Table Tennis Forehand Smash

The forehand smash in table tennis is an attacking stroke which you can use whenever your opponent plays a shot where the ball bounces higher than normal.

The intention of the forehand smash is to hit the ball as hard as possible, with minimal spin, in order to try and finish the rally and win the point.

However, in many cases, more than one forehand smash will be required in order to finish the rally and win the point.

Your initial forehand smash may be returned by your opponent using a forehand lob or a backhand lob, so you may have to play several smashes in succession.

So if you want to improve your chances of winning more table tennis matches, you'll need to develop and improve this stroke.

The critical element of playing this stroke is to make sure that you hit the ball in a downward direction.

But first, it's important to get your body into a side-on position and slightly away from the table.

And in preparing to play the forehand smash your backswing should bring your arm back directly behind the path of the ball and your body should be rotating back slightly as you transfer your weight onto your back foot.

You also need to get your racket in a high position so that you can come downwards and forwards as you play your stroke and hit the ball.

You should strike the ball when it is at the top of the bounce or at shoulder height.

As you play the stroke your weight is transferred onto your front foot and the contact point should be in front of your body.

Your body weight should always be moving forwards as you play your stroke and follow through, before returning to the ready position.

If the lobbed return is very high you could also jump up (which will allow you to hit the ball at a higher point), but this is a riskier stroke to play.

Alternatively, you could hit the ball before it bounces too high, for example when it rises just above the height of the net. But although this will give your opponent less time to react to your shot, this is a much riskier stroke to play.

So let's take a look at a video demonstration of the forehand smash played against a lobbed (high bouncing ball) return.

(If you have problems with the sound, there are captions/subtitles that you can turn on. Just click on the captions/subtitles button)

The forehand smash in table tennis can also be played whenever your opponent plays a shot which causes the ball to bounce higher than normal, and not just in response to a lobbed return.

However, the lower the bounce, the higher the risk.

The forehand smash should only be used when the ball bounces above the height of the net, because when you hit it you are trying to hit the ball as hard as possible, but in a downward direction. So if the ball is not above the height of the net when you hit it, you cannot hit it in a downward direction.

You can buy it here
 

If you're serious about your table tennis and you want to take your game to the next level, take a look at this.

Xtreme Table Tennis Ltd, who are based in British Columbia, Canada, have produced a series of DVDs which are designed to help table tennis players improve their game.

And they have produced a DVD which is specifically about improving your forehand smash.

This DVD teaches you how to perform the following forehand strokes...

• Smash close to the table / from mid-court / from the back-court
• Smash high balls
• Smash against topspin/backspin/blocks/push shots
• Smash against loop drives/slow loops/fast loops
• Counter-smash
• Serve and smash

I'd highly recommend it and you can read my review of it here.

You can buy it here.