Forehand Push

Hello,

I have recently started playing table tennis almost every day. I love this game but I hate being beaten up every time. So I started researching how to do it better and your videos are very helpful for this. I have a question about forehand push. There are number of reasons why I would like to master this stroke first: it gives good control of the ball what I think is a key for beginner; I saw this stroke in every game I watched on the Internet. I have watched your forehand push video lesson and I tried that "in the battlefield" so couple of questions raised:

1. When I do forehand push balls tend to go in crossover direction. I would like to be able to shoot the ball straight. I tried tilting the bat clockwise but this results in a finer contact and less speed. What is the right way to make balls go straight?

2. On your video when Jeff shows start and end positions it seems like only his elbow is used to do the stroke. I have watched couple of videos about forehand push on YouTube (with V.Samsonov and Timo Boll) and it looks like they do some forward shoulder movement. From your video it's difficult to see if Jeff does something like this because it was shot from the front. What is the technique here, should shoulder be used?

3. What is the right angle of the bat? Should the contact be as fine as possible or the bat should be more flat to give more speed?

Thank You! Pavel.

Hi Pavel,

The forehand push can be an awkward stroke.

To overcome the direction problem you need to keep your wrist soft or relaxed.  This will allow a change of direction.  You need to use your wrist like a rudder to change direction rather than changing the angle of your bat.   So to play down the line have the end of your bat pointing to the right hand side wall to start with.  Keep the bat coming forward at that angle which will mean that your wrist changes shape and bends backwards.  Try it out without the ball or table to start with and see if you can get the concept.

You don't need to use your shoulder to play this stroke if your wrist is relaxed.  Again try it away from the table and see if you can feel it.

The angle of your bat depends on the type of stroke you want to play and the amount of spin that your opponent has put on the ball.

If your opponent has put a lot of backspin you need to face your bat more towards the roof and brush under the ball.

If your opponent has put no spin on the ball the bat face can be flat facing towards the net.

If you want to generate spin yourself you need to have the bat facing the roof.  The other critical factor her is your contact on the ball.  To generate spin you need to brush the ball on contact.  You are brushing the underside of the ball finely.

This is a frustrating stroke because it looks so easy.  The difficulty comes in the subtlety of spin.  Keep going with it you will get the feel of it.