Which way does the bat face

Hi

Love your videos and always come to you to improve my technique because your content is easy to understand; simple and concise. Why do so many table tennis coaches make their videos so long and complicated?? It’s so unnecessary.

Anyway; I have been going back to basics and perfecting my technique on the forehand counter hit. Something I found useful on your video was:”the face of the racket must face where you want the ball to go. This is very important.” I tried this and it worked. However it made me think: Do you mean BEFORE contact or after contact ? what happens when I receive the ball from down the line but returning cross court? I would normally receive the ball with the racket face facing where the ball is coming from rather than where it is going. Because your video only shows crosscourt exchanges the decision to change or not change the angle before contact would not need to be made. I don’t think your video is flawed at all; it’s just a question that comes up when receiving the ball from a different direction; as the ball comes towards me i.e BEFORE contact: does the face of the racket change to face down the line and then change after contact or does it face where I want the ball to go before and after contact regardless of the direction it’s coming from?

Moby

Hi Moby,

Thanks for your kind words about the videos.  Simplicity is definitely what we aim for.

For the direction of the bat, at the point of contact it needs to be facing where you want the ball to go. The more time before and after contact that the bat is facing in that direction the more consistent the direction will be.  However if you look at a swing in action you will see that it will change the direction it is facing constantly.  As you get more proficient with the stroke the bat will face in the direction of the trajectory for a very short time.  Thing then becomes important.  You can actually use that to change the direction of hitting while using the same stroke by hitting the ball slightly earlier or later in your swing.

I hope this helps and doesn't confuse the issue too much.