Short Touch tutorial - eBaTT p2 March 2019

Hey guys and welcome to today's session which is going to be about short touches. Very very important at the high level even at the lower level if you can get this shot right your game will elevate very fast. So I'm going to give you a few tips and suggestions as to how this shot should be implemented and how you can execute it. So number one when you're doing a short touch a lot of people they hit through the ball so they're doing this rather than caressing the ball to get a little bit of backspin and give the ball a little bit of extra energy making it difficult for the opponent to flick. So how do we do this? First of all we must understand that the acceleration before point of contact is fast not slow. A lot of people they come to the ball and they slow down and they tap it because they want to keep it short. That's not quite right and that's why you'll get a lot of unforced errors or weak short touch. So how does it work? From a side point of view as the ball rises just before before top of the bounce you want to meet the ball and accelerate before point of contact with a thin contact motion. Imagine the ball has got hair on its head and you want to brush the hair there like that nice and soft don't hit through the ball. Second thing you want to notice is about the grip. As I go to the ball my grip squeezes the handle so I squeeze the handle as I strike the ball. Here I go in with my elbow and I strike the ball there. The third thing you want to notice is how my arm is moving. It's more of a stabbing motion so I'm going in towards the ball like this rather than a side hacking motion. This is used for long pushes so it's a short stabbing motion there. The last thing you want to notice is where to contact the ball on the bat. As you're approaching the ball you almost miss the ball with the first section of the bat and hit it in the second section. So you're there and then you contact it in and around this area, anywhere on this area, anywhere on this zone of bat. Hopefully all those little tips will help you. I'm going to show you now a few little clips of me demonstrating the stroke. Okay so as I was talking about the timing point where you should contact the ball I've drawn this diagram for you to see it properly. So as you can see over here you have the bounce and then the ball as it's rising you've got before top of the bounce in this zone and then you've got top of the bounce which is the peak and then you've got after top of the bounce. So you've got those three main sections but I've done it I've sectioned it off into five different sections to break it down a lot more for you. So the zone before top of the bounce is where you want to be hitting the short touch stroke. So if I could show it like this it should be there. That's the short touch stroke before top of the bounce in this zone. So hopefully this diagram will help you with the timing point as to where you're looking to hit the ball. So I'm going to give you a little tip to help you do a little exercise to help you with your short touch. So as I was saying before what a lot of people do is either decelerate or they hit through the ball which doesn't generate a lot of spin making it quite easy for your opponent to attack. So here's a nice little exercise I use with my players to help them develop the short touch. If you're doing this you're hitting through the ball and the ball travels. If you do this then you get a little bit of backspin and the ball should kind of stay on the table as you just saw there. So the exercise for you to do is you can practice it by yourself it's just on your side you're just going to caress the ball and try and make the ball come back to you which should look like this. So notice the acceleration before point of contact. If I don't get any spin on the ball watch what happens. The ball just travels forward. So again there see how the ball comes back and that's because of my acceleration before point of contact and the squeeze of the arm. One last As the ball rises just before before top of the bounce you want to meet the ball and accelerate before point of contact with a thin contact motion. Imagine the ball's got hair on its head and you want to brush the hair. That's bad contact. Got no quality on it. It's a short touch but it has no quality. Okay so if your touch is good quality this is what should happen. When the ball bounces off the table it should kind of either stay or come back or move forward a little bit. If there's poor quality or you haven't generated enough backspin on the ball then the ball will then drift forward. So this is how it looks like and what you want to be aiming to do. So this is what you don't want to aim to do. It's a short touch but if you notice the ball travels forward. Yeah one more time. There short touch but the ball's traveling forward. This time a good quality short touch. Notice how the ball hasn't traveled forward. There. Stayed on the table for a little bit and then kind of stayed in and around where it is. No. And then the poor quality one. Hopefully you can see the difference. Okay guys thanks for watching. Hopefully that will help you with your game. If you have any questions or you want to leave any comments please do underneath and I'll try and get back to you. So for more information please visit my website which is coachmetabletennis.com and hopefully you'll find lots of nice useful information on the website which can help you with your game. Whether it be nutritional, physical, mental. There's a whole bunch of different stuff for you there to learn from. Also blogs and these videos are all on there. So I really appreciate your support and please feel free to ask me any questions or ask me to do a few videos which might help you with your game. 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