In response to your comment re: improving forehand chop, I'm going to share some notes. While I am not top tier nationally or anything, I can rely on my forehand chop in tournament and it is generally quite disruptive. With that in mind, some things I'm observing: 1. In a majority of cases, you are taking the ball too high. I know this can be difficult as a taller player, but its the most frequent cause of FH chop failure in general, and also feels that way in your case. Specifically, you are chopping at a height that would be totally appropriate for a long pimple rubber on the backhand, but with inverted you need to take it significantly lower. One option here is to do what Chtchetinine or Daniel Kleinert do and twiddle to pips on the forehand when you forehand chop. That being said, I think forehand chopping with inverted is totally doable and worth learning, so assuming we want to improve the inverted FH chop ... 2. The way you FH chop a flat hit/smash differs significantly from how you need to chop a very spinny loop. If they load the topspin, you can be more wall-like with the open bat, perpendicular to the ground. If they flat hit it, especially flat, its a lot harder: you need to come under the ball to generate your own spin. To come under a long flat hit, you have to be quite far back, and quite low, which, depending on the space your playing in, can be really challenging to impossible. With that in mind, its important to keep as many chops heavy backspin deep to the back of the table, so they are FORCED to give you the topspin, which makes for a more manageable chop. This is the main reason I'm not a fan of what some people call the pips "push", where you bat it back with topspin. This allows the savvy opponent to flat hit to your forehand, which is hard to both chop and block. 3. This relates to the "too high" element: wait longer to initiate the chop. The longer you can wait, the less spin their ball will have, which usually leads to your forehand rubber being able to apply more of your own spin/not get rocked by their spin. 4. A final point that merits its own essay is the feel of the contact, which can differ based on the speed of the ball you are receiving, and how aggressive you want your spin to be. Watching this vid, it looks like you could stand to have a lot more backspin on your forehand chop, so I'll recommend what my coach described as "peeling" the ball. When you go to chop, keep your wrist soft and pliant, and your fingers firm, but expressive (not a death grip). Let the ball meet you past the end line, close to table height (don't hit it/go chasing it). Once the ball makes contact with your bat, imagine you are "peeling" the skin of a grape with the bat, drawing a curvature with your brush from the back of the ball to the bottom of the ball. Its a gentle motion, one mostly in the fingers and the wrist, but it can really load the ball with topspin. This requires being in the right place at the right time (having time to set it up), so the more time you can give yourself via moving well and waiting, the better. Hopefully some of this is helpful!
Thanks pal, that's all really helpful stuff. Since this video I've gotten my FH chop to a point where it's passable - but still not good. I noticed that my bat angles were crazy, eg bat was often pointing almost at the ceiling as I initiated the chop. I've rectified that now so I can at least get the ball on the table, but I definitely need/want more spin. Ideally I'd like to get to a point where I can vary the spin significantly - get some coming back floaty and some really heavy. I'll have a go at all of your suggestions in my next training session.
Eeep, I meant "Can really load the ball with BACKspin on point number 4 lol. I'm glad to hear it's gotten better, good luck in your practice! @@duncanwraight
In response to your comment re: improving forehand chop, I'm going to share some notes. While I am not top tier nationally or anything, I can rely on my forehand chop in tournament and it is generally quite disruptive. With that in mind, some things I'm observing:
1. In a majority of cases, you are taking the ball too high. I know this can be difficult as a taller player, but its the most frequent cause of FH chop failure in general, and also feels that way in your case. Specifically, you are chopping at a height that would be totally appropriate for a long pimple rubber on the backhand, but with inverted you need to take it significantly lower. One option here is to do what Chtchetinine or Daniel Kleinert do and twiddle to pips on the forehand when you forehand chop. That being said, I think forehand chopping with inverted is totally doable and worth learning, so assuming we want to improve the inverted FH chop ...
2. The way you FH chop a flat hit/smash differs significantly from how you need to chop a very spinny loop. If they load the topspin, you can be more wall-like with the open bat, perpendicular to the ground. If they flat hit it, especially flat, its a lot harder: you need to come under the ball to generate your own spin. To come under a long flat hit, you have to be quite far back, and quite low, which, depending on the space your playing in, can be really challenging to impossible. With that in mind, its important to keep as many chops heavy backspin deep to the back of the table, so they are FORCED to give you the topspin, which makes for a more manageable chop. This is the main reason I'm not a fan of what some people call the pips "push", where you bat it back with topspin. This allows the savvy opponent to flat hit to your forehand, which is hard to both chop and block.
3. This relates to the "too high" element: wait longer to initiate the chop. The longer you can wait, the less spin their ball will have, which usually leads to your forehand rubber being able to apply more of your own spin/not get rocked by their spin.
4. A final point that merits its own essay is the feel of the contact, which can differ based on the speed of the ball you are receiving, and how aggressive you want your spin to be. Watching this vid, it looks like you could stand to have a lot more backspin on your forehand chop, so I'll recommend what my coach described as "peeling" the ball. When you go to chop, keep your wrist soft and pliant, and your fingers firm, but expressive (not a death grip). Let the ball meet you past the end line, close to table height (don't hit it/go chasing it). Once the ball makes contact with your bat, imagine you are "peeling" the skin of a grape with the bat, drawing a curvature with your brush from the back of the ball to the bottom of the ball. Its a gentle motion, one mostly in the fingers and the wrist, but it can really load the ball with topspin. This requires being in the right place at the right time (having time to set it up), so the more time you can give yourself via moving well and waiting, the better.
Hopefully some of this is helpful!
Thanks pal, that's all really helpful stuff. Since this video I've gotten my FH chop to a point where it's passable - but still not good. I noticed that my bat angles were crazy, eg bat was often pointing almost at the ceiling as I initiated the chop. I've rectified that now so I can at least get the ball on the table, but I definitely need/want more spin. Ideally I'd like to get to a point where I can vary the spin significantly - get some coming back floaty and some really heavy.
I'll have a go at all of your suggestions in my next training session.
Eeep, I meant "Can really load the ball with BACKspin on point number 4 lol. I'm glad to hear it's gotten better, good luck in your practice! @@duncanwraight
wow these are some really good tips that I will try to think about as well, thanks!