A Pilot Kinematic Study on the Forehand Reverse Flick: Feasibility of a Novel Short Return Technique in Table Tennis

TL;DR

This study introduces and evaluates the forehand reverse flick, a novel short return technique in table tennis, demonstrating its feasibility, comparable effectiveness, and potential advantages over traditional methods through kinematic analysis.

Contribution

The paper presents a new forehand reverse flick technique, analyzing its kinematic properties and success rate, showing its learnability and potential for competitive use.

Findings

Success rate of FRF increased to 86%.

Racket trajectories of FRF and BF are highly similar.

FRF produces lower ball spin and requires slightly longer movement duration.

Abstract

Background Following changes in table tennis ball materials, offensive returns have become more important for initiating sustained topspin offense. However, using the backhand flick (BF) to return forehand short balls often increases the difficulty of recovery and continuity, revealing a technical gap. This study preliminarily verified a novel forehand short return technique, the forehand reverse flick (FRF), and analyzed its similarities and differences with the BF. Methods Four elite athletes completed seven consecutive days of FRF specific training. Infrared motion capture and ultra-high-speed cameras were used to collect data on racket kinematics, movement duration, and ball performance. Results The success rate of the FRF increased steadily, reaching 86%. Racket trajectories of the two techniques were highly similar along the X (r = 1) and Y (r = 0.99) axes but differed along the Z (r = -0.04) axis. Racket and ball velocities were comparable between techniques, whereas the FRF showed lower resultant acceleration (approximately 265.57 m/s) and required about 0.03 s more for movement duration. Ball velocity was comparable between techniques, for the ball spin, the FRF generated lower spin (approximately 76.61 r/s) about 64% of the BF value (approximately 120.13 r/s). The highest participant mean spin rate reached 93 r/s, about 77% of the BF mean. Conclusion Overall, the FRF was found to have favorable learnability and training value, with potential for further optimization and competitive application.