Whether it be looping or counter hitting most, most amateurs will either leave their wrist completely still or will use it in a way to hinders their overall power or spin production. Today I want to go over some explanation about how to use your wrist when doing the forehand loop and show you some simple exercises you can do to start adding this important part to your forehand loop.
When thinking about use of wrist you might think of Timo Boll, his use of wrist is one of the most apparent on the pro circuit because of his small, compact technique. Copying Timo's use of his wrist might give you a wrong understanding of how the wrist actually works in the forehand stroke. To see if your understanding and to see what we can improve on, let's try a simple exercise.
Lay your hand flat on a table, palm down, with your wrist resting on the table too. Now try to recreate the most important motion Timo does with his wrist to create power and spin in his forehand stroke.
If you moved your wrist from right to left, you have just found one of the small points that you can ameliorate to make your topspin even better. If you lifted your hand up, while keeping the wrist resting on the table and then slapped the table, then you understand the most important role your wrist has to be playing when doing a forehand topspin but keep reading, you might still get some things from the rest of this article.
Let's try to explain why this is, from a mechanical standpoint, what you should be trying to do when hitting a forehand. Your goal when hitting the ball in table tennis, if your goal is to maximize spin and power in that specific stroke, is to hit through the ball, while still maintaining an upwards motion, with the fastest racket speed you can. This way you compress the sponge as much as you can, transferring the energy in a greater amount to redirect the ball to the other side. On top of that, it maximizes the surface area touched by the rubber. This, in conjunction with the upwards motion mentioned earlier is what will give you the most spin while launching the ball forward at rocket speed.
Now that we understand that, let's get back to the use of the wrist. Why would the slapping motion be a better way to make use of that theory? Well simply try it yourself. Try to generate as much force, or as much hand speed, and slap something moving your hand side to side like we talked about earlier, and do the same by flexing your wrist back like when you slapped the table earlier. You'll realize that the second way generates much more force and speed and this is precisely why, when doing a forehand topspin you will generate more power this way.
The first side to side or windshield wiper motion will be somewhat present as you try your forehand stroke and normally so, everything is not only black or white. But you should try to emphasize the slapping motion of the wrist and simply let the windshield wiper motion happen by it self and not the opposite.
Watch slow motions videos of pros, especially Asians with bigger strokes and you are sure to see the phenomenon and have it's use demonstrated right in front of your eyes.
Let's make a small link to another topic in table tennis while we're at it. Some grips are referred to as forehand grips, and some others as backhand grips. The relation is quite simple to see, and although it is not the complete reason why a forehand grip makes it easier to hit forehands, the fact that this wrist motion is easier to do with a forehand oriented grip is one of the big factors why it is named like that and why players with forehand grips can generate slightly more power with their forehands.
It is also a question of comfort, since using a backhand grip and trying to do this motion is, although very possible like you can see when watching slow motion clips of Zhang Jike or Oh Sang Eun, a lot more restraining and uncomfortable than when using a forehand grip.
To conclude all of this, I would like to emphasize that even though this seems counter intuitive at first and that even if it requires you to change your habits when it comes to forehand topspin, it is definitely something you should try to incorporate in your game or at least try for a while to see if it fits you because if it does, it will be a great addition to your game in general. It may not be perfect for everyone but it's at least something to consider if you are always looking for that extra thing to make your technique perfect.
