Moving around the ball with chassé steps so you can play your stronger forehand from the backhand corner. At elite level around 58% of all strokes are forehands.
The forehand dominates attacking play: match analyses put just under 58 percent of all strokes on the forehand side, and the pace behind it comes from the trunk and hip rotation the forehand can use in full. If your own forehand share sits well below that, there's often untapped potential — stepping around is how you unlock it. The move is pure footwork: chassé steps, one leg leading, the other following, legs never crossing. Cross them and you lose balance and the ability to push off again straight away. The drive comes from a fast push out of the ankle, not from sinking deep into the knees — that's where levels separate. Two things get overlooked: recovering to the middle is part of the move, otherwise the next ball into the open corner is a gift. And more forehand means more rotational load on your playing shoulder, the most common overuse region in table tennis.