tips for BH topspin

All types. I'm not getting a lot of spin in my BH topspin against any of those which is hurting my game quite a bit.

I soundly disagree with this advice of "wrist, wrist, wrist" in a BH topspin/loop stroke.

First and foremost, you should go for a CONSISTENT stroke. A wristy stroke is not consistent. There is a reason only Zhang Jike and FZD can loop over the table with those wrists. Everyone else is playing catchup. Using wrist beyond the right level flexibility is the LAST part of stroke development

Aim to generate power from your legs and core rotation. Also, snap your elbow while keeping it in front of your body. These 3 things will get you so much speed and spin that its more than enough. Always try to play the ball in front of your body. You can get those counterhits alright even from away but not with loops.

The part the wrist plays is to be free and flexible. Simply keep it relaxed.

Another tip - do not "grab" the lower part of your racket handle. Focus the pressure on the top part and keep the whole upper arm relaxed.

I found this especially helps in generating spin with lifting underspin early and on flips over the table.

CAVEAT: I play close to the table, so I am not writing about the away from the table BH loop of Kreanga and Boll.  The OP made this point and I am saying that if you are close to the table, you need to focus on elbow and wrist usage to generate racket head speed.

I agree with everything fatt said.   The key is to let the wrist do the work rather than trying to combine it with a large arm motion until you have your timing down.  Whip it all the way through.  Think frisbee toss.  <span style="line-height: 16.7999992370605px;">Focus on elbow positioning as well.  Placing the elbow in a leading position away from your body gives you the ability to generate more torque as it lets your wrist accelerate into the ball.  The biggest mistake wrist users can make is to put the wrist in front of the elbow and let the wrist just stay there by itself.  I made this mistake myself for a while because I was uncomfortable with letting my elbow lead and taking the ball slightly later.  Sometimes, you just have to do what it takes to get better. The racket should also be at least slightly below the elbow if spin generation is the priority.</span>

Again, when playing my backhand (or for me my forehand as well),  I see the stroke as a kinetic chain, With the feet, knees, abs, shoulder, elbow, wrist and fingers for generating power.  Where you find power depends on your technique and how much time you have.  

There was a time backhand looping was considered advanced and wasn't taught to beginners.  This is outdated - with the use of speed-glue effect rubbers like Tenergy, people are learning to seriously backhand topspin earlier and earlier and what is being seen is that the stroke is just as accessible as the forehand topspin if you are willing to put in the time that you put to build your forehand topspin.

People may not believe it but I can play every stroke William plays in this video, just at a much lower level and with poorer knee bend.  This is the modern backhand.  People who think this stroke is difficult should focus on the elbow and wrist positioning, practice for a week, and tell me what they see.  

OK hard to know exactly your issues with just that sentence, but I'll throw out a few concepts that apply to any shot, especially the BH shots.

 

First off, I gotta say that if you are not in position, not on balance with an effective crouch and stance and do not hit the ball within your effective striking zone... it is already game over. You are gunna spray it all over the place trying to impact the ball when any of those three things are out of order.

 

These are basic fundamentals that merit attention and a re-look by anyone having technical difficulties on a shot.

 

For any BH shot, being in POSITION and SET becomes much more important. FH shots you can do on the run, a BH on the move is a lot more tricky.

 

This is usually a big (if not the biggest) problem for many. Once you try to make a BH shot not in position, it is gunna throw off you balance, your leverage, your consistency, your pace, your spin and make you try to hit out of your effective strike zone.

 

All these things about position, stance/crouch, movement to ball, where in the zone to impact the ball all work together and are inter-dependent.

 

Being loose is another key to accelerating the bat. Timing is much better when loose, but it can also be off with a bad position or bad crouch or bad movement to ball which leads to these things.

 

I haven't gotten to (on purpose) the more technical things like how you build leverage, your swing plane, etc.

 

Nexy posted a Kim Jeung Hoon vid on basic BH and maybe I should like before write down some of the key passages and concepts.

 

There are many different BH shots. For example a BH heavy opener vs underspin, a fast BH loop vs underspin, a BH rally connecting shot, a BH punch shot, a BH drive vs a dead ball, a heavy spin vs a dead ball, a BH counterloop vs a heavy topspin, a BH off the bounce loop...

 

We cannot talk like they are all identical, just that the same principles of position, movement, crouch/stance, looseness/timing, and impacting in the effective strike zone can apply to all shots. Each different BH shot has different key points in addition to the basic fundamentals.

 

We would be re-writing a Table Tennis instruction manual going into all that right now and since we do not have enough match vid footage of you in action trying these various BH shots, it is a shot in the dark (pun intended) to tell you exactly what you are doing wrong and right.

 

In general, when a player isn't making enough spin, it is usually not enough bat speed (timing, tight, hitting too far out of zone) and the wrong kind impact (too solid, impacting out of zone from poor position or stance) they all depend on each other and one should examine their fundamentals first when self-examining your shot(s).

 

Of course the obvious answer is to have a competent coach look at what you are doing and correct you, but in countries (like yours and mine) you might have to drive by car an hour or several hours to find a place to play and there may not be a competent coach around. Even if there is, we are talking about a lot of money, many players want to improve in TT without spending the money on lessons or it is not practically available, I get that.

 

That is one of the many reasons why a Table Tennis forum has value.

 

 

VS an underspin ball to make a heavy opener, you do not use your wrist, you will hurt yourself tryng to get heavy spin.

 

VS light to medium topspin in a rally, I agree with what was said earlier. You can make an effective return with "enough" but not heavy topspin without using too much of your wrist. A super wristy BH in a fast BH to BH exchange close to the table is pretty darned difficult to do. Not impossible, but the timing to do it well with so little time to move and be in position... you prolly make more errors trying to be over spinny trying for too much wrist in that situation.

Like many others I can drill hitting backhand opens against underspin, or hit backhand counter-loops with pretty good consistency, but in game situations I find myself using the stroke sparingly.  Well, there are a few reasons for this: 1) I know where the ball is going, so I'm in position, 2) I know what spin and pace will be on the ball, so I can be prepared to time my stroke, and 3) I'm RELAXED.

@BHman very accurately pointed out that hitting a good backhand is more demanding of you being in the right position, in contrast to forehands where it is somewhat easier adjust and reach for the ball when slightly out of position.  For the backhand you've got to MOVE and get in front of the ball to hit that BH loop.

I can't say enough about needing to be relaxed to pull of an effective BH loop.  Forget all of this nonsense of "Backhand oriented grips" etc, as I think this only leads to people focusing too much on some rigid grip on the paddle that will only get in the way of making the relaxed and fluid motion necessary to hit this stroke.

I struggle with all these things, i.e. getting in position, staying relaxed, and being comfortable with timing.  So, I try to do the following:

1) Relax, relax, relax

2) Move to get in front of the ball

3) Cock the wrist backward and lead with the elbow/forearm (must RELAX to cock the wrist backward)

4) As you follow through, let the wrist break forward (again, RELAX), or even snap the wrist to add power.

5) practice, practice, practice (the only way you'll get comfortable with the timing).

After you've gotten down that basic stroke, you can advance to a slight variation to generate more power by doing the following:

1) Instead of starting your stroke from the center of your body, start it from from further to the opposite leg (e.g. more towards your left leg if you are right handed).

2) As you follow through on the stroke turn your body in the direction that your arm is going to add momentum to the arm swing.

 

Most other BH shots, you can do them acceptably well without a ton of wrist (like you use in slow heavy opener vs underspin)

 

Some other BH shots like the bang bang fast BH exchanges that are BH drives (close to the table), a BH loop a step away from the table vs a fast drive or medium loop... these shots can be done without a lot of wrist and still produce acceptable (but not overwhelming) topspin. (and be pretty consistent and fast pace good spin)

 

 

Is there anything similar for forehand?

Yes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oMwP6W8Ju4A&list=UUx6O2Pi68QPXh14QOgmyItA