Daniel from West Virginia emailed me the following question:

One of the things that I am struggling to understand is the relationship between rotation versus right-to-left leg weight transfer when looping.  I saw in one of your earlier blog entries that you compare forehand looping with "rotating around a pole" that runs from the ceiling down to the floor.  I've watched this video of Wang Liqin over and over and he seems to be generating most of his power with rotation rather than right-to-left leg weight transfer.  Both of his feet stay pretty much rooted in the ground at all times during the stroke:

But whenever I watch counterlooping rallies between pros in an actual match, they do seem to be transferring their weight forward towards their opponent quite a bit, no?

In this video of Zhang Jike looping against underspin, I can see a large weight transfer onto the right foot, as evidenced by the fact that his left heel is off the ground when he initiates the stroke. This stroke seems to be slightly less about rotation and more about leg drive:

Does this mean there is a bigger transfer of weight onto the right leg when looping underspin than when looping topspin?

I'm not sure if any of this makes any sense, but if you could ever do a blog entry on the relationship of using rotation versus using forward momentum in generating power on the FH side, it would be really great.  My stroke is really suffering as I'm just not confident in how to generate the racket speed right now.

This is an excellent question. The question basically is how much power should a player generate from these three aspects: rotational energy, driving forward with the back leg, and driving upward with the back leg.

When looping against topspin or a block (i.e. any ball without backspin), you'll mostly use rotational energy and pushing forward with the back leg; there's little upward motion. From the Wang Liqin video Daniel links to above, you can see that Wang (3-time World Men's Singles Champion) uses a lot of rotational energy, but his head doesn't move a whole lot - he tends to keep the right-to-left body movement to a relative minimum as his body mostly rotates in a circle. The advantage of this is that it means his head and body ends only a short distance from where it started before the stroke, meaning he is almost immediately ready for the next shot. If your head and body move more from right to left (for a righty), you may gain some power, but you'll be slower recovering for the next shot. You need to find the right balance. If you have as much natural power as a Wang Liqin, then you don't need much right-to-left movement. But if you have more time, then the extra body movement will add to your power.

Here's a video of Ma Long vs. Wang Liqin. Watch Ma Long (far side, currently #2 in the world, former #1) in the first point as he loops five in a row. (It's replayed in slow motion.) Like Wang Liqin, he mostly uses rotational energy, but he also moves right-to-left for extra power, especially in the very first of his loops. Now jump to the point starting 50 seconds in, and watch Wang Liqin's first two loops. (It's also replayed in slow motion.) He gets great power, yet it's almost all rotational energy - watch how little his head moves during the stroke. Now jump back to the point starting 23 seconds in (also replayed in slow motion), and you'll see a series of Wang Liqin loops where he has far more right-to-left movement - now his head does move during the stroke. Why is this? It's more a matter of not being in perfect position against these angled shots into his backhand, forcing him to go way around to loop the forehand.

So while you do want that right-to-left movement (for a righty) when looping for extra power, you want to focus on rotational energy, with the center of gravity kept well between the legs, and the head moving only a little bit. The main exception is when looping from way around the backhand side, where you often aren't as far around as you might want, in which case you compensate with more right-to-left movement. (Which means a slower recovery, so you have to have fast footwork if you do this, or simply end the point with the first shot.) The other exception is when going for extra power, but as shown by Wang Liqin and Ma Long, that's not always necessary.

Now look at the video Daniel linked to of Ma Long vs. the chopper (Joo Se Hyuk). Here Ma has to overcome the heavy backspin, and so much of his power is upward as he pushes up with his back leg. He's not going for a lot of speed in most of these loops, and so there's only minimal forward motion as he topspins away, mostly stroking upward and rotating in a circle, with his head starting and ending in almost the same place. (In some of the early loops, he is almost falling backward as he focuses almost totally on upward motion.) In the first point, he loops ten balls before missing the eleventh. The first eight are all basically steady loops (by world-class standards), where most of his power is going upward. Now look at the ninth loop, where he loops with much greater power into Joo's backhand. Now there's a sudden increase in right-to-left motion, with his head ending more to the left. This gives extra power. (And since he's playing a chopper, there's plenty of time to recover for the next shot.)

What does this mean for you? The most important thing is to stay balanced, especially when looping against a fast incoming ball. Focus on rotational energy, and add as much right-to-left movement (for righties) as needed. Many players find it a lot easier to end the point this way, and if the ball rarely comes back, then there's no problem. At the higher levels, even these powerful loops often come back, and so recovery becomes an important issue - but at that level, players are so fast they can often get away with more sideways movement, relying on their footwork to recover for the next shot. But as shown by Wang Liqin and Ma Long, it is the rotational energy that is most important, and the rest is the extra spice often used for a little extra power or to compensate when forehand looping from way around on the backhand side. 

In a game dominated by forehand looping, many players forget there's another side and other point-winning shots. One of the best is the backhand loop followed by a backhand hit - a devastatingly effective one-two punch. It doesn't even have to be a backhand smash - quick, well-placed aggressive drive will usually win the point or set up an easy follow.

On the forehand side, many players loop over and over. It's usually easier on that side than on the backhand because you have a bigger hitting zone. On the backhand side, the body is somewhat in the way when backhand looping, and so you have a smaller hitting zone - mostly in front of the body. While many top players learn to backhand loop over and over, many players - including many top players - instead open against backspin on the backhand side with a backhand loop, and (if it's blocked back to the backhand, as most often happens) follow it with a backhand hit against the normal blocked return.

There are several advantages to this. First, as noted, it takes out the problem of the body being in the way, which is primarily a problem against a fast incoming ball (i.e. a block or topspin). Second, a hit takes less time than a loop, so even if your opening loop is quick-blocked back at you, you aren't rushed. Third, it means the opponent has to adjust to both your spinny topspin backhand loop and your not-so-spinny backhand hit. And fourth, it's easier to make last-second changes in your placement with a backhand hit, allowing you to move the ball around the table more easily (to wide angles or to opponent's elbow, the midpoint between forehand and backhand).

You should vary the placement of your opening backhand loop. (And loops to an opponent's forehand are often more effective, since most players block better on the backhand.)  However, most players tend to block crosscourt against an incoming crosscourt loop. So if you have a good backhand follow-up, it's often an advantage to open crosscourt, where you both have more table (across the diagonal, corner to corner), and can expect a return to the backhand. This allows you to dominate with that backhand loop & hit one-two. Or open to the middle, which most players will cover with their backhand (when blocking), and usually also block back where the ball came from.

The key to developing a good backhand loop and hit - besides getting some coaching - is to really commit to the two shots. Decide you will backhand loop any deep ball with backspin, and that you will backhand hit any blocked or topspinned return. This tends to simplify things for you while complicating it for the opponent, who has to adjust to both. (You can actually backhand loop against a short ball with backspin with a wristy shot, but that's another topic.) When going for the backhand hit, some players think of it more as a punch-block, where they essentially hit a hard block, right off the bounce.

So take down your opponents with your new dynamic duo, or force them to feed you easy forehand balls to avoid it. 

Want to twist your opponent into a pretzel? You can do so with one of the most common serving combos in table tennis: short serves to the forehand and long, breaking serves to the backhand.

Short serves to the forehand are usually more awkward to handle than short ones to the backhand. This is because the wrist is freer on the backhand side to adjust the racket angle, and also because contact is made in front of you, right in front of your eyes, instead of to the side with a forehand receive. Long serves to the backhand are usually trickier to handle than long ones to the forehand. This is because most players loop better on the forehand side, and because you have a bigger hitting zone on that side than on the backhand side, where a breaking serve can be awkward to handle.

Serving short to the forehand or long to the backhand also maximizes the amount of table the receiver has to cover. Suppose you serve very short and wide to the forehand, so the receiver has to contact the ball one foot from the net near the sideline. Suppose you serve long to the backhand, so the receiver contacts the ball about a foot past the end-line behind the backhand corner. Then the distance between these two contact points is about 6.7 feet. (The same is true, of course, if you serve short to the backhand or long to the forehand.) If you instead serve short and long to the forehand (or to the backhand), then the distance is about five feet. That's over 20 inches of extra movement for the receiver. It's even more if you serve wide to the backhand, and perhaps break it even wider with sidespin, so the receiver has to take the ball from outside the backhand corner. The contact points between a short serve to the forehand and a deep breaking serve to the wide backhand can be seven feet apart.

So why not combine these two into a deadly duo?

You can do this with forehand or backhand serves. (It's usually a bit more effective with a forehand pendulum serve, which allows you to break the deep serve to the backhand away from the receiver. However, a backhand serve type sidespin allows you to actually break the short serve a bit away from the receiver, though not as much since has less travel time.) Make sure to start out the same, with the same motion until just before contact. Then either serve very low and short to the forehand, or a long, breaking serve into the backhand.

Short serves are often best where the second bounce on the far side of the table, if allowed, would be near the end-line. However, in this case, it's better to serve very short to maximize how much distance the receiver has to reach to get to the serve. Make him cover the full seven feet.

The receiver also has to prepare for the deep serve into the backhand. By making it break, it makes the receiver reach even more. (This is especially true if you can break it away from the receiver, such as a forehand pendulum serve if both players are righties.) It's often effective to focus on deep spin serves, but not too fast. A fast serve to the backhand can often be more easily backhand countered, using your own speed against you.

So the receiver has to be ready both for the quick step in to reach the short serve to the forehand, while also covering that deep, breaking serve into the backhand. This is not an easy task, and leads to many mistakes. On top of that, it also makes it almost impossible for a receiver to forehand loop the serve from the backhand side.

So twist your opponent into a pretzel as he tries to cover these two diagonally opposed serves that the human body was never designed for. Make him cover the full seven feet as you turn him into a cooked pretzel . . . and break him. 

At the intermediate and advanced levels (below world-class level), the most common rallying style combines forehand looping and backhand hitting. These players often attack backspin by looping from both sides, but once in a fast topspin rally mostly hit on the backhand side. It's simply easier for most to loop in a rally on the forehand side because the body isn't in the way, so you have a huge hitting zone. On the backhand side, players are often cramped as they try to backhand loop a fast incoming ball, so hitting is easier and more effective. This often means trying to hit the backhand close to the table while looping the forehand from farther back. How can a player handle this?

The problem is that hitters usually play closer to the table than loopers. If they stay at the table to hit their backhands, they are jammed and rushed on the forehand side if they try to loop. If they take a step back to loop their forehands (usually after the top of bounce), their backhand hits become late and less effective. This is further aggravated because most players hit their backhands on the rise, before the top of the bounce, meaning they want to play the backhand even closer to the table. Many players face this type of problem, even at the world-class level. Players such as Gue Yuehua and Jan-Ove Waldner favored hitting or blocking their backhand close to the table, combined with a looping forehand, and they are considered two of the greatest players of all time. So how do you solve this problem? There are several options.

First, let's look at what a hitter does. Often he hits the backhand on the rise, and the forehand at the top of the bounce. This isn't a problem because when you turn sideways to hit the forehand, the hitting zone opens up and hitting at the top of the bounce is easy. So there's no problem in hitting backhands on the rise and forehands at the top of the bounce. The problem is when the backhand is hit on the rise and the forehand loop on the drop. Here are six ways to handle this problem in a fast rally.

1. Develop diagonal footwork. Playing a quick backhand but a forehand loop farther back means moving diagonally back and forth rather than side to side. So practice this footwork in drills. Start with a practice partner alternately hitting balls side to side as you develop the footwork and strokes together. Then have your partner hit the ball randomly side to side as you learn to react to these shots as if it were a game. (It might be easier to do these drills with a coach or player feeding multiball rather than doing it "live.")
2. Learn to both hit and loop the backhand. If the ball is coming at you very fast, or if you are close to the table, favor the backhand hit. If you have more time, or are off the table, you favor the backhand loop.
3. Hit the backhand at the top of the bounce. Just as there's no real difficulty in playing the backhand on the rise and the forehand on the drop, there is no real difficulty in playing the backhand at the top of the bounce and the forehand on the drop. You can still start the rally by hitting backhands closer to the table, but once into the rally the natural distance would be half a step back. (And alternate version of this is to simply learn to backhand loop in the rally - but of course that defeats the whole purpose of this article, which is how to combine a hitting backhand with a looping forehand.)
4. Loop the forehand at the top of the bounce. This takes some athleticism, and isn't for everybody. But if you are fast over the table and can smoothly and rapidly loop the forehand, you can hit the backhand on the rise and loop the forehand at the top of the bounce. Sometimes you will be forced back on the forehand, and in those cases you'll have to play your backhand late (playing backhand at the top of the bounce, backhand looping, or fishing), but when you do play the forehand at the top of the bounce, the extra effectiveness of the shot (opponents have little time to react) offset that. If you go this route, you'll want to play with a somewhat shortened forehand loop stroke.
5. Play the backhand with your feet in a slight forehand stance. For most backhands you don't really need your feet in a backhand stance. And so many players play their backhands with their right foot slightly back (for righties). This gives them a slight head start in playing their forehands, allowing them to play the backhand closer to the table while still reacting to a quick shot to the forehand. Make sure when hitting backhands that the upper body is rotated to face the direction of your shot; it is only the back foot that should be in a slight forehand position.
6. Learn to loop the ball late in the forehand zone. This means taking the ball near the back of the big forehand hitting zone that is created when you turn sideways. Some players learn to loop the forehand so late in the zone that they almost take it behind their body. This means learning to loop with the contact point almost directly to the side of the body, by the right shoulder (for righties). Players who do this tend to lose power (less time to accelerate), can be rushed (since they only have a small part near the back of the forehand zone to contact the ball), and have trouble going crosscourt. I don't particularly like this option, but some players do this effectively.

I've put these six very roughly in order of preference, but everyone's different. Experiment, take your pick or picks (you can use more than one method), and go through your opponents like a buzzsaw with your two-winged hitting/looping attack. 

Far too often players don't think tactically, believing the game is too complex for them to play and think at the same time. And it's true that you shouldn't be doing any conscious thinking during a point. But between points a smart player does think tactically. The key is to keep it simple.

"Tactics isn't about finding complex strategies to defeat an opponent. Tactics is about sifting through all the zillions of possible tactics and finding a few simple ones that work, and developing reflexive tactics to cover other situations." (That's the opening of my upcoming book, "Table Tennis Tactics for Thinkers.") What does this mean?

The first part means you don't need to fry your brain working out complex patterns or finding ten ways to beat someone. Find two or three simple ones, and that'll usually suffice. Be flexible in adjusting these tactics if they stop working or trying out new ones, but keep it simple.

The second part means you should develop the habit of thinking tactically, and your subconscious will get the idea. It'll soon become automatic - you'll develop reflexive tactics to cover most situations. If you tactically tell yourself to play certain shots in a certain way to a certain spot against a certain player, it soon becomes automatic both against him and against similar players, and you can focus on just two or three other tactics instead. To any experienced observer, you'll be playing a very smart tactical game, but in reality you're only aware of two or three aspects of it. You should be no more consciously aware of most of your tactical play than you would the angle of your racket when blocking a loop - not aware at all. You just do it.

Most tactics should become second nature, allowing you to focus on just two or three things in any given match. And yet you'll be playing many more tactics without even thinking about it, because they will have become ingrained on your subconscious. You'll be tactically placing your shots side to side and in and out, varying the speed and spin, and doing all the tactics necessary to win - and you'll barely even notice you are doing it. What a smart player you are!