Forehand Loop in Table Tennis: Why It Breaks Down and How to Fix It

Your forehand loop lands in practice, then falls apart in matches. You film yourself, watch it back, and still cannot tell what is different. Before looking at the ball, look at the order in which your body moves.

Updated 2026-10-18 ・ Left-handed? Mirror left and right.

What the forehand loop is for

The forehand loop puts heavy topspin on the ball so it arcs over the net and dips onto the table. It is the shot behind most points in modern table tennis: lifting a push for a third-ball attack, trading topspin in a rally, or counter-looping an opponent's attack.

More spin gives a higher, safer arc. More speed gives a flatter, more decisive ball. The difference between a slow spinny loop and a fast loop drive is simply how you split power between spin and speed. Both rest on the same foundation: force that starts in the legs and passes through the hips, shoulders and arm in sequence.

This guide is written for right-handed shakehand players. If you are left-handed, mirror everything. Penhold players can use the same body principles.

Key points of good form

1. Bend the knees, sink, then extendStart in a slightly crouched stance with your upper body leaning forward. On the backswing, load your weight onto the right leg and sink. Drive up through the knees as you shift weight to the left leg. Straight legs leave the arm to do all the lifting.
2. Hips, then shoulders, then armDo not start the swing with your arm. The hips rotate first, the shoulders follow a fraction later, and the arm and racket come through last. That small delay is what creates spin without forcing it.
3. Contact in front of the bodyMeet the ball in front of you and slightly to the right. Letting it get level with or behind your body makes you late, opens the racket face, and sends the ball long. A consistent contact point is the fastest route to a consistent loop.
4. Keep the elbow angle steadyKeep the elbow comfortably bent and let body rotation carry it. If the elbow straightens or collapses at contact, the height of your shots will vary.
5. Finish and recoverFinish around forehead height and return to the ready position right away. A big swing is fine as long as your balance holds and you are ready for the next ball.

Common breakdowns: symptom, cause, fix

How the app looks at your forehand loop

Table Tennis AI Coach (TTAIC) reads the positions of your joints (a pose skeleton) from video shot on your phone and turns each swing into numbers. The analysis runs on your device. Nothing is sent to a server unless you choose to allow it.

For the forehand loop, the app uses the moment your wrist moves fastest as a marker for contact and splits the clip into individual strokes. It then looks at five aspects of each swing: elbow angle, knee bend, trunk rotation, balance and swing path, and how consistent they are from stroke to stroke. The app also tries to recognise which stroke you played, but similar-looking strokes can be confused, so always check the result with your own eyes.

Think of the app as a tool for noticing things, not a replacement for a coach. If you have a coach, watching the same screen together makes it easier to talk about timing and consistency, which are hard to explain in words alone.

Forehand loop drills

Push to loop transition

8 min ・ You need: Table、Practice partner、Balls

1. Your partner plays a short push first, then a long backspin ball.
2. Push the first ball back and immediately step the right foot back into position.
3. On the long ball, sink through the knees and loop it upward from below.
4. Count how many land. Once you make 7 out of 10, add a target placement.
5. Film the last two sets and check that your feet are not frozen before the loop.

Relaxed shadow swings with video review

8 min ・ You need: Racket、Phone、Tripod or chair

1. Fix your phone so it shows you from head to toe.
2. Do 20 forehand loop shadow swings at about 60 percent effort, thinking hips, shoulders, arm.
3. Start every swing from the same ready position and count a rep only when you are back in it.
4. Watch the clip and look for reps where your arm moved before your hips.
5. Do 20 more, correcting only what broke down.

Middle-to-forehand moving loop

8 min ・ You need: Table、Multiball feeder or robot、Balls

1. Have the feeder alternate balls to your middle and your forehand.
2. On the middle ball, shift slightly left and play a forehand.
3. On the wide ball, move your feet first, then swing, keeping contact in front.
4. Recover to the centre after every ball.
5. Do 4 sets of 10 balls with about 45 seconds of rest between sets.

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