drills help you maintain and develop technique. Irregular drills help you cope with randomness. match-play helps you develop your tactics, strategies to win points and to learn to deal with pressure. You can use whatever ratios you like with these training methods, it is completely up to you, the most important thing is that it helps you improve your technique and you know you are going in the right direction. 

This is the end of the video. I hope these four training methods help you to improve your techniques and bring your game into a complete new level. Do you have any other training methods to develop your game? Feel free to comment below. If you enjoyed this video, please give a thumbs up to this video, subscribe to the channel and share it among your friends. Also, if you have any suggestions on what video to do next, please drop a comment and let me know. I have lots of videos coming soon, so stay tuned. Bye-bye

Welcome back to Rational Table Tennis Analysis. In this video we will focus on the push shot. The push is probably the most overused and under-used shot in table tennis. Most players either push too much or too little. Many players push because they feel uncomfortable attacking the incoming ball ; Others don’t push because they feel they should attack every ball. Both of these are poor reasons to push or not push. Don’t push because you have to; push because you choose to for tactical reasons. Today we will talk about how to push effectively to win points. 

There are two main purposes with the push. The first purpose is to force a mistake or a weak return from the opponent so you can attack in the next shot. You can do this with two ways: you can push heavy or with varied spin ; you can also push quick and fast to wide angles, sometimes with last minute changes of direction. The second purpose is to make it difficult or impossible for the opponent to attack effectively. You can do that by keeping the ball to his weaker side, or to push short. 

Placement is another important element to an effective push. A push that lands inside the backhand corner is relatively easy to attack, forehand or backhand. However, if your push goes right over the corner and angling away, it is very difficult for the opponent to attack with his forehand - even if he has very good foodwork. Even if he does, you can simply block down the line to his forehand side of the table, forcing him out of position. Another option is to push to the wide forehand. If your racket is aiming towards the opponent’s backhand, and then you change in the last second and push to the forehand, your opponent is going to have a hard time reacting to this sudden change in direction. 

Let’s talk about using the forehand to push. To do this shot, you should step in with your right leg. You can do a wide variety of shots with your forehand push, you can touch shot, push long or do a disguised placement shot, you can also do push-flick (a mixture of both in the same shot). Therefore, pushing with your forehand can be very flexible. Here is a case study. The coach asks him to try a variety of shots with the push. After trying a few shots, the coach identifies that the problem with him is that his wrist is too stiff. He should use his core and fingers to feel and control the ball. The wrist should be relaxed, his bat should also face inwards. To push long to the backhand, the feeling is basically the same as serving the pendulum, contacting the left side of the ball. The player tries again. This time there is another problem. Although his pushes are low, there is almost no spin in his push. The push needs to be both low and spinny, the spin is what defines the quality of the push. The bat should grip the ball very well during the contact, making it spinny. 

Now let's move onto the backhand push. First of all you need to adjust your bat angle based on the spin of the ball. If the ball is float your bat angle should be slightly closed, contacting the middle to upper half of the ball. However if the ball is spinny your bat angle should be more open, contacting the bottom half of the ball. For advanced players, try to push right off the bounce. Your push will be faster, making it hard for the opponent to attack. If you just want to get the receive on, you can slow down the rhythm, wait for the ball to drop, when you contact the ball, make sure you brush the ball well, no matter if the ball is float or backspin. If you do that, you are making your own spin, so you have a higher chance of getting the receive. If you just touch the ball without any brushing contact, you will find it hard to deal with any serves. 

Finally, we’ll talk about ways to beat a pusher. Serve backspin to the pusher’s backhand. Then take a step to your left with your left leg. As the pusher is about to push, step back into position. There’s a high possibility that he will push to your forehand, as he saw your fake step around, and changed directions - but you were one step ahead of him, now you are ready and waiting. Another way is to use sidespin pushes against them, in the next shot if they still push, the ball will bounce high, so you have a chance to smash. 

This is the end of the video. Hopefully this video will give you more ideas on how to push more effectively. If you enjoyed this video, please give a thumbs up, subscribe to the channel and share it amongst your friends. Also, if you have any suggestions on what videos to do next, please drop a comment below. I have lots of videos coming soon, so stay tuned. Bye-bye

Welcome back to Rational Table Tennis Analysis. In this video we’ll talk about how to master the third ball attack. The 3rd ball attack is your first attack to open a series of attacks later in the rally. The player who attacks first, in general, will have a higher chance to win the point. 

First of all, to do a 3rd ball attack, you need to have a mindset to attack right after your serve. It’s not a technique problem, but a mental problem. Say to yourself “I must attack right after my serve”, so don’t block or push after the serve, remind yourself to attack in any situation. By thinking and preparing for that, you’ll eventually change your habit and you’ll always be ready to attack after your serve. 

No matter how good your serves are, it’s important to get into the habit of always expecting your serve to be returned. If you serve with the expectation that the ball won’t be returned, you’ll ball watch and lose the point. Not only should you expect your serve to be returned, you also need to think about how your serve is likely to be returned. With every serve you do, think about your spin, speed and placement and anticipate where the ball may be returned. You can then prepare for the third ball, rather than be taken by surprise when the ball is returned. 

Here are different serve tactics involving the third-ball attack to help you win points. 

The first one is the very wide sidespin. You serve from the backhand corner. Serve very wide to your opponent’s backhand with sidespin. Ideally you do the pendulum serve so the ball will curve away from the table. Stay in the backhand corner after serving. When the ball is returned, play a quick attack to the opposite corner. This tactic is useful especially if your opponent’s footwork is poor. 90% of the time your opponent will return back to your backhand side so you can just play a quick shot to the open side of the table. 

The second one is the long, heavy  backspin. Serve long, heavy backspin to the backhand side, the ball should bounce close to the end of the table. If your opponent cannot loop, he will push the serve back. Now you can attack the third ball - loop slow and spinny if the return is low, or loop powerful and quick to his middle if the return is high. At the higher level, your opponent may be able to slow topspin your heavy serve, make sure you are ready to counter-topspin with your forehand or to punch the ball early with your backhand. 

Here is an effective way to improve your third-ball attack. This is a tactic for match-use so first of all use have to predict the percentages of where your opponent will return to. If you’re left-handed and you serve to the opponent’s short forehand, there is a 70% chance that he will return to your backhand side. When your serve is good, it is difficult for the opponent to touch short,  so you can be ready to turn around and attack with your forehand. If the opponent blocks your third-ball attack, you should be ready to attack the next shot. Your aim should be to win the point within two shots, excluding the serve. Preferably you want to win with your first attacking shot. If not, you want to win with your second attack. This gives you two layers of insurance, and the opponent will have a hard time dealing with this. It is very important to serve well and attack well at the same time for this tactic to work. If your serve is not good enough, your opponent will touch short, so you can’t attack. If your attack is not good, even if you have a chance you won’t be able to take it. Therefore it is important that you can link your serve to your attack well. This training will give you a match-realistic experience so you can utilise the tactic fully during matches. 

Another tip is to place your attack base on where your opponent is moving. If your opponent is moving to his backhand side, you should attack to his forehand side. Alternatively, if your opponent is moving to his forehand side, you should attack to his forehand side. If your opponent is not really moving, place the attack to his hip position. It will be hard for him to return the shot as he has to decide whether to use his forehand or backhand to play the shot.

This is the end of the video. Hopefully this video gives you more ideas on how to dominate the third ball attack. If you haven’t already, make sure to check out my latest video on tips to push effectively from professional players. If you enjoyed this video, please give a thumbs up, subscribe to the channel and share it amongst your friends. Also, if you have any suggestions on what videos to do next, please drop a comment below. I have lots of videos coming soon, so stay tuned. Bye-bye

First of all, you need to understand the rule of long pimples and how it operates. When you do a topspin shot, and your opponent chop the ball, it is always going to be backspin. If you’re confident you can loop the ball. If you’re not and you push, the next ball will become topspin. So basically topspin will be converted as backspin and vice versa. Just keep in mind that long pimples return the opposite spin and try to get used to the sequence. 

With that being said, you need to have a deep understanding of the spin, and know what spin your shot is creating. The mind is important when playing against long pimples, make sure not to confuse yourself. The more topspin you put in your shot, the more backspin you are going to get in return, if you can’t loop heavy backspin, you can push the ball. The next ball will be topspin and you can attack again. When you push heavy, the next ball is going to float a bit, make sure you watch the ball carefully and wait until the ball drops, then play your topspin with good spin and control. 

Now that you understand how long pimples operate, we’ll talk about tactics to beat long pimple players. The most important thing is that you need to know what your strengths are. If you are better at attacking against backspin, then you’ll want to force your opponent to return backspin to you. If it's the opposite and you are better at attacking against topspin, you want to force your opponent to return topspin to you so you can attack easily. This is the thing that you can control. For example, let's say you are better at attacking backspin. You can serve a fast long topspin to your opponent’s long pimple, and then be ready to attack the backspin in the next shot. Sometimes the ball from your opponent could drop heavily if it has heavy backspin, so make sure you maintain a good body position and play the topspin loop with good control. This tactic suits players who can loop against backspin well. What can you do if you can’t loop well? You can emphasise on topspin. Here’s how you do it. You serve a short backspin, when the opponent pushes the ball, the spin becomes topspin and you can be ready to attack. The return from your opponent might fluctuate and float a bit, so keep in mind to take your time, wait for the first bounce and then attack with brushing contact to increase the possibility of your shot landing onto the opposite side of the table. 

Often it is not easy to finish the rally with one attack or one loop shot, it is important to be patient and wait for your chance to come. Do not lose points easily, keep the consistency of your attack and then play a kill shot when appropriate. Most long pimps players chop or push much better with their backhand than forehand, so make good use of your placement. Long fast serve to wide corners is always a good tactic to surprise your opponent and attack in the next shot.  When you don’t have a chance to attack make sure you stay in the rally, when you feel this is the chance, then you can add power to your shot. Again, it is not easy to win the point with only one or two attacks, so consistency is key. 

The sequence of long pimples is fixed and it’s always going to be the opposite spin. As you play against long pimples more, you’ll start to get used to the sequence and you’ll find it not that difficult to play against. It’s all about getting used to it  and technique is often not the main reason why you struggle with pimples. 

Anyway, that’s all for today, thanks for watching. I hope this video gives you a deeper understanding on how long pimples work and how to play against them. If you haven’t already, make sure to check out this video on how to read spin as this could be helpful for you to play against long pimples. You can find the link in the top right corner. If you found this tutorial useful, make sure to smash the like button, subscribe to the channel and share it amongst your friends. Feel free to comment below if you have any questions or suggestions on what videos to do next. I have lots of videos coming soon. So stay tuned. Bye-bye. 

Welcome back to Rational Table Tennis Analysis. In this video we’ll focus on how to play against long pimples. Long pimples are very common within amateur players and often people struggle playing against them as they don’t understand how long pimples work and they are not used to it. At the professional level, long pimples are rare to see but still there are some top players in the world. Manika Batra is a great example. She constantly twiddles between her long pimple and her normal rubber to confuse the opponent and also to change the rhythm of the rally. In this video we’ll talk about the sequence of long pimples, tactics to beat them and also the mindset you need when playing against them. 

There are two sets to the backhand serve. The first set is backspin and float. The other set is sidespin. We’ll talk about the backspin and float first. To do the backspin serve, you should brush the bottom part of the ball, not the side bottom, but the pure bottom part of the ball. If you brush the ball well, the ball will spin back towards the net - the same effect as the ghost serve. Your wrist should be upright and locked. As you can see, if you brush the ball well and the serve is spinny, the ball will spin back towards the net. This serve has very heavy backspin. To make this serve more effective, you need to use it together with another similar serve - the float serve. You can also call it the fake backspin serve. What you do is contact the ball with the upper part of your bat, and then push the ball forward. Pretend you are putting lots of power to confuse the opponent. As you can see the ball is bouncing towards the end of the table, the exact opposite to the real backspin serve. If your motion is sharp and quick, your opponent will easily be confused. A good tactic is to use lots of power in the float serve, making it like a heavy backspin serve and alternatively, use less power but a sharp contact when brushing the ball in the backspin serve, making it like a float serve to your opponent. When your opponent misreads your serve, the ball will either go straight into the net or pop up high, and you can attack in the next shot. 

The next set of serves are sidespin serves. You contact the bottom and side of the ball - moving your bat from left to right. The ball will curve towards the opponent’s right side. Again, this is a short and sharp motion, making it confusing for the opponent. The motion should be like a slash movement, creating heavy sidespin but also backspin. 

For topspin sidespin serve, as you contact the ball, your wrist should make small movement, brushing the middle side of the ball and then flick upwards. It is easier to serve if your wrist is relaxed, and your bat is pointing slightly towards the table. Make sure your body is tight to keep your serve short, if not the ball will be long and your opponent may attack. This is a quick moment where you put all the force onto the ball. 

To serve long fast serve, keep in mind to have a bigger and longer forward motion. Make sure the first bounce is close to your edge of the table so that the second bounce can land close to the opponent’s edge of the table. Before you serve, put your weight onto your right leg and as you serve shift the weight towards your left leg. You can see the coach uses a lot of power forward to serve long. And as she contacts the ball, she also uses her thumb - pressing her thumb onto the bat to get good speed and control. 

This serve is confusing to the opponent because the motions for short and long serves are very similar and it is very hard for the opponent to distinguish. This will lead to a weak return so you can attack in the next shot. 

These serves are all set-up serves which set up nicely for the third ball attack. There aren’t many serving issues with this serve - your opponents can see the ball all the way through your serve so they can’t complain that you are hiding your serve. Just make sure you toss the ball high enough - 16 centimetres. Anyway, that’s all for today. Thanks for watching. If you haven’t already, make sure to check out my latest video on how to play against long pimples. If you enjoyed this video, make sure to give a thumbs up, subscribe to the channel and share it amongst your friends. Also, if you have any questions or suggestions on what video to do next, feel free to comment below. I have a lot of videos coming soon, so stay tuned, bye-bye. 

Welcome back to Rational Table Tennis Analysis. In this video, we’ll focus on how to play the forehand flick. Forehand flick can be used in many situations. At the lower level, players use mainly the push so the forehand flick is rarely seen. At the higher level, players will often play the ball short to prevent the opposition from a strong attack. In these short ball situations, the forehand flick is a very good option. Not only can you play flick when you are returning a short serve, but you can also use it when your opponent touches the ball short. Therefore, the forehand flick is a very important shot to have, especially at the higher levels. 

First of all, you have to step in before you play the shot. If you’re right-handed you step in with your right leg. Alternatively, if you’re left-handed you step in with your left. At the same time, your body should be close to the table surface. There is a saying that you should use your chin to find the table, to place your chin as close as possible to the table surface, so that your body can be right over the table. The ideal contact point is the highest point, when the ball is at its highest. If you are more advanced, you may want to hit the ball slightly earlier to get good speed onto the ball. But if you are a beginner, it is better to start with the highest point. In terms of using which fingers to play the shot, it can vary for everyone. Some players emphasise on the thumb and the index finger, while others use the thumb and the middle finger. It is completely up to you, you should use whatever that you feel the most comfortable with. If you are right-handed, your stroke direction should be left and forehand, just like playing a forehand drive, but you must not use your upper arm or else you will lose your control. Focus on your forearm, wrist and fingers and then a sudden acceleration towards the front left to hit the ball, so this is the upper part.  For the lower part, you should use your leg and waist to have a sudden forward movement, with your arm movement, focusing all your energy onto the ball at the same time to play an explosive flick.  Let’s see a case study of a student trying this shot. 

The coach re-emphasises the importance of short balls. She tells the player to put the same level of effort as practising long balls when practising short balls. Short balls are as equally important as long balls, so need full attention when playing the shot.  The player did step in for the flick, but the coach demands him to lower his body to step in even more, so he can get more control over the ball. He should step in and lower his body even before he hits the ball, instead of doing these when hitting the ball. The contact timing must be right - the highest point. If you hit the ball any later, the timing is wrong so the ball is likely to hit the net. If you find yourself hitting the ball under the net, try to accelerate the forearm movement, this sudden movement will give more energy to the ball to carry it over the net. 

When you step in, you should step your whole leg, including the whole feet. Some players only step in with their front toes, this is wrong as the core will be unstable. You should also bend your knee when stepping in, this allows you to put your whole body weight forward onto the ball, with an explosive contact, to play the powerful forehand flick. As you can see, the student’s flick becomes more explosive and the ball is faster. This is because he is now emphasising more on using the legs and his core, not only his arm movement. Therefore, your arm doesn’t need to be too tight, make sure to make good use of your legs, waist and the weight shift from backward to forward from the core.

The forehand flick is a very underrated shot, as it can win you the point straight away, and more importantly set you up for your attack. Nowadays many players choose to play the backhand banana flick no matter where the ball is, even when the ball is at the forehand side, with the forehand flick, you can reduce the need to step around and leave a gap in your backhand side. 

This is the end of the video.Thanks for watching. If you haven’t already, make sure to check out my previous video on the tactical analysis between Ma Long and Fan Zhendong, as you will also get some unique tactics from that match. If you did enjoy this video, make sure to give a thumbs up, subscribe to the channel and share it amongst your friends. Also, if you have any questions or suggestions on what video to do next, feel free to comment below. I have lots of videos coming soon, so stay tuned, bye-bye. 

What spin is this? Is this topspin, backspin or sidespin? 

Welcome back to Rational Table Tennis Analysis. In this video, we’ll focus on how to return any serve. Serve receive is probably the most difficult part of the game to master, not only do you have to return the serve, but you also have to read the serve before returning it. The answer to my question at the start is actually ________. If you got it right, you’re in a good place to start with. If you didn’t, it is important that you keep watching as I’ll first explain how to read any serve, both spin and placement. 

Look at this serve. It is called the snake serve. How can you possibly read the spin? It looks so complicated. First of all, you have to ignore all racket motion except right at contact. No matter what the racket is doing, it’s not creating spin if it’s not in contact with the ball. A good server will use different racket motions both before and after contact to get you to misread the serve, so don’t fall into that trap, only focus on the contact point. 

Now that you focus on the contact, you have to understand how different types of spin operate. We’ll talk about how to determine between topspin, backspin and float first. If your opponent contacts the middle to upper part of the bat, he’ll produce either topspin or float. In this case, it’s very important that you observe his bat motion - if his bat is going upwards, then the serve will be topspin; Alternatively if his bat is going downwards while contacting the middle to upper part of the bat, the serve will be float. Backspin is simpler to read - if your opponent contacts the lower part of his bat, the serve is always going to be backspin, no matter what his bat motion is. Let’s do a few quick tests to check if you understand or not. Try to determine the following serves are topspin, backspin or float. What spin is this serve? The answer is backspin. What about this? This is topspin. Last one. This is float. If you didn’t get them right, you might want to watch this video, where I explained in more detail how to read spin and also the amount of spin. You can find the video in the top right corner and also in the description. If you got all three right, well done and you’re ready to move onto the next part - sidespin. 

Have you ever tried to receive a serve , but the ball bounces off to the side straight after it hits your bat, this is because the opponent’s serve has sidespin. There are two types to the sidespin. If the ball rotates clockwise and curves to your left, the ball has left sidespin as your opponent contacts the his left side of the ball as he serves. Alternatively, if the ball rotates anti-clockwise and curves to your right, the ball has right sidespin as your opponent contacts the his right side of the ball. To receive a sidespin serve, you can aim your return to the middle, so even if the ball bounces off the side it’ll still land on the table. Another very useful tip is to contact the same side of the ball as the server, this will cancel off the sidespin. For example, if your opponent contacts his left side of the ball when serving, you contact your right side of the ball in return. In this case both you and your opponent are contacting the same side of the ball, because remember – his left side = your right side, and his right side = your left side, so the spin cancels off, and you can easily get the ball onto the table. This tip can be applied to any spin, even backspin and topspin. For your opponent to serve backspin, he needs to contact the lower part of the ball, so a safe approach would be to push the ball by also contacting the lower part of the ball.

However, only knowing the spin is not enough. Many players play the fast long serve along with short serve close to the net to create confusion to the opponent. Therefore, you also have to be able to predict the placement of the ball. To do that, think about how you would normally serve between long and short serves. For long serves, your first bounce must be close to the edge of the table. For short serves, your first bounce is close to the net. You can apply the same principle when returning. If you see your opponent’s first bounce is close to the edge, the serve will be long. If your opponent’s first bounce is close to the net, the serve will be short. Many players understand this principle but don’t pay real attention to this during matches. When your opponent serves, pay attention to where the first bounce lands onto, this will allow you to predict his serve placement even before the ball lands onto your side.

Now that you’ve read the serve, you need to decide which shot to play. Should you play a push, a block or a topspin? There is a wide range of shots to choose from, but it’s not easy to make the right choice. I’ve categorised 4 types of serves in terms of spin and placement, and for each of them there are three options – defensive, moderate, and offensive. For short backspin serves, you can either push, touch, or play a flick. For short topspin serves, you can block, drive or play a flick. For long backspin serves, your options are chop, push and topspin. For long topspin serves, your options are block, drive and topspin. There are a lot of different combinations, so how do you make the right choice? You have two distinct approaches. The first one is the defensive approach, you mainly push and block. This approach is mainly for players at beginners or intermediate level because it is very safe, but in order to win points you can’t always rely on the opponent’s attacking mistakes. Therefore, if you only want to win matches but not really developing to a higher level, by all means use this approach. At a beginner level, this approach will be enough for you to win matches because players make quite a lot of unforced errors. The second approach is the all-out attacking approach, where you only play flick and topspin shots, attacking everything. This approach is used at a higher level, the advantage is obvious – you may win the point straight away or put your opponent on the back foot. However the disadvantage is that you have a high risk of making errors. Therefore, only use this approach if you are very confident with yourself.

Try to find a balance between defence and attack when returning if you feel like the two approaches I just mentioned do not suit you. It is perfectly fine to be defensive in some returns and attack in others. You may even want to try some moderate returns - controlling the ball to set up for your attack in your next shot – just like a midfielder in football. You may think that the top players in the world use the all-out attacking approach. However, this is not true. Even the best player in the world, Ma Long, sometimes plays some defensive and moderate shots when needed. He does the midfielder role especially well, playing touches and pushes to set up his attack.

Now let’s talk about the lefty’s forehand pendulum serve or the tomahawk serve, because these two serves can be very tricky for right-handed players to receive, especially when the opponent serves to the forehand. Both serves have right sidespin, so the ball curves to the right side, curving away from the receiver. Many players try to attack, but either miss the ball completely or lower their bat too much and lift the ball too high over the table. The problem with this is that they stand on their backhand side. As the opponent serves to their wide forehand, they have to move at least two steps to reach the ball. The solution to this is to stand close to the middle when receiving this type of serve, so that you only have to move one step to play the shot. Another option is to push the serve and this could be a better option at the lower levels. The footwork is the same, stand close to the middle and then one step to the forehand side, and then push off the bounce. The early timing is very important because if you contact the ball later it will curve away from you and be even harder to reach. You may ask what you can do when your opponent serves fast to your backhand if you stand in the middle. The solution here is to move one step to the backhand and topspin the ball. If you push the backhand long there are two disadvantages: First, the ball might bounce high for the opponent to attack. Second, only pushing long serves is not good for your own player development, you need to learn to topspin serves to your backhand at some point. 

In the next video coming up, I will explain in detail - how to topspin any serve long to your backhand, so you can have a wide range of receive options but also execute them. I’ve made a video on How To Push Effectively, and this could help you return different kinds of services. I’ll put the video link in the right corner and also in the description. If you haven’t already, make sure to check out my latest video on the forehand flick tutorial as this could be another of your receive options, I’ll also put that video into the description. I hope this video helped you understand the foundation of receiving serves and hopefully gave more confidence during actual matches. If you enjoyed this video, please give a thumbs up, subscribe to the channel and share it amongst your friends. Also, if you have any questions or suggestions on what to do next, feel free to comment below. I have a lot of videos coming soon - so stay tuned, bye bye. 

This is what happens before you learn this technique. This is what happens after. If your opponent serves long to your backhand, no matter the serve is topspin or backspin, you can still backhand topspin attack the serve, this will bring your game to a whole new level. Are you ready to take your game to the next level? Then keep watching!  

As you can see, if the opponent serves long to your backhand and you push, you will create a third ball attack opportunity for the opponent. So we don’t want that to happen. We want to gain an upper hand in the rally as soon as possible. This is why we need to backhand topspin. We will focus on attacking two types of serves in this video, side-backspin and side-topspin, both long to your backhand. Today,  we’ve got former Chinese National Team player, Fang Bo to demonstrate. 

We’ll talk about the sidespin backspin first. There are three steps to practise the receive. The most important thing against a backspin serve is to make sure you don’t play the shot into the net. Therefore the first step to practise is to lift the ball high and short. You don’t need to use your wrist for this. Just make sure to lift high and short onto the table. As long as you don’t hit the net, the other steps afterwards will allow you to control the shot. If you hit the net, that means you didn’t lift enough. So for now, only focus on lifting the ball. The second step is to use your wrist, but still loop it high and short. To loop the ball short, you need a short and sharp movement in your wrist, this will create enough spin to carry the ball over the net. You don’t need any backswing for this because you can use the speed and power from your opponent’s serve. You only need to use your wrist to brush the ball and your loop will easily land on the table. If you can do the first steps, you are ready for the third and final step - which is to press down a bit as you loop to add more quality to the shot. Same as before, you don’t need any backswing, as you use your wrist to brush the ball, instead of going up, you go forward and down a bit, this will help you control the height and speed for your shot, improving the overall quality. 

Another very useful tip is to contact the ball at its 2nd point, when the ball only just bounces up. The serve from your opponent is fast, so it is impossible to play at the highest point because the ball keeps jumping towards you. If you contact any later, you’ll be forced way back from the table. So make sure you contact at the 2nd point, this will allow you to use the opponent’s speed into your shot effectively. 

Before we move onto the side-topspin, let's recap the 3 important steps for you to start practising them today. Firstly, lift the ball up over the net. Secondly, add wrist movement to brush the ball. And finally, go forward and a bit down with your wrist to control the ball. 

Now moving onto the side-topspin. It is the same principle as the side-backspin, but you reduce the movement of going up, and go forward directly. You only need a tiny bit of upward brushing movement to create an arc for the shot, otherwise you go forward and downward. As you can see from Fang Bo’s demonstration, he goes forward and downward to create enough speed for the shot. Also, you need to adjust your bat angle according to the opponent’s sidespin. If the opponent serves a pendulum, and you aim for his backhand, of course the ball is going to go off the table. If you are unsure, aim for the middle, so even if the ball bounces either side it will still land onto the table. Here is a penhold demonstration of the shot. 

If you haven’t already, make sure to check out my latest video on How To Return Any Serve as this will help you understand not only how to read serves, but also how to effectively return them with ease, especially sidespin serves. If you enjoyed this video, please give a thumbs up, subscribe to the channel and share it amongst your friends. Also, if you have any questions or suggestions on what to do next, feel free to comment below. I have a lot of videos coming soon - so stay tuned, bye bye. 

Keep your opponents guessing with a topspin-backspin variation with explosive sidespin and watch as the ball dances across the table, leaving them stunned. Are you ready to take your game to the next level as we reveal the secrets behind these game-changing serves? Then keep watching! 

Today, we'll discuss two types of sidespin serves - right and left sidespin. Now obviously, there are various methods to generate these spins in your serve. However, our main focus today will be on the easiest serves to master that will also produce these spins - the hook serve and the pendulum serve. In this video, we have former Chinese National Team player Yan An to demonstrate these serves. Towards the end of the video, I’ll introduce some serve tactics that you can apply into your game.  

The first one is the hook serve. You can also call it the snake serve. First of all, you should contact the right-side of the ball. Your arm moves from back to front, with your wrist moving around the ball in a curve to create sidespin. If you contact the ball sideways, you will serve sidespin. If you want to serve side-backspin, you need to go down as you contact the ball. For a side-topspin like a kicker, you go forward and up as you contact the ball to create that kicking effect. It all depends on a sudden change in movement as you contact the ball, this is what makes the serve so deceptive. 

Here, Yan An is trying to serve a side-topspin so as you can see, as he contacts the ball, his wrist brushes the ball upwards. On an important note, the kicking effect comes from your arm movement going forward as you hit the ball. That’s what makes the ball roll and jump on the opponent’s table. The brushing movement from the wrist only adds extra topspin to it. So make sure you get good forward contact with the ball. 

For side-backspin, you contact more of the bottom part of the ball. Make sure you accelerate downwards as you contact to produce maximum backspin. You can immediately go up for the after motion to confuse the opponent. Feel free to be very creative in this area. Some players go up and then go down again. 

Before we move onto the pendulum serve, just a quick shoutout to Craig - The Table Tennis Service Guy. If you’d like to take your service game to the next level, Craig is the right guy for you. He is now offering online coaching support, with you sending him your service videos and he’ll give you detailed video and written feedback to improve your serves further. I’ll put the link in the description below, and also feel free to check out his instagram page for more free content on serves. 

Now moving onto the pendulum serve. For pendulum side-topspin, you basically contact only the left-side of the ball, as you contact the ball, try to add some sway movement with your arm, and then push the ball forward. If you can, try to minimise the distance between the first two bounces after the ball lands on the opposite side. By doing this, your opponent will have less time to determine what spin it is. 

For side-backspin, you also contact the bottom after you contact the side of the ball, as if you are pulling the ball back. There are two reasons to pull back. Firstly, you can control the length of your serve more easily. And secondly, you can get more backspin into your serve. If you can control the first bounce of your serve, you can easily adjust the length. You should also lower your centre of mass by bending down a bit, so your contact point will be closer to the table, and you will have a better angle as your serve goes onto the table, which means you’ll have better control of the height.  If you want even more backspin, you can learn Werner Schlager’s technique. So what you do is instead of contacting the back or bottom of the ball, you contact the front of the ball, just like what you would do with the ghost serve. 

Now, we’ll talk about different tactics that you can use with these serves. First of all, you need to make sure you can serve different spins with similar motions. This will allow you to alternate different spins to confuse the opponent.  For the hook serve, you can first serve to the opponent’s forehand short, curving away from his forehand, as he returns, you can play the shot long to his backhand. In this way, he has to move for the longest distance possible over the table. Another thing you can do is to serve forehand short with occasional backhand fast long serves. Your opponent will not know which one to prepare for, and again, these two placements have the longest possible distance over the table. For the pendulum serve, you can first serve to the opponent’s backhand short, curving away from his backhand, as he returns, you can play a quick shot down the line. Again, the opponent has to cover the longest distance possible. Another tactic you can use is to alternate serves between short to backhand and long to the elbow position. Now, you can serve down the line but that would be a huge risk, because you’re open to the opponent’s forehand attack, unless you can serve as well as Waldner. Instead, if you serve to the elbow position, the opponent has to consider whether to use his backhand or forehand, and also has to move a step to play the shot. 

I hope this video helped you to learn the different basic but effective sidespin serves. There are other serves that are more difficult to learn, for example, the reverse pendulum or the tomahawk serve, but I suggest you start learning those only once you’ve mastered the two serves mentioned in this video. If you haven’t already, make sure to check out my video on How to return any serve, as this could add to your understanding of how different spin is produced. If you enjoyed this video, make sure to like, subscribe and share it amongst your friends. I have a lot of videos coming soon, so stay tuned, bye-bye. 

1. Stance and Body Position

2. Contact point and timing

3. Stroke Mechanics

4. Playing Style

5. Reverse Penhold Backhand

6. European players switching to Chinese technique

Introduction:

Can you recognise the differences between the two backhand techniques? Today, we'll be delving into the intriguing differences between the Chinese and European styles of backhand techniques in table tennis. Join us as we explore the contrasting approaches and their impact on the game. 

1. Stance and Body Position:

Chinese Style:

Chinese players often adopt a more upright stance with their bodies facing slightly more towards the table. This positioning allows for quick transitions between forehand and backhand shots and ensures excellent balance during gameplay.

European Style:

In contrast, European players tend to have a slightly more sideways stance, with their bodies turned a bit more to the side. This stance enables greater rotational movement of the hips and torso, facilitating increased power and spin generation during backhand shots.

2. Contact Point and Timing:

Chinese Style:

Chinese players typically make contact with the ball slightly in front of their bodies, close to the table. They contact the ball at about the 2nd or 3rd point. By doing so, they effectively utilise the speed and momentum of the incoming ball, allowing for quicker and more aggressive counterattacks.

European Style:

European players, on the other hand, often make contact with the ball slightly away from their bodies. They contact the ball at about the 3rd and 4th point. This positioning enables them to execute longer, more extended strokes, utilising the full range of motion for generating power and spin.

3. Stroke Mechanics:

Chinese Style:

Chinese players emphasise a wrist-driven backhand stroke, utilising a short and compact motion. The wrist plays a vital role in generating speed, allowing for quick counterattacks and incredible shot placement. Most players also tend to lift their elbow and use it as a fulcrum for the forearm movement. This technique facilitates faster recovery for subsequent shots.

European Style:

European players focus on a more extended and fluid backhand stroke, involving the entire arm and wrist. Their elbow is closer to the body, allowing more freedom in the stroke.The longer stroke provides the advantage of increased power and spin variation, allowing for a wider array of shot choices and defensive manoeuvres.

4. Playing Style and Strategy:

Chinese Style:

Chinese players often adopt an aggressive and counter attacking style. They frequently utilise their backhand to initiate powerful shots, putting pressure on their opponents. They also make good use of their shot placements, playing the ball to wide corners as well as the elbow position, which creates opportunities for a stronger forehand attack in the next shot.

European Style:

European players emphasise control and consistency in their backhand technique. They aim to maintain rallies by employing accurate placement and controlled strokes. The European style is more creative in this area, for example using chop blocks to break down the rhythm of the rally to confuse the opponent. Another modern technique from European players is the backhand punch. Truls Moregard is the master at this, this shot is fast and flat but also carries some backspin, making it very awkward for the opponent. 

5. Reverse Penhold Backhand

Now let’s talk about the Chinese style Reverse Penhold Backhand. So you use mainly your thumb, index finger and middle finger to hold the bat, this will allow you to utilise the power from the fingers as well as the flexibility of the wrist to play the best shot. For a penhold backhand, it is not easy to play powerful shots. You should press down your middle and ring finger to produce power, because your wrist is already very relaxed and flexible, if your fingers are flexible as well, you will lose the balance in terms of controlling the bat. So make sure to press down with your middle and ring finger to control the bat. The way you hold your bat directly links to how you want to play. For example, before, in the Ma Lin era, it is more about the feeling for the short and small strokes, so he doesn’t hold his bat very tight and deep into his bat for more flexibility from his wrist and fingers. However, nowadays it’s all about speed, power and high intensity, so it might be better to hold the bat tighter and more deep into the bat, just like Xu xin and Wang Hao, this allows better control when playing big powerful shots. 

6. European players switching to Chinese technique

Nowadays, more and more European players are switching to the Chinese technique as the game is getting faster and faster, the backhand needs to be more sharped and compact to allow quick recovery. Patrick Franziska is a great example, he lifts his elbow as he plays his backhand, using it as a fulcrum, to allow rapid acceleration of his forearm movement and make a short compact stroke. It's truly fascinating to witness the inclusion of European players such as Dang Qiu and Felix Lebrun, who skillfully utilise the penhold grip in their table tennis technique. Their presence not only adds a touch of diversity but also serves as a remarkable testament to the vast range of playing styles within the sport. Truls Moregard definitely deserves a shout-out too, showcasing his exceptional creativity with his backhand strokes. He effortlessly executes shots like the chop block, the punch, and even the elusive strawberry flick. His ability to employ such a diverse repertoire of techniques truly captivates and adds a seamless fluidity to his game.

Conclusion:

I hope this video adds to your understanding of the unique characteristics displayed in both Chinese and European styles of backhand techniques. Both styles have their unique strengths and strategic approaches, contributing to the dynamic and exciting nature of the game. So, which style resonates with you? It's time to get out there and hone your backhand technique! If you haven’t already, make sure to check out my latest video on how to serve sidespin, including the hook serve and the pendulum serve, with deceptive topspin-backspin variation. If you enjoyed this video, make sure to like, subscribe and share it amongst your friends. I have a lot of videos coming soon, so stay tuned, bye-bye.