When Holding the Bat in Your Right Hand, How to Use the Left Hand?
This is a brand-new, technique-focused column in a question-and-answer format. The mystery figures answering are two former national team members, both now veteran coaches. So the “Reaching the Summit” column was born. (Heima-tuned PLC, a Jun Mizutani ZLC with better bottom power.)
Against a backhand short-pips opponent, what serves are effective? Besides forehand short and backhand long, can I serve short to his backhand?
Short pips fear spin, not speed. If you serve short to his backhand, and he is high-level, he can directly flick you — that is uncomfortable. Against short pips, you must open with long, spinny balls. The closer to the baseline, the more short pips fear it. Serve long to the baseline, mainly underspin, and the opponent will be miserable — he cannot loop it and easily slips. Serve few topspins; if he pushes one, you are uncomfortable too. Pips fear no short balls. Short-pips players can directly attack over-the-table short balls. Why fear long balls? Because he must actively fire, and pips rubber has little arc, so errors are many. For baseline balls, short pips can still lift one. Long pips and short pips can only borrow pace, with no good way.
When I rip a drive-loop, I often subconsciously press my center of gravity quite low; sometimes backed off two or three meters, the opponent’s ball comes with a low, flat arc, and I almost half-squat to counter-loop, or I cannot make the arc’s apex just clear the net. Is such a stroke reasonable?
Not reasonable. Over-squatting means too much upward force, which affects the forward force, so the quality will not be high. The ball is fairly low — why not loop it when it is high, instead of waiting until it has dropped very low? First, you do not judge the incoming ball’s distance clearly. Second, your footwork lacks up-down adjustment. Third, your body has no reference for the incoming ball, so you cannot adjust the center-of-gravity height. Fourth, your leg muscles are insufficient, with not enough power, so you cannot adjust footwork in time with the incoming ball’s direction. If the stance between the legs is too wide, it tests your thigh and knee muscles. If the legs are too wide, it likely means insufficient thigh strength. Judging distance is also judging height — point at the ball with the left hand as reference to judge the contact point. Adjust the body’s center-of-gravity height up and down using the left hand’s height as reference. Point at the contact point with the left hand, and adjust the center of gravity forward-back with the right leg. Short, step forward; long, step back half a step.
Taking a right-hand grip as example, here we focus on what role the left hand plays. The left hand has very wide uses, especially for girls playing close-table quick-exchange, helping quickly adjust the center-of-gravity height. Because the left and right hands are the same length, if you keep the elbows the same distance from the body, the left hand’s middle fingertip corresponds to the best position to fire a drive. The left hand’s fingertip plus the distance of the waist’s rotation is the firing point for a rip; the left hand’s height is the height the right hand adjusts to per the incoming ball’s spin. When the incoming ball is underspin, the right hand draws the bat back one bat lower than the left; when topspin, the right hand is slightly higher than the left, with the center of gravity pressed down. For a flat ball, the hands are at the same height. When receive-flicking, the left hand’s middle finger is the firing point of the flick. When pushing, the left hand’s height is the bat-draw height, and so on. The uses are too many — because using the left hand, the contact point is much clearer. The bat-draw height, length and direction all become very clear. For the right hand’s grip, using the left hand well makes you more relaxed, with better rhythm and contact point. The bat-draw length, and the playing quality, are relatively higher. The left hand not only keeps balance — its uses are very many, usable on nearly every ball. Feel it more, and you will find more uses.