November 2, 2016
The Backhand Game Leads to Immediate Improvement
While coaching Daniel yesterday (he recently turned 12, is about 1700) I pointed out that when we go backhand-to-backhand, he keeps backing up, backhand looping over and over, but too soft to be really effective. He can also play it closer to the table, but is losing the knack as he simply likes backing up. How to get across to him how this was less effective? The Backhand Game!
For this I normally put a box on each side of the table, cutting off all but the backhand part of the table, so that each player covers about 40% of the table, backhand only. (The box is angled so the left side parallels the incoming ball.) We only had one box handy, and so rather than run up front to get a second one, I used my towel on my side – works just as well as a box. And then we went at it.
The rules are simple – I always serve, a straight topspin serve diagonally to his backhand. Then we go at it, backhand to backhand. No backspin or lobbing allowed. While the immediate goal is to win, the real goal is to have vicious rallies, where we bang it out ten to twenty or more times per rally. I've done this with many students, and it really leads to that.
But Daniel has been getting soft on the backhand, and when he does attack with it, he's gotten a bit erratic and jerky. Result? I won game #1, 11-1. Game #2 was the same, 11-2. All I'm doing is blocking, sometimes counter-hitting harder, but he can't maintain a rally. Game #3 is 11-0. I'm on him to be more consistently aggressive – stop playing soft or going for all-out winners, that there's a middle ground, that the rallies need to be bang-bang, where we press each other without actually trying wild shots. I can see he's trying, and in game #4 there's some improvement – I win 11-5.
But now he's getting it, that he has to fight to win long rallies, and be willing to go at it as long as necessary. Helped by a couple nets and edges, he pulls out to a lead in game #5. I fight back, and we're finally starting to go at it. It's 8-all, I go up 9-8, and then, somehow, someway, he's up 9-10 game point. I deuce it – and he goes up 10-11. I deuce it one more time, 11-all . . . and then, me, being the Grinch, I pulled it out, 13-11. But he's finally figuring it out. We're going to do this a lot more in future sessions. One other aftermath – we followed this with an improvised game where he serves backspin to my backhand, I push to his backhand, and he loops, usually backhand, sometimes forehand, and then POP (play out point). I always win this game – until now, where he wins the first time out, often following his loops with hammering backhands (care of The Backhand Game), except now he can put them anywhere on the table.
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Here's the article and pictures of Amy Wang, Sharon Alguetti, and Victor Liu.
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Here's where you can find a doubles partner. Here's the U.S. Open home page.
History of U.S. Table Tennis, Volume 18 (1990-1991)
Here's chapter 6! Or order your own print copies at TimBogganTableTennis.com.
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Here is the letter, plus pictures and video.
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Here's the new table tennis art from Mike Mezyan. (Here's the non-Facebook version.)
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Here's the video (16 sec)!
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