Site Products
Larry Hodges

Coaching Tip of the Week: Backhand Chopping in an Emergency

(By Larry Hodges)

You are stuck out of position away from the table on your forehand side of the table. Your opponent quick hits the ball to your wide backhand, and you can’t possibly get to it and make an effective backhand drive. What do you do? You could reach out and “fish” the ball back with a light topspin, but that allows your opponent to smash or loop kill. Instead, this might be the perfect time to chop the ball. Not only is it easier to do this shot from out of position than a more aggressive backhand drive, but it’s a good change-up. However, many players don’t use this shot because they don’t think of themselves as choppers. You don’t have to be a chopper to be able to throw in a good chop now and then. Just remember three principles, and your backhand chop will start to rescue you out of what was before an impossible position.

First, let the ball drop to table level or below. Second, contact the ball more toward the back of the ball, not the bottom, with your racket facing more forward, not so much up, and graze the ball with a mostly downward stroke. Many players chop too much under the ball, and so pop it up. (Top choppers can do this, but that’s a more advanced technique involving letting the ball drop even more, and vigorously chopping the ball with a very fine grazing motion. You can learn to do this as you get better chopping.) Third, most topspin-style players tend to chop off the end since they aren’t used to the way a backspin ball floats long. So try chopping so the ball hits your side of the table – and watch it float to the other side!

Latest News

Taiwo Adeyinka – Backhand Loop from underspin

October 25, 2025
(by: Bowmar Sports) In this Butterfly Training Tips,  Taiwo Adeyinka is in action at the Atlanta Open https://youtu.be/TQQMo7vKMqU… Read More

Put Your Whole Bodyweight Into The Table

October 24, 2025
Serve, short game, flip with defense to offense (wait function) Jhon serves short backspin, robot plays short backspin… Read More

Jonathan Pino – Reaction Random

October 24, 2025
(by: Bowmar Sports) In this Butterfly Training Tips, Jonathan Pino is focusing on a Reaction Random drill to… Read More

Adriana Díaz: Six-Time Pan American Champion And Pride Of Butterfly

October 23, 2025
(By Edgardo Vazquez – Puerto Rico National Coach / Butterfly America Sponsored Coach) Table tennis in the Americas… Read More

Portland Streaks, Princeton Debuts – Bensenville Awaits.

October 22, 2025
(by: Major League Table Tennis) [caption id="attachment_270459" align="alignleft" width="368"] WEEK 4 PREVIEW: CHICAGO[/caption]          … Read More

Keep Your Racket Above the Table Surface

October 22, 2025
Serve, short game, flip with defense to offense (wait function) Jhon serves short backspin, robot plays short backspin… Read More

Use a lot of Wrist and Forearm

October 21, 2025
Serve, short game, flip with defense to offense (wait function) Jhon serves short backspin, robot plays short backspin… Read More

Never Use “Full Power”

October 21, 2025
(By Larry Hodges) When you see a ball you can put away, mentally (and possibly physically) your eyes… Read More
View All News

Get the latest from Butterfly

Stay “In The Loop” with Butterfly professional table tennis equipment, table tennis news, table tennis technology, tournament results, and We Are Butterfly players, coaches, clubs and more.