Learn the backhand counter-hit: a short, flat stroke in front of your body. With step sequence, wall drill, milestones and typical beginner mistakes.
The honest answer: the backhand counter-hit is a short, flat stroke on the backhand side that you play in front of your body and that gets hardly any spin. Like the forehand counter-hit, it belongs to the strokes without spin in which the ball is hit frontally forward [1]. It is the second building block in the learning path – and the stroke that saves you from the infamous "I always run around the ball".
Why is the backhand so important? In 30 simulated matches with 60 national-category players, 42.1 % of the 7,505 strokes were backhands [2]. So almost every second stroke is played on the backhand. If you can only play one side, you are playing against yourself.
How hard is it? The movement is smaller than on the forehand and, for many beginners, easier to control (experience value). The trap lies in the footwork: you are often too close to the ball, the elbow gets stuck and the stroke shrinks. Good news: with the shakehand grip the backhand is even an advantage. In advanced men, racket and ball reached higher speeds on the backhand with shakehand than with the penhold grip [3].
Stand at the table with slightly bent knees and feet a little wider than shoulder width. The racket is in front of your belly, the backhand side facing forward. The elbow stays loose in front of your body, about a hand's width from the trunk. As a right-hander, your left foot stands slightly behind the right.
Turn your upper body a little towards the backhand side. The racket only moves a few centimetres towards your belly, the blade is slightly closed. The shorter it is, the faster you are ready again.
The forearm extends forward, the elbow is the pivot. Hit the ball on the rising part directly in front of your body. In backhand topspin strokes, arm abduction and the rotation of the shoulder girdle towards the playing side correlated with racket speed [4]. Transferred to the counter-hit, this means: the arm swings away from the body and forward, and the upper body turns slightly along. Do not grip the wrist too hard.
The racket ends in front of your chest, short and controlled. Then go straight back into ready position. The goal is a short arc, not a full follow-through like on the forehand.
Play 20 backhand counter-hits diagonally in a row, then 20 parallel. After that, the switch: alternate one forehand and one backhand counter-hit, 10 times without a mistake. If you manage all three tasks, move on to the push. These numbers are practice standards, not study values.
The backhand counter-hit is a low-risk stroke, but table tennis is not injury-free. Tendon sheath inflammation, strains and sprains are among the most common findings [6]. The data is thin. Warm up, especially shoulder and wrist, and increase the number of strokes slowly. If your forearm or elbow pulls while playing, take a break and have it checked if it does not go away after training. Hitting short and controlled also spares shoulder and elbow (experience value). This guide explains and motivates, it does not replace supervised training.
Make a wall your partner. Stick a piece of tape on the wall at 91 cm height: 76 cm table height plus 15.25 cm net height [7]. Stand two metres away and counter the ball so that it hits just above the line. You learn height and trajectory without a partner and without a table. If the ball hits lower than the line, it would, as a rule of thumb, have ended up in the net.
For many beginners the backhand feels more controlled at first, because the racket stays in front of the body (experience value). In matches it is still no side stroke: in simulated matches 42.1 % of strokes were backhands, most often push (42.7 % of backhand strokes) and topspin (31.9 %) [2].
Just over the net. The net is 15.25 cm high [7]. A ball that flies much higher is usually hit with an open blade and gives the opponent time to attack. A hand's width above the net is a good guideline for the start (practice).
In front of your body. If the ball arrives beside you, you were too late or too close. Take a small step back or to the side so that the contact point is in front of your belly (practice). A cramped elbow is usually a sign that the ball was too close to your body.
No. You can play with both sides of the racket as long as one is black and one is coloured [7]. Which side you choose for the backhand is a matter of taste. The only important thing is that both sides are covered according to the rules: if you strike with a side that does not comply, your opponent gets the point [7].
The Push in Table Tennis: Returning Backspin Safely