Trying to relearn BH, need advice

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   My rating has been in the 1600 s USATT for 4 years. Serves are my strength, and FH is good for looping and backhand good at blocking/placement. However, my footwork is OK at best and I struggle to gain any advantage when using BH. My BH does not have much power/spin consistently and opponents take advantage of it. 

No matter how much I advance in FH and serve game, I think I get held back because of this BH weakness (among others). I  I want to change my backhand swing and have been working on it. I started trying to swing more loosely while using a little wrist and using legs/and hips to generate power. 

I use tenergy 05fx on the backhand and when I hit a loop correctly (1 in 5 hits maybe) I like the feeling. It is also very good for blocking/counter. I was wondering if I would benefit from switching to something like HPB for better control while trying to relearn my BH. I know that rubbers can t fix the BH swing but I was wondering if it was worth the purchase to help ease the transition. 

Does anyone have any examples of how they improved their backhand after years of it being a major weakness?

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zettalith Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Super Member Joined: 08/01/2009 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 109	Post Options Post Reply Quote zettalith Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Topic: Trying to relearn BH, need advice Posted: 04/30/2015 at 12:50pm
	My rating has been in the 1600 s USATT for 4 years. Serves are my strength, and FH is good for looping and backhand good at blocking/placement. However, my footwork is OK at best and I struggle to gain any advantage when using BH. My BH does not have much power/spin consistently and opponents take advantage of it. No matter how much I advance in FH and serve game, I think I get held back because of this BH weakness (among others). I I want to change my backhand swing and have been working on it. I started trying to swing more loosely while using a little wrist and using legs/and hips to generate power. I use tenergy 05fx on the backhand and when I hit a loop correctly (1 in 5 hits maybe) I like the feeling. It is also very good for blocking/counter. I was wondering if I would benefit from switching to something like HPB for better control while trying to relearn my BH. I know that rubbers can t fix the BH swing but I was wondering if it was worth the purchase to help ease the transition. Does anyone have any examples of how they improved their backhand after years of it being a major weakness?
	IFL ZLC,Rasant g,Rasant g YEO,TG2,T64

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NextLevel Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Forum Moderator Joined: 12/15/2011 Location: Somewhere Good Status: Offline Points: 14845	Post Options Post Reply Quote NextLevel Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 04/30/2015 at 5:13pm
	Tenergy 05FX is fine. The first key to backhand play is to first of all accept that it is not a forehand. The second key is to multiball the stroke to death and start slowly with a focus on spin over speed. Look at the videos on Backhand Topspin by Brett Clarke. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FgvxkRaSZQk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Os7C24HsqlQ If you have proper forehand and backhand looping technique, you pretty much use the same stroke for topspin and underspin with minor modifications.
	I like putting heavy topspin on the ball... Cybershape Carbon FH/BH: H3P 41D. Lumberjack TT, not for lovers of beautiful strokes. No time to train...

zettalith Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Super Member Joined: 08/01/2009 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 109	Post Options Post Reply Quote zettalith Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 04/30/2015 at 5:29pm
	wow, thanks. i had seen some of his other videos but not this one. very helpful. The part about the not starting the backswing so soon and tensing muscles might help alot.
	IFL ZLC,Rasant g,Rasant g YEO,TG2,T64

jfolsen Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Gold Member Joined: 03/15/2006 Location: United States Status: Online Points: 1296	Post Options Post Reply Quote jfolsen Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 04/30/2015 at 9:23pm
	I went from a weak BH to a strong one (for my level) in the course of about a year. I did multiball practice once a week for two hours, split with another player. That way one person is up, the other is picking up balls, and very little time is wasted. Drilled a bunch of multiball, but also played BH to BH only games. Block off the FH sides of the table with cardboard boxes set at an angle, restrict yourself to only BH to BH crosscourt. Simple topspin serves to start the point, play out BH only games to 11. jfolsen