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First line of the video: I meant to say “if you removed all of my skillsets EXCEPT one: it would be this…”

Hi Hemming
Great video I’ve watched it plenty of times with my wife and son and I’ve told them this is what I want to nail.
We did some practice in the shed this arvo.
I don’t think I was letting it drop enough.
I’ll try that on the weekend.

My 15 year old son was patient while I tried to get it.

My chop block works ok I need to get this one as reliable and be like the 70 year old guy.
He was like a metronome.

This one is so true!
And yes, in German leagues, this works well up to even Landesliga (7th league) (TTR 1700-1850), and only really stops working at the upper positions in Verbandoberliga (5th league) (TTR 1950-2100) from my experience playing in these leagues and against such opponents in competitions.


For me, it was definitely one of the main things that got me to my level.
I'm sometimes really sad when my "low league" table tennis friends aren't able to master this shot when it would probably be what would get them to their hopes of finally improving their TTR by +100-200 points. Maybe with this I should try to give it another chance 😄

Though, I must fully admit I still struggle against this shot 😅, especially when played to backhand and I have a player against whom I can't just block, but must play a counter topspin.


At 0:32 you talked about the theory of doing a counter topspin against such a soft open-up.
Can you maybe talk more in detail about that?

I come from like 8 years of muay thai, judo and other combat sports.

Funnily i could counterspin, even very heavy topspins, ways ways before i could create any significant spin, topspin or backspin.

Just because my body involvement. If you wanna counterspin heavy topspin, you'll need your upperbody to go into the ball, to get the grip, and down, to press the ball down...

thats very interesting and true. people struggle with my very spinny slow bh loops, they block them over the table all the time, even good players. it even works vs heavy spin for me now that I get more and more confident in my bh loop. forehand i still have a long way to go though.

Love it! Please do more of these type of videos!

This is so true. I am an office worker and don't even play that often in the club. However, I won a club level tournament just by doing heavy first topspins and some decent blocking.

Please, make video how make slow backhand topspin

This is True and i always want to do high rotatiin good quality topspiny fh to fh. Not fast or even strong but with lot of rotation. It really worka great

Bro that is facts. I do this shot all the time and it works wonders against most people I play against. Slow spin is very very effective at the tournaments I play. My coach always says this shot is lousy if you are against someone who's very good but honestly it works for me so i will keep doing it

As somebody who doesnt have a coach, fh open up is my main shot, since asking somebody to push my serve (or just forcing myself to 3rd/4th ball attack) is much more accessible than telling them to try and block falkenberg.

I should probably work on slow open ups as ive mostly just be killing the ball with my opening fh.

I play 3rd division in a local league with 5 divisions. I can't think of a player in my division who can't return a ball top spinned to their forehand.

I love this shot but I notice some players with slow equipment and good touch will block this off the bounce (lol they obviously can’t counter). I guess then it’s up to me to practice the following shot lol.

isnt this the shot that the chop block is super effective against (with that i mean the chop block works better against heavy tospin shots than lighter toospin drives)?

What against chopper,does this trick works with them also.

Awesome video. You always provide insight that is actually applicable to the mental aspect of the game and not just training drills.

Hi Hemming. Low level player usually  play fast long or half long empty service,it is hard to play with strong  spin to empty serve,When they recieve they  push very spinny push long to deep backhand or play something like drive or block to the sidespin serve.  it is hard to play good spinny topspin with backhand.They are usually blockers and block good. I am talking about dodgy blockers and fishers with good consistancy.

Usually, it works in first set and then people adapt block to your spin rate, noone would counter-spin that shot on amauter lvl. If you want play just for points and easy "wins", go further and use pimples)