FOREHAND DRIVE

As your skills develop, you may want to learn how to attack a backspin return instead of just pushing it back, particularly if you like to be offensive. The stroke to use is the forehand drive. This stroke is similar to the forehand smash with only minor differences. When driving backspin, contact the ball with a more open racket angle and stroke more upward than in the smash. At contact the racket face is almost perpendicular.

When first learning the forehand drive against backspin, it may be difficult to get the ball to clear the net. This is because the backspin causes the ball to rebound downward when it grabs into your rubber surface. To counteract this effect, it is necessary to stroke forcefully at high speed and/or open your racket angle even more, so you are actually striking the ball a little below center and driving the racket up through the ball. This will provide the necessary "lift" to get the ball to clear the net.

This is not an easy stroke to learn, so don't get frustrated if it is difficult to execute with any consistency. It is OK to temporarily skip over the next lesson if you find it difficult to execute the forehand drive with consistency. In this case, do the remaining lessons and come back to Lesson 19 at the end.

Lesson 19: Forehand Drive

To learn this stroke, set the spin to backspin, the speed to 2, the frequency to 3, and turn the oscillator off when the robot head points to the middle of your forehand court. Practice the forehand drive first crosscourt, then down-the-line, and then alternate between the two directions. Next, turn on the oscillator and practice the forehand drive with the ball moving randomly inside your forehand court, then your whole backhand court, and finally 3/4 of the whole table from the middle of your backhand court to your forehand corner. Lastly, combine your forehand drive with the backhand push by setting the oscillator to sweep the entire table and practice pushing on your backhand side and driving on your forehand side. Your goal is 15 successful drives in a row at each stage.

Another good drill is to adjust the robot to shoot balls to your backhand and practice pushing a backhand followed by stepping out and doing a forehand drive from your backhand court. This is a particularly useful drill because it develops a variety of skills: a backhand backspin defensive stroke (touch), a forehand topspin offensive stroke (power), and footwork (quickness). Do this drill using no oscillation, then gradually turn the ball frequency up to 4.

	Photo 16: Forehand Drive (Crosscourt) Notice how the racket starts below the level of the ball at impact and the racket finishes high above the head. Also note the very rapid acceleration of the racket between images 2and 4and the almost vertical racket angle at contact. Image 1: End of back swing. Racket has been taken back and down by rotating the waist and shoulders and pulling the forearm back. Note that the racket is below the level of the anticipated point of contact. Image 2:Forward swing. Racket is beginning to rapidly accelerate forward. This is achieved by rotating the waist and shoulders, twisting the right leg, and pushing the forearm forward. Image 3: Just after ball contact. The racket angle is almost vertical, and the racket has accelerated forward and upward. Notice how, just like the forehand smash, the racket is at the level of or slightly above the level of the elbow at time of contact. Image 4: Follow through. Racket has traveled upward by raising the upper arm. The waist and shoulders continue to rotate forward. Images 5 & 6: End of swing. Upper arm continues to raise racket until it finishes above the head. Shoulders and waist have rotated approximately 135, The weight shift from the right leg to the left leg is so strong it has pulled the right leg forward.