Backhand problems

:) You compared me with guys from another planet :) 

For me I think my BH when becomes really stable (i.e. I will make in a row 50-70 strokes of a good level against RB without loosing the ball in series in this exercise against topspin RB) will be good till level of 2400-2500 

:) :) It seems it's obviously that I have some other limitations like for example blahness mentioned - too much of additional weight that will not allow me to get to that level (and many others - but this one I consider as a main one) 

So basically this BH will be more than I even can have in best case :) 

You can watch how some other heavier weight players deal with that (Sun Mingyang, Liang Jingkun, etc...). I think their strokes are usually super compact and they make their attacks really count. 

Or just cut carbs and lose the weight haha, I once lost 10kg in 2 months doing just that!

He is doing classic old technics - we call that sometimes "flower" because in final position his palm reminds leaf while his head is a flower :) 

It's not bad - just old one.

First 2 videos - Fan is using modern techniques - none classic flower.

Third video - Liam shows exactly what should be done https://youtu.be/28eNy4mtzKA?t=173.

Dan does shorten, more modern variant https://youtu.be/28eNy4mtzKA?t=216

Could you please clarify what you mean by using ancient techniques?

And tell please more wide about what to your mind I am doing wrong in BH?

I actually agree with you here, this way of powering the BH is the old way. With the new way the bat is a lot more open and the BH rubber will be facing right side (not pointing downwards like Dubina). Dubina uses a lot of power but still the ball is not that fast imo. 

For me this kind of brute force brushing with the wrist is the old way. The new way is like Darko Jorgic and Harimoto - open blade angle and hitting through the ball - and also same concept as your newer BH. 

Analysing Dan's technique - his elbow is in the exact same position from start to finish which means he's not engaging his lats for extra power (you see the elbow go to the right and even sometimes backwards in a clockwise rotation in all top players). Also there's no weight transfer, also an incredibly important part of power production. They only analysed surface level stuff like use of wrist which is just lame imo.

So you are saying that Valiantsin plays his backhand like Fan right?

Here is how to study BH smash/drive in modern way:

Here is how to properly study banana

Overall tendency for BH - shorter + faster instead or more rotative but slower.

Yeah your movement patterns are kinda messed up at the moment, it seems that you probably didn't apply the same amount of effort to understand footwork the way that you applied to your BH stroke.... 

Yeah that explains a lot. I feel like the best footwork tutorials I found online are all in Chinese, by a guy called 米粒乒乓, and the ideas he teaches are nowhere to be found in any English tutorials so far. The concept he always teaches is to use multiple small adjustment steps, not one step to reach the ball. The idea is that you don't want to commit your body weight onto any foot too early lest your anticipation is wrong and you get caught flat footed. For eg even when you can reach a middle short ball in 1 step you should still take 3 steps instead so that you can still watch the ball like a hawk in the meantime and adjust in case your anticipation is wrong. You only commit to a stroke (plant your weight on a foot) once you're sure, and by the time you can no longer adjust much, so you better plant the foot in a good position for hitting it. This way you don't "commit" early, which removes a lot of assumptions you need to make before hitting, also you get more information about the trajectory which reduces errors, and maybe your opponent will make a positioning error which you can exploit (for eg pivoting too early). After hitting any shot you should continue doing the left right left right stepping/shuffling in order to "find" the best position in relation to what your opponent can do.

One advantage of the new horrible WTT side view is the footwork angle. I watched some Ma Long games and he definitely takes a lot more steps than a lot of ppl realise. 

Notice how in almost all the finishing powerloops, Fan Zhendong has his bat near his hip and pointing downwards see 6:47 slowmo for example - compare it with Dubina's finishing position near the front - this is where the "missing power" is (Dubina is missing that complete weight transfer to the right leg, and also missing the use of the powerful lat muscles to pull the elbow to the right in a clockwise motion, and also missing a more complete use of supination). I would actually volunteer that Valiantsin's stroke has a higher power ceiling than Dubina's stroke (though Dubina probably has quite a bit more spin). 

Look at the very first shot that Fan hits.  Look at his backswing.   Valiantsin foesnt have anything close to that.  

I get that the body usage is different and I am not even arguing or debating that. But sometimes you can see when there is a limit of what is getting transmitted to the racket.

Believe it or not, most of the power from the chiquita is still not coming from the wrist (although it looks like it), it is coming from fingers+supination for the most part. The ppl who think that they can achieve such an explosive chiquita against underspin with just the "wrist" (referring to the ulnar deviation plane) will pretty much never get there. I'm saying this as someone who has the chiquita as a main weapon. Of course a lot of ppl refer to forearm supination erroneously as a "wrist" action - which is of course technically incorrect. We need to stop using scientifically incorrect and vague terminology in describing technique to avoid any confusion in newer players. 

Valiantsin, Thanks for the follow up to my initial post. You are way, way better than I. I have no idea what my usatt rating is as I am from uk, but I have only just started playing in the bottom division of my local tt league. I am winning about 50% of my matches though.

My problems I think are multiple, but if it is any help to any other lower standard players like myself. the big thing that made a difference for me, was footwork. I thought I was ok on my feet, but that was when i was 15 when I last played. Now I am 60 I am not as fast on my feet at all. I tend to plant myself for the shot at the start of the rally and I don't anticipate until too late. I have worked hard on this, moving early and try to move back to the centre line without thinking.

For me this has been the thing that has helped the most.

Table tennis is a weird sport. Every other sport like badminton and tennis already have incredibly scientific, detailed biomechanical description of what is involved in every aspect of the stroke. In particular, nobody talks about "wrist movement" in badminton, they use the correct terminology ie forearm pronation and supination lol. 

Tbh this is not new in the Chinese circles, they call it 小臂内旋（forearm pronation) and 小臂外旋 (forearm supination). I once asked my ex-Chinese provincial player about the secret to his incredible amount of BH spin, and he did tell me once it was all about the supination and good use of body.

I have some beef with this issue because most coaches tell you to "use the wrist", and never tell you in what particular way they mean (there's 2 planes to wrist movement - radial/ulnar deviation plane, and flexion/extension. Pronation/supination doesn't come from the wrist but is a forearm action. 

So when a coach says "use the wrist" it becomes a 1/3 chance that the student will know what the correct movement is lol.