Topspin stroke arm straight

Table Tennis Strokes and Technique

Last updated 7 years ago

Fesih TOPDEMİR

Fesih TOPDEMİR Asked 7 years ago

Hi Alois/jeff

in your videos shows me when we stroke topsin our elbow must 90 degree and bat's top looks side right...But I watch zhang jikes train or another videos  someone straight arm or someone bend elbow 120 degree or someone bend elbow 90 degree...which one is true? We must always bend arm/elbow or?

 

 


Alois Rosario

Alois Rosario Answered 7 years ago

Hi Fesih,

There is a variation in the amount of bend different players have.

The straighter the arm, the more power you potentially have because the never becomes bigger.  However, you may also lose some control with a straighter arm.  That is the trade off.


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Thoughts on this question

Sachin Bhoi

Sachin Bhoi Posted 7 years ago

Hi coach what about the elbow snap when hitting, specially on forehand side to topspin when we don't have much time to produce the whole back swing arm action, we have to start with straight arm, right ?? 


Tushar Verma

Tushar Verma Posted 7 years ago

It is said that if you want to get best topspin stroke out of a Chinese Tacky rubber your arm should straight to stretch the tacky topsheet , however it is not necessary to do with European rubber because they already have a built up catapult effect=stretched topsheet. That is why most of the Chinese Players use straight arm fast swing for topspin.   


Fesih TOPDEMİR

Fesih TOPDEMİR Posted 7 years ago

 Thanks a lot  for your quick reply...I Waiting Impatiently to being a premium member...loves from Turkey


Tushar Verma

Tushar Verma Posted 7 years ago

Here Zhang Jike's elbow is bend because he uses DHS Hurricane National Blue Sponge which I have heard that it has Catapult effects so he generates power from his bend elbow.


Jean Balthazar

Jean Balthazar Posted 7 years ago

If you decompose the action, you can generate a top spin shot:

# By moving only your hand around your wrist. But you won't get much speed, and therefore spin, because the radius between your wrist and racket head isn't very big.

# By moving only your forearm around your elbow. That produces a good amount of speed and spin, because the radius is much larger, and you'll get more speed and spin if you use your full swing capability (i.e. start with your arm open more than 90°).

# By twisting your trunk, hips and knees. That gives good spin because the racket is far away from the rotation point, so it gets lots of linear speed.

You'll get the maximum racket head speed, and therefore spin if you brush the ball correctly, by combining all these movements and hit the ball when their are all at their fastest point (i.e., you don't start them all at the same time).

It's not easy, and you don't always have the time to engage all these muscles in their full swing.


Fesih TOPDEMİR

Fesih TOPDEMİR Posted 7 years ago

 What a beautiful description...thanks a lot


Tushar Verma

Tushar Verma Posted 7 years ago

I think Jean you are absolutely right.


Jean Balthazar

Jean Balthazar Posted 7 years ago

Thanks, but actually I forgot one of the most important joints in my list, which is the shoulder, that controls the full arm swing ! How could I, since this is the one place that hurts the most when I topspin too hard for too long. This probably means that I don't use the other components I listed enough.

Well again, the theory is easy to understand, just "mechanics" and physics, but putting it all together to reach the maximum speed at the contact point is the tricky part !



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