Many players with strong backhands cover the middle of the table with their backhands. It’s a smart strategy, and allows them to dominate with their best shot to all parts of the table. To stop this, players often play to their forehand – only to watch the “backhand” player smack it down their throats. What should they do?

The problem is that the backhand player often limits his forehand shots to only the forehand corner, and so doesn’t have that much table to cover – and so has a good forehand against those shots. But he does so at a cost – he’s weak on the inner forehand. Because that is his “middle,” his transition point between forehand and backhand. For these backhand players, it’s roughly a few inches to the forehand side of the middle of the table and is maybe six to twelve inches wide.

Most players expect the opponent’s transition point to be toward the middle of the table or a little toward the backhand side, and so they automatically play to that spot – which is exactly where the backhand player is strongest. Or they make the mistake noted above about going to the forehand at the wrong time. (This doesn’t mean you don’t go after the forehand at the right time. If you play to their wide backhand first, then they are likely wide open on the wide forehand.)

So, next time you play a strong backhand player, go after their “middle” – that inner forehand!