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 Staying Balanced to Improve Your Footwork
By Larry Hodges, USATT Certified National Coach and member of U.S. Table Tennis Hall of Fame
Try an experiment. Stand up, and lean well over to your left, so your weight is centered over your left foot. Now try moving quickly to your right. Now try this again, but this time start with your weight centered over both feet. Notice how much quicker you can move?
Now imagine you've stepped around your backhand corner to attack with your forehand. Many players follow through with their weight too far over on their left foot. (Reverse for lefties.) They are now unable to get back into position to cover any shot to the forehand. Imagine a rod going through the top of your head. When you attack with your forehand (whether hitting or looping, and especially out of the backhand corner), rotate around that rod. This allows you to use great power and yet stay balanced – and so you are able to move quickly to the next shot. This doesn't mean you don't transfer your weight from right foot to left; you just don't want to finish with your weight centered too far over that left foot. While the forehand from the backhand corner is the most common case where people are caught off balance and out of position, it happens in many other situations. Whenever possible, during your follow through on any shot, stay balanced, weight more centered, and you'll be able to move to the next shot much more quickly. |
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