Backhand vs Forehand

Hi Guys,

I have a lot of questions (some silly) and I thought I'll shoot them all at once :

1)Do I lose a point when I hit the table with the paddle while playing? Or is it just something coaches tell the beginners so that they dont spoil the equipment initially.

2)I am a predominantly backhand player, when it comes to receiving serves as well as serving.While playing doubles, I almost take 90% of the serves with the backhand, is that a good thing in the long run.  I am not very confident of my forehand while taking serves in doubles because I fell I need some room to play it.

3)Before I saw your video of response to the forehand top spin, I usually tried to counterhit or flick it with my forehand.  Sometimes,even now, I get tempted to flick/smash the slow forehand topspin balls but more often than not, miss it or hit it not where I want to.  Is the F/H smash not an option to slow,loopy topspins?

4)Many a time, I do the sidespin topspin/backspin backhand serves (especially while playing doubles) and generally get points with it or get the initiative in the game.Should I keep continuing it as it is working for me or should I add some F/H pendulum serves in between just for the sake of variety?

Hi Mohit,

1) Your bat is allowed to touch the table.  The only thing that isn't allowed to touch the table is your free hand.  You are right, coaches do tell players to not hit the table because you can damage the tables.

2) Receiving with your backhand in doubles is quite OK.  In fact it probably leaves more room for your partner to play the next ball with their forehand.  You can keep doing that.

3) You can try to smash the slow topspin but it is not a high percentage shot.  YOu are better off to make one of the 3 strokes we talk about in our lesson.

4) I would add one more serve that you can use as a change up if your opponents are handling the backhand serve well.  If they are not handling the backhand serve then just keep using it.

Hope this answers your questions.