This was a great week for me. I didn’t have to teach, so I was actually able to play on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday! I really want to get my backhand developed, so I’ve been trying to use it more, although now my forehand isn’t as consistent as it was before. It’s hard to believe, but I think my timing is still off due to the weight. Either that or something else has been (and still is) off, because I hit so many edges. In any case, I feel about 70% confident on my backhand now. By that, I mean that in my mind, I hit 70% of the shots in. Is that actually true? Probably not. But I definitely see improvement, and yesterday, my practice partner told me that my backhand was pretty spinny, which is great because I’ve been trying to learn to add more spin. There’s still much more potential in there, though, so I still need to work on it. What’s interesting is that I found that my left hand naturally does the Ma Long “swimming” motion, albeit not to that extent. I do feel myself sticking my left arm out to help prevent my body from twisting too much. Need to start with small strokes to build consistency! Then I can try adding power. By far, the hardest thing is the timing and footwork (very related for backhand). There’s such a small window to hit, because not only do you have to take it right in the middle of your body (whereas forehand has quite a bit of range for you to extend/contract your arm), it’s also nearly impossible to hit the ball once it goes high enough. I mean, with the forehand, you have MUCH more room for adjustment, both vertically and horizontally. I’m not able to slow the ball down as much as I was with pips, so it’s usually very bad for me if I don’t move perfectly into position and try to pull off a good shot (chopping and dead blocking are both harder to execute, and less effective). Sometimes, I’m able to pull off miraculously good shots, and that always feels good, but of course, the success rate of those shots is far below 50%. Right now, I feel like I have two very glaring weaknesses. First is the movement/timing issues. Second is my transition! I can’t seem to prevent my grip from shifting when I use my BH (the momentum from the swing just twists my blade or something), so after a BH, my forehand grip is all messed up (think KLH). This causes my next shot to really suck, so I need to figure out some way to transition my fingers faster. Anyway, I’ll get to play again TOMORROW (man, this week is awesome), so I’ll keep working on that. I hope I can find someone patient enough to just practice with me instead of wanting to play games (which is the case with most people on Saturday).
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