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Difference between Flat Hit and Drive |
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popperlocker 
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Joined: 03/24/2008 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 1753 |
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 Topic: Difference between Flat Hit and DrivePosted: 04/07/2013 at 8:00am |
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Ever since I started playing TT, I've been confused with these two terminologies, flat hit and drive. The two strokes can produce similar results and look similar. Just now, I had a light bulb moment.
Flat hit = no follow through. Drive = follow through. You're welcome! |
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smackman
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Posted: 04/07/2013 at 8:10am |
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nah my flat hits only stop because my arm is connected to my body, I think drives are a bit more cupped and flat hits are more like a slap
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NextLevel
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Posted: 04/07/2013 at 8:14am |
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Much ado about nothing...
The names of strokes is not as important as being able to do them... Flat hit means that the center of the ball is contacted usually at the center of the racket face without imparting spin. A fast flat hit can be called a smash or a drive. A drive is any kind of stroke intended to impart lots of speed on the ball. You can have a smash or a loop drive, the loop drive having more of a topspin element than a smash.
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I like putting heavy topspin on the ball...
Cybershape Carbon FH/BH: H3P 41D. Lumberjack TT, not for lovers of beautiful strokes. No time to train... |
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bluebucket
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Posted: 04/07/2013 at 8:21am |
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A flat hit implies the blade angle was purely open, there's plenty of follow through.
A drive is a flat hit with angled blade face. A loop drive is a flat plane loop. A pure loop is a more vertical stroke Edited by bluebucket - 04/07/2013 at 8:22am |
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jrscatman
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Posted: 04/07/2013 at 11:35am |
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Thanks - these terms also used to confuse me.
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tt4me
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Posted: 04/07/2013 at 11:53am |
I like NextLevel's definition better because it implies hitting through the center of the ball.
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gatorling
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Posted: 04/09/2013 at 12:02pm |
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I think it's a bit silly to worry about the minute details such as this...but if we must.
Flat hit usually implies very little spin is imparted and the bulk of your power goes into accelerating the ball. Drive usually means any stroke where you make solid contact (driving through the ball). Spin can be imparted. I would say flat hit is a sub-type of drive, just like loop-drive is a sub set of drive. But to me a drive distinguishes a stroke from a brush stroke. Also keep in mind that strokes are not so clear cut and easily categorized. It's not like you define 5 categories of strokes and everything in table tennis can be decomposed neatly into these 5 categories. Rather names were given so that we can intelligently talked about common shot types. E.g when I say flat hit you know that I'm talking about a stroke that produces a ball that is very fast but has lower spin. When I say drive I'm talking about a stroke that favors speed over spin. When I'm talking about counter-hit I'm talking about a stroke that capitalizes on the incoming speed and spin to generate a speedy well paced ball with less effort. ..and we can go on and on and on.
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power7
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Posted: 04/09/2013 at 12:20pm |
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A non-native English speaking coach would just call all those attacking shots "loops"...
I don't know, seems kind of silly trying to split hairs on these strokes. Almost as silly as describing the sound the racket makes when hitting the ball. "click", "clack", "zip", "ping", "pong"...
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stiltt
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Posted: 04/09/2013 at 12:48pm |
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I always thought a flat hit does not put spin on the ball but takes advantage of whatever spin is on it, if any; example: on a dead ball a flat hit is your typical smash; on a backspin ball a flat hit takes advantage of the underspin to make the ball pass the net as quickly as possible before the spin makes it dive on the table. On a topspin ball, a flat hit is...a mistake
 (unless it is hit at the very top and very hard; still...it is such a hard shot -a gamble- there is always something better to do).A drive is simply a slight topspin ball made by a regular swing. ANY SHOT IN TT SHOULD HAVE FOLLOW THROUGH the only exception being the drop shot (e.g returning a short serve with much underspin or on that long ball sent from far behind by the opponent); but even on that we could have something called "reverse follow through". It's a nice discussion subject: should we consider as a rule to always have a follow through in a stroke and call it a reverse follow through when it's a drop shot? Maybe it's pushing a bit, no pun intended. The idea is to consider passive and dangerously out of control not to have any. |
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kenneyy88
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Posted: 04/09/2013 at 2:38pm |
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Drive just means moderate speed. Like counter-drive, loop drive.
I like these terms for loop varieties. Slow Loop (high spin, low speed), Loop drive (medium spin, medium spin), Loop kill (low spin, high speed). |
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adishorul
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Posted: 04/09/2013 at 5:10pm |
+1
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Tinykin
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Posted: 04/09/2013 at 7:28pm |
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A flat hit is a smash. Basically a hit over the table. It's what TT players did right up until sponge became popular. Sponge introduced the element of a smash with spin to keep the ball on the table. Magnus effect if you like.
So coaches needed to distinguish between the old smash or slap from the new stroke involving spin. Thus the term 'drive' was introduced. But in the sixties, those dastardly Japanese came up with a new stroke which involved putting enormous amount of topspin from way off the table. It was not a smash and it was not a drive so someone coined the term 'loop'. Actually loop was used long before but it became attached to this off the table heavy topspin shot. As time went on different coaches from different countries referred to loop and drive interchangeably. Thus the confusion in terminology.
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king_pong
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Posted: 04/09/2013 at 9:35pm |
+2 Good definitions, Bluebucket. I agree mostly. Definition #3 is a lil ambiguous. |
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bluebucket wrote: