How to Play a Backhand Topspin off a Backspin Ball | Table Tennis Advanced Techniques | eBaTT

So, as promised guys, I'm really excited and happy to have Sarah Hurley with us, five times former world championship player and former number one in New Zealand senior women's. The backhand open up of a backspin ball is one of the toughest strokes in table tennis to execute at a high level. What do you think Sarah? Yes, I totally agree. The backhand stroke is different to the forehand stroke, where the backhand you don't have as much room for contact and also you lose the ball for a millisecond. Nice. And what do you mean by losing the ball for a millisecond? So when you're striking the ball, you lose sight of the ball for a millisecond, whereas when you're playing the forehand, you can see the ball. All the time? Yes. Brilliant. Okay, so that's a really important element, which is why this stroke is so difficult for everyone. The other element is your body position. So maybe, Sarah, if you can just stand here for a second. If you have a look at the backhand position when you're playing a backhand open up, so if you can get into the backhand position, you need to drop your legs and bend your knees. One more time, nice and low, both knees down, good. So this is quite unnatural for players to drop their knees, get down nice and low and lift off a backhand, where it's a lot more natural for players to drop and turn with the forehand side. So off a backspin ball, you need to get below the ball to lift it up, and like I just said, it's a little bit harder to drop or a little bit less unnatural to drop with your knees on the backhand compared to your forehand. If you're developing this stroke, like I said before, you need to get down nice and low and drop the bat below the table. A little tip I give people to get the bat below the table is to have the elbow in line with the white line, and that naturally will bring your bat down and then enable you to lift the ball up. And the exercise that I'm giving you here is to build that mechanics, to drop the arm and then brush the ball. So get a partner, such as Sarah, and then get them to roll the ball nice and easy, off the end, and you drop the bat below the table and you lift it up. Let's give it a go. And I actually think that that's a really, really good exercise for beginner to intermediate level to actually practice the timing and the feeling of the ball coming towards you to practice that backhand stroke. So for the backhand open up, the contact point on the ball is around here. What is that? What do you mean by around here? So it's around the 9 o'clock point to 10 o'clock. So you'll be contacting the ball around here. Okay, so that's if you're a right-hander, you'll be contacting the ball in around 9 and 10. If you're on the other side of the table, or a left-hander like me, you'll be contacting the ball in the same area, but within these zones. So the more backspin, the more you're trying to contact the ball around 9 o'clock, and if there's a little bit less backspin, then you're looking for 10 o'clock. Now another aspect I want to show you guys is the angle you're looking for. And you want to try and understand that the angles change. So if I'm opening up off a backspin ball, I'm looking for this kind of angle. So if I just put the bat on there, this is the kind of angle I'm looking to lift the ball up, because the ball wants to go down due to the backspin. Obviously, if there's topspin on the ball, the angle will change a bit more here, and backspin is just here. And for tip number three, we're going to talk about the technical aspects required for a backhand open up of a backspin ball. So one of the key elements is the using of the wrist. That's right. It's really, really important to use the wrist with the backhand. That's where you generate lots of spin. But the other really important element is looking at how your body is positioned. If you're not bending your knees, you won't be able to use the leverage to lift the ball up and over the net. Well, as you can see, the backhand open up is highly technical. You need a lot of practice. Try to implement these type of exercises within your training regime. And be aware, when you're playing a backhand open up, it can be at any point. It doesn't have to be off a serve and then backhand open up. You can be doing a few pushes, and then someone pushes your backhand and you feel, right, this is the right time for me to play a good backhand open up. So, Sarah, is there any special tips that you can give us from your worldly experience? Well, I think that always remember that when you're playing a stroke, it's preparing your feet first. Get your feet into a ready position, and then watch for, as we mentioned before, the use of the wrist and the timing of the ball. So you can incorporate all the exercises that we demonstrated before to help enhance your game. That's great. I think, like Sarah said, this is to develop your technical aspect of the game, and then you have to try and implement it inside the game. So practice these routines, and then try to implement it inside the game. And most importantly, remember, once you commit, you commit fully. You don't half commit. Really go for the full stroke, and if you continue doing it, it will work for you. I believe so, anyway. Okay, well I hope that those three key exercises will help you to develop your technical aspect of the backhand open up of a backspin ball. I'd like to thank Sarah so much for being a part of this and helping us on the journey. See you next time.