Backhand problems

To ensure that the old one has more spin check following:

Old one - is "classic" - supination in wrist  - so extra spin produced with + of supination; Thus the ball flies back from the RB worse - additional arc makes ball to fly more to bottom and returns back not so stably - worse for the exercise - but does not matter - just shows us that it has more spin.

New one - is "modern" - pronation in wrist - no extra spin produced; Thus the ball flies from RB better  - as no much spin - the arc does not go down till the RB and thus the ball flies back better with less underspin.

About too stiff - I constantly change the grip for proper situations to have enough amplitude to make stroke - when need banana - make more BH-ish grip, when attack from FH - change it to be more FH-ish.

If you check the game - will see that it seems in game that it's too loose actually :)

Mb he is not playing on 25 hundred right now - but still is much better than me :) 

He moves and plays faster, has better touch, good reflexes as he basically trained since childhood while I started to train at the age of 32 :) .

Not sure if he is back to trainings, hope yes. 

And it is good that he came to our club - we adjusted to each other too much so currently changes started to happen.

Interesting to see Alex Yao playing again. One of the top juniors in the USA about a decade ago and then disappeared from the map. Doesn't look like he is 2500 level anymore, but has he started playing/coaching again?

Hi Brands.

I have similar problems in terms of not enough consistency of BH and not enough speed in shots, 

and it's mostly shown with much better players than me as they are faster.

With close to my level of game (those guys are 2150, 2200 usatt) I have not so many issues with my BH as they give me more time to be able to think

 and I still can make pretty good shots from both BH and FH :) :) :) 

Example of my game (I am in black t-shirt, my opponent in beige t-shirt is 2500 usatt which is much better than me  in this game I lost 9,7,7).

One of such moments on 10-37 - He serves, I am receiving back with rotative BH and move to possible position where I could hit.

But I am unable to hit as my mindset is "just return back" instead of "make a quality shot - you are in proper position".

It's bad and it should be just well trained and set to reflexes - as in game not always you have much time to think.

To achieve those things - have faster BH, get more consistency and proper mindset for good shots, I started to make exercises to be able to hit with my BH from distance.

I am using return board (as do not have practice partners as we 99.9% of time play in club and not train) in my practices.

The exercise is simple - set up the board more than 1 meter away from the table and try to make good series of BH topspins(or at all shots) against it.

Short video of my trainings: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izIssWyUWHo

So just train with stronger hits in one direction, try to keep one and the same pace, try to keep one and the same tempo, make video of your trainings and make little adjustments.

For you may be it will be more difficult to hit to 1 meter away RB, as it requires good physics so just use 1 foot distance.

1dennistt and smackman,

Thank you for the sound advice. I really hadn't thought of filming, but it does make sense and is pretty easy now and yes, my footwork is nowhere near as fast as it was, so I will make a conscious effort to think about it. I just know my backhand does feel right when I strike the ball and it isn't playing the way it used to.

You don't need anything fancy to do this, just someone willing to hold a phone (or camera) while you practice.  Some controlled play where you script out what you are going to do (pushing or hitting for instance), and also some random play where you can see what happens in more of a game setting.

Let us know how you progress!

I am returning to TT after a long time off. I've been back about 6 months now, after 40+ years, with a short 2 year stint back about 15 years ago and am really enjoying it.

I would like some advice please.

I can't get my backhand right. It pops up high or long from my pushes and my attempted loops. About 33% of the time it works, but mostly it doesn't.

I used to have a decent backhand, I was/am a pretty flat hitter, and could normally play this shot reliably, I could also chop and push solidly.

Now I can't get it right. I like to play close to the table and my problems are worse when I am forced back to play at a distance, my backhand is even more inconsistent from there.

What is confusing me is that, I recently found my old bat a pre-made Friendship 729 one with Friendship II rubber on it. This rubber is over 15 years old, it is dead and was stuck in the garage hidden for quite a lot of the intervening time. I can play my backhand much better with this than my new bat, which had DHS G888 on it and more recently Giant Dragon Superspin. I don't think my problems are purely down to my rubber, but I think it may also not be helping.

Sure I am never gonna set the world alight with my tt, but I would like to at least get back to near the standard I used to be as a kid.

I would be really grateful for any tips for me to try and at least improve my backhand problems.