Forehand Pivot Footwork

Dear Alois, pivot has been my fatal Cleopatra as I told you once. But of late as age catches up with me I find it almost impossible to play that stroke. Jeff's video brought out what goes wrong now. The fault lies not in the absence of youthful agility but in the side-on shuffle I make. In the good old days it naturally used to be square on. Thanks to your video now I know why I end up taking the ball on my body. I must shuffle the right way. I'll try that now.Yes ,I agree the pivot leaves your forehand flank hopelessly exposed but then my dear what a fine stroke it is! Only you must ensure it is a 'kill' cross-courrt or down the line.

I think it is good to be versatile and to be able to hit a BH loop/drive or to pivot and hit a FH from the BH corner.  The more options you have the better.  Of course, pivoting is a higher risk tactic and how often you employ it will depend on 1) how strong your FH is, 2) how good the opponent is at blocking your FH to the open table, and 3) how fast your footwork is to cover the open table.

Obviously, if you have the FH (and footwork) of Ryu Seung Min, it would be a good tactic to pivot often!

Even if your FH is not as potent, it still is good to pivot every now and then just to give the opponent something to think about and to not be predictable.

Hi guys,

I notice that when I pivot, especially for a 3rd ball attack, I tend to lose track of the ball because it is such a big maneuver. How can I address it?

hi coach ,

iam prasad, thanq for your videos, iam improving by seeing your videos ,my main problem is attaking .. Iam not able to attak as good as my friends do but iam feel more confident in defence and bloking nice shots so please guid me

And another problem is converting chop into topspin may ne that is my problem with my action ple

I am enjoying these video series regarding footwork.  My footwork is not very good but, I think it's getting better and these videos will help.  Thank you for sending these along.

Thank you Jeff!  Great footwork and balance!

Michael mcgoldrick, like Jeff said, it’s way better to be balanced, especially if you want to be consistent. :) You can usually see those compromised leaning shots when the performer doesn’t have enough time to move quickly to the desired position in order to execute the shot in a way they had trained a long time but mostly in a balanced position.  We often see pros do that shot at least for a few reasons - their attacks are very fast and deceptive but they often successfully predict when the ball will land on their backhand side of the table early enough to utilize pivoting; and their FH is often more aggressive and powerful than their backhand (which though is quicker). Why did i say fast and deceptive? Because even pros don’t seem to be sure in their predictions where the ball is going to come (on their FH side or the BH side) so they would keep a ready position in the middle that will allow them to minimize the surprise. This leaves them less time to perform pivoting but still allows them to cover a good portion of the FH part of the table.

That’s my unpro opinion :)

The footwork is really important to be prepared at any time in game.

Many times I've been in bad positions and lose important points, so I will practice all you say. Thanks a lot

I think Ma Lin is moving a lot further to the left simply because he really doesn't wanna play a backhand on the next ball. Generally he will place the ball really wide with lots of power, so it is difficult to do anything else than play cross court, if you're even able to get to the ball, because he can get some pretty extreme angles.