Hi, I'm Alois Rosario from PingSkills. Today we're going to discuss the backhand topspin
against backspin.
So firstly it's critical to set your feet up in the right position. Make sure that your
feet are nice and wide apart, in a good balanced position, bend your knees so that you're getting
down nice and low. Then let's think about the direction that our feet are facing. Making
sure that we face completely towards where you want the ball to go. So if I want the
ball to go there, that's the way that my feet are facing and my body is facing.
If I want to play the ball down the line and I need to turn myself more so that I'm facing
down the line.
The next thing we need to consider is the start position of your bat. We need to start
our bat nice and low at about knee high. Why do we need to start it low? So that we can
get under the contact point and lift up for the contact. This start position is really
crucial, make sure you're getting it down nice and low, at least as low as your knee
level.
The we need to consider the contact point. So when we actually contact the bat on the
ball it needs to be a brushing action. So that brushing action is what's going to give
you the topspin and it's going to help you to lift that backspin up over the net. So
really critical that the contact is a fine brushing contact. If you contact the ball
flat the backspin is going to drag the ball straight down into the table. So we need to
get that brushing contact to lift the ball with topspin.
The last thing we then need to consider is our finish position. So after we've made the
contact let your bat flow all the way through and make sure it finishes nice and high, above
head height. The other important thing is to make sure that the bat is going past your
elbow. So let the bat swing past your elbow. Don't stop it here because then you're not
getting the full motion of your forearm and your wrist. So make sure that the finish position
is all the way through with a nice extension, nice and high, and past your elbow.
The other important thing is to make sure that there's plenty of racket head speed when
you make the contact and follow through. If you bring your bat through really slowly you're
not going to have enough speed to lift that backspin over the net. So we need a nice fluid,
fast swing, and to do that your shoulder, your elbow, and your wrist need to be nice
and relaxed so that you can swing all the way through.
So let's have a look at Jeff's bat now. He's been doing the backhand topspin and you can
see where the ball marks are on his racket. So the ball marks are in this channel here.
So not quite in the centre but more towards the end of the racket because that is where
the bat is moving faster when he's doing the backhand topspin swing so that is roughly
where you want to be aiming to hit the ball on your racket for the backhand topspin.
If there's only a little bit of backspin on the ball your swing can start to be a little
more horizontal so you can start to go more from back to forward. Still starting below
the contact point and finishing above the contact point but it doesn't need to be as
vertical. So now if there's heavy backspin on the ball, that's when you need to start
lower and finish higher, so the stroke becomes more vertical. So the heavier the backspin
the more vertical your stroke can be to lift the ball up over the net.