Forehand Counterhit Problems

Albert Unknown Asked 16 years ago

So I just begun playing Table Tennis and I was taught by my father who in his days was a champion or at least good at it. He taught me the wrong way from my perspective since the first thing he taught me is the Forehand Topspin. Now, I searched the web (Youtube) and found PingSkills. After a week of watching, I started doing the strokes you do in the videos (Bronze Level) and I can't really do it like Forehand Counterhit. Even repeating it 100 times still I can't do it. Mainly I was taught how to serve (Advanced) and thats all I can do for now. Any ideas on how to work this out? I can ask my father to hit the balls back at me but if I don't know how that stroke is done, it seems useless.

List of Things I Target To Master for now:

•  Forehand Counterhit
•  Forehand Push
•  Placement of Serve

A thing I notice in your videos is that you do it in a way you fully explain what and how that stroke does but it seems that you didn't explain the Hitting Form / Position from the table. For example, how far should I be from the table?

Alois Rosario Answered 16 years ago

Hi Albert,

The keys for the forehand counterhit are the start and finish positions.  Make sure you are doing these strokes very slowly to start with.  Ask your father to hit the ball back very slowly for you so that you can concentrate on technique.  Even get him to hit one ball at a time and then stop to check your finish position.  Do everything very slowly and focus completely on the technique and don't worry at all about where the ball is going first.

This also applies to the other strokes.  Check your finish position each time.

We will be making a video on where to stand soon, so keep an eye on the website for it.  In general stand where you can just touch the table when you are in the ready position.