Tip of the week: Follow Through Back Into Position After Forehand Looping
(By Larry Hodges)

Not all loops are the same, and not all follow-throughs are the same either.

Imagine making a powerful forehand from your backhand side. Often the momentum of your shot will pull you even farther off to the side, leaving you helpless if the opponent returns your shot to your wide forehand. Instead, you should learn to be in position so that, as much as possible, you would follow-through back toward the table, not away, thereby putting yourself back into position for the next shot. You would also push off your left foot (for a right-hander) to get back onto position quickly.

Now imagine making that same powerful forehand from the wide forehand side. (I’m about to use almost the exact same wording as the above, with a few strategic changes.) Often the momentum of your shot will pull you even farther off to the side, leaving you helpless if the opponent returns your shot to your wide backhand. Instead, you should learn to be in position so that, as much as possible, you would follow-through back toward the table, not away, thereby putting yourself back into position for the next shot. You would also push off your right foot (for a right-hander) to get back onto position quickly.

Notice how you want to change your follow-through, depending on the location of your own shot? Far too many players, after attacking from a wide corner, stay there too long, and so cannot recover, when they should in fact make the recovery part of the follow-through. Much of this is about balance; if you are balanced throughout your shot, as you should, then you will have a much faster recovery, and will be able to play multiple powerful shots in a row from any part of the table.

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