Forehand or Backhand percentages

Hi Alois,

Congratulations on making this fantastic site to help eager table tennis players (like me) increase their game.

My question for you is which one would be more effective to use in a game of table tennis? Would it be using the forehand loop more often or using the backhand topspin more often? Or do you just recommend a balance between both? 

Please reply soon

Richard 

Hi Richard,

Whether you use the forehand or backhand attack depends a lot on your strengths. 

If you loook at your side of the table, some players will play forehands from 50% of the table and backhands from the other 50%.  For some players with a stronger forehand, they may be mor elike a 60% to 40% ratio.  Som others may even have ratios of 80% to 20% or even 90% to 10%.  This used to be the case for a lot of penhold players in the past.

Think about the relative strengths of your two strokes and also your footwork.  If you have strong footwork and a strong forehand you can tend to cover more of the table with your forehand.