March 12, 2015

Backhand Development - A Time for Everything, and Everything in its Time

I've been keeping a secret from one of my junior students. He has a strong forehand loop, and is pretty good at moving about to attack with it, but his backhand wasn't as good. When he does play backhand, he pretty much topspins everything, but it's not consistent enough, and so opponents get him on that side. Part of the reason for this is that he's always thinking forehand, and so isn't always ready for the backhand.

In our sessions, we used to do a lot of random drills. But I stopped doing them a couple months ago, and he hadn't really noticed. Why did we stop? Because I've been focusing on his backhand. I didn't want him to play backhands as a second-tier shot, done only when forced, and with an inconsistent stroke. I wanted it to be an equal, or at least near-equal shot with his forehand, though the latter would continue as his primary put-away shot. And so we've been really focusing on backhand training these past two months, though we did plenty of the usual forehand work as well - I doubt he could have survived a session if he couldn't rip a few forehands. But he's been very good about it as well, often asking to extend a backhand drill. He's one of those stubborn types (in a good way), who doesn't want to switch drills until he feels he's doing it perfectly.

Yesterday I sort of shook things up by starting our session with backhand to backhand, rather than forehand to forehand as we usually do. We went on for a long time, perhaps the first 15 minutes, for a very simple reason - he was topspinning the heck out of the ball, and was pretty consistent. I didn't exactly tell him how well they were coming out, but I think he could figure that out, and I wanted to really ingrain it. (See "Learn to Backhand Topspin - Like a Boss!" segment below.) Then we went on to forehands (lots of looping and moving), the 2-1 drill (backhand from backhand side, forehand from backhand side, forehand from forehand side, repeat), and some multiball looping against backspin.

Then we did random multiball, the whole table, where he had to react to my topspin feed), and topspin everything back from both wings. I'd been holding back, but now I felt he was ready for this. And after two months of backhand work, the drill clicked - he was able to topspin everything back smoothly. I think I worked him to death on this drill. When we finally finished, I explained why we hadn't been doing the drill for a while, why we were doing it now (his backhand had improved), and why I hadn't told him in advance - I didn't want him to think about his backhand technique, which would have been the quickest way to mess it up. (It has to be subconscious.)

A secondary bonus of his improved backhand was that I decided he was ready to really focus on backhand banana flipping. So from here on he'll be learning to topspin any serve back, including short, low, heavy backspin. We spent some time on this, and in drills, he's already doing it pretty well.

It'll take time to incorporate this, and his newly improved backhand, into games, but now a corollary of Larry's Six-Month Law takes effect - if you improve a technique in practice, it'll take up to six months of training and practice matches to do it at that same level in a serious match. The clock is now ticking.

The Lefty-Righty Match-up

Here's the new coaching article by Han Xiao. Learn how to play lefties (if you're a righty) and vice versa!

Serve Long

Here's the new coaching article from PingSkills.

Learn to Backhand Topspin - Like a Boss!

Here's the new video (2:08) from Brett Clarke of TTEdge. "This table tennis backhand topspin lesson or tutorial will teach you the technique for how to use your wrist with the "Tick-Whip" method. The backhand topspin or loop is a tricky shot to master and it takes serious practice and training."

Ask the Coach

Episode #94 (24:24) - Good Days Will Come (and other segments).

USATT Insider

Here's the new issue, out yesterday morning.

World Table Tennis Day

Here's the new ITTF article on this new World Holiday, which is on Monday, April 6 - Easter Monday. It links to this video (1:28), which you should watch just for the underwater table tennis.

2015 Para Pan American Games Team Leader & Coaches Position Openings

Here's the USATT News Item.

USA Table Tennis Award to India Community Center (ICC)

Here's the picture. USATT CEO Gordon Kaye recently met with their club leaders, and gave them this award. He also met with representatives of other clubs in the area - here's a picture. (He's on the near left.)

U.S. Pan American and National Team Trials Video Teaser

Here's the video (52 seconds).

Highlights Video from Chicott Tenis de Mesa

Here's the new highlights video (14:04).

Butterfly Ad Featuring Kanak Jha

Here's the video (1:41). I usually stay away from equipment ads in this blog, but this one was so well done that I decided to include it - especially since I'm having at least one of my students study some of the techniques in the video, such as the banana flip 62 seconds in. (Disclosure - I'm sponsored by Butterfly.)

Rolling Stone vs. Vice Table-Tennis Challenge: We're Upping the Ante

Here's the article from Rolling Stone Magazine.

Marvin Leff Birthday and Florida Table Tennis Hall of Fame Cartoon

Here's the cartoon!

The Revenge: Timo Boll vs. KUKA Robot

Here's the video (2:50). "Last year, Timo Boll challenged the KUKA KR AGILUS in his area of expertise: table tennis. Now, it is up to Timo to prove his qualities in a completely different kind of duel." This one's a little strange as it's more of a musical challenge! (With a bit of glass destruction at the end.)

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