In the backhand drive against backspin, the idea is to drive through the ball with a swing that goes forwards and upwards, using the opponent's backspin and adding a little topspin of your own to help bring the ball down on the other side of the table. This is an aggressive stroke, so the ball should be struck powerfully, with the intention of forcing a mistake from your opponent. The ball will travel much faster than when playing a backhand counterhit.
Bear in mind that the amount of topspin you can generate will depend on the amount of grip provided by your ping-pong paddle. The bat being used in the photographs and video has very little grip, and as such it is difficult for the player to add any significant spin on the ball. But as demonstrated, the basic technique will work even with a cheap bat that produces little spin, which is why this paddle was chosen - if your paddle does have some grip, you will find it easier to put some topspin on the ball and perform this stroke successfully. The extra topspin you can produce will allow you to hit the ball harder, since the topspin will bring the ball down on the other side of the table faster.
View the Backhand Drive vs Backspin Video - 856x480 pixels version. (7.6 MB)
View the Backhand Drive vs Backspin Video - 428x240 pixels version. (4.2 MB)
Points to look for:
- The feet are placed with the right foot slightly further back than the left foot, to make it easier to transition to the forehand stroke when required (this will be easier to see in the side view photographs).
- Most of the weight is on the balls of the feet to allow quicker movement. Too much weight on the heels will slow down movement, and too much weight on the toes will affect balance.
- The weight is evenly distributed between the left and right legs.
- The knees are bent and the feet are around one and a half times shoulder width apart. The torso is also leaning slightly forward. This gives a lower center of gravity for better balance, and allows for easy movement in all directions.
- Shoulders are in line with the legs, with the right shoulder slightly behind the left.
- The arms are held roughly shoulder width apart, with around a 90 degree angle at the elbow. The bat should be above the table to allow easy stroking of short balls.
- In the photograph, the player is practicing against a robot, and knows that the next ball is coming to his backhand. This is why his racket is already pointing a little to his backhand side. Against a human opponent his racket would be pointing towards the ball, so that he could play a forehand or backhand easily.
Start of Backswing
The ball is coming to the backhand side and the decision has been made to play a backhand drive. The backswing begins the stroke.
Points to look for:
- There is very little body turn for the backhand drive when compared to the forehand drive, which is why the stroke can be played from a forehand stance.
- The player is bending his knees a little more to lower his body position. He will push up with his legs during the stroke to add some lift to the ball. He is also bending his knees to get down to the ball, since the backspin ball is coming towards him on a low trajectory.
- He is also increasing the amount of forward lean of his torso, in order to give him enough room to make an larger backswing, which will allow him to hit the ball with more power.
- The bat has only moved slightly backwards at this point, and will be brought back into position by moving the bat around the elbow joint.
End of Backswing
The ball has bounced on the table, and the backswing has finished.
Points to look for:
- The racket is now a little above knee height. Compare this to the height of the bat in the backhand counterhit - the lower position is due to the player needing to swing more upwards to counter the backspin on the ball. Also note how much further back the bat has been moved - although this will be more apparent from the side view.
- The waist and legs are at a slight angle to the endline, while the right shoulder has moved forward a little.
- The racket angle is only slightly closed, since the racket is not very grippy. The ball will tend to slide off the racket at impact, meaning that the player will be limited in how much spin he can generate, and how much upward force he can produce by brushing the ball.
Start of Forward Swing
The ball has moved into the reach of the player, who is swinging forward at the ball, and is about to make contact.
Points to look for:
- The ball will be contacted at a comfortable height for the player, near the top of the bounce of the ball. Hitting the ball near the top of the bounce (where the ball is several inches higher than the net) makes it easier to hit the ball forwards, since the player does not have to hit the ball up to get the ball over the net, and then try to get the ball to drop down on the other side of the net.
- Note the position of the ball relative to the player's body - contact will be made a little to the left of the player's midline, and well within the left side of his torso. This allows the player to play a balanced stroke, and is achieved by the positioning of the player's right elbow a little outside his right hip - at no time does the right elbow cross further than the right hip.
- The player is also starting to push upwards with his legs, using the force produced to help lift the ball.
- It is worth noticing that during the upward pushing of the legs, the player is placing a little more weight on his left leg. This photograph shows the start of this process. This slight lean acts as a counterbalance to the upwards and sideways movement of the player's right forearm during the forward swing, and stops the player from being pulled off balance at the end of the swing.
- The free arm is being held in position, and does not move throughout the stroke. This is because there is no significant body turn during the stroke, so there is no need to use the free arm to balance the body.
- The racket is being swung forwards and upwards, around the playing elbow.
- The player has tracked the ball with his eyes right up to the point of contact.
Contact With The Ball
Contact has been made with the ball.
Points to look for:
- The forearm is snapping forwards and upwards - in line with the swing path of the racket. Note the heavy blurring of the racket and forearm, and relatively little blurring of the elbow and upper racket arm.
- The wrist has also snapped through the ball, moving in the same line as the bat is being swung.
- If the ball was compared to a clock face, the bat has made contact at a point roughly around the number 9, while the bat was moving forwards and upwards.
- There has been a little movement of the playing elbow during the stroke up to this point, with the player dropping the elbow to bring the bat low, and then lifting the elbow to increase the amount of upward motion. The elbow itself is not swung in an attempt to increase power, but is only lifted a little - the swing motion is around the elbow, not the shoulder.
Middle of Follow Through
The player is in the middle of his follow through, and the ball is on its way.
Points to look for:
- The elbow is not lifting any further than just below shoulder height, and the racket will continue to rotate upwards in a natural manner. Lifting the elbow any higher does not improve the stroke in any way, and in fact increases the time taken to recover, since the bat must be brought further down to get back into position.
- Although the knees have straightened a little to provide extra lift to the ball, the knees do not straighten fully, since this would adversely affect the player's recovery time.
- The racket is going to finish in front of the player's body from a side view perspective.
- Note that although the swing has been quite upwards as well as forwards, the ball itself is actually moving forwards and a little downwards. This is because the racket was a little closed, and the non-grippy rubber does not lift the ball very much.
End of Follow Through
The forward swing has come to an end, and the ball has crossed the net.
Points to look for:
- The player is now watching his opponent to see what he will do - or in this case, the robot to pick up the next ball as quickly as possible.
- Notice that the player has finished in a fairly balanced position, with his body and free arm almost back in the position they started from. The extra weight placed on the left leg has helped counterbalance the swinging of the racket to the right during the follow through.
- The playing arm finishes with the elbow at shoulder height, and the forearm vertical, with the racket pointing to the ceiling. This was a powerful backhand, so this is a full follow through.
- All the player has to do here is drop his playing arm and bend his knees a little, and he is back in his ready position for the next stroke.
The player is in the middle of the return to his ready position before the next stroke.
Points to look for:
- The player has let his playing arm drop to move his bat back into the ready position.
- His knees have bent as he returns to his basic crouch position. He is also pushing to his right to bring his body weight back to both legs equally.
- As the player continues to drop his racket arm, the tip of the racket will be pointed forward again, ready to move into a backhand or forehand stroke with ease. Try to avoid waiting with the tip of your bat pointing to the left or right, since that will favor one side at the expense of the other.
The player has returned to his ready position before the next stroke.
Points to look for:
- The player has shifted his body weight back to a central position.
- It is worth comparing this sequence of photographs with those for the backhand counterhit - you will notice the difference in the positioning of the racket at the end of the backswing, and the direction of the forward swing, which has a more upwards motion. The size of the backswing is also much bigger for the drive, which is achieved by the player dropping his elbow and forearm more, and bringing them further back, while leaning forward a little more to give himself room for the backswing.