A forehand top spin in table tennis is the same as a golf drive. How?
This blog explains the similarities between two beloved sports of mine and understanding why professional golfers are starting to show an interest in table tennis after golfing hours...
When I was in my early stages of my professional career I used to take a step back from playing other sports such as table tennis as I thought that it was going to discourage my golfing performance. Ironically, now that I understand the laws and similarities, I use table tennis a lot in my coaching and in my own game to explain and help improve the golf swing.
Ever since working with a Trackman 3 this has helped me come to more conclusions with this new way of thinking for the golfer...
Think about it - A forehand topspin means that the bat must come low to high in order to spin the ball with topspin. In golf looking at the LPGA tour averages and monitoring my own performance a swing with a shallow angle of attack of 3 degrees provides golfers with results of low amounts of back spin and good carry. A shallow angle of attack means that the club is travelling on the up as it approaches the golf ball just like in table tennis.
Draws and fades link to swing path and club face angles. To hit a draw we need to have a swing path travelling from in to out with the club face closed to our path. To hit a side spin table tennis forehand we have to move the bat in exactly the same way.... spin shots are identical.
Its interesting how the two sports linked and maybe this is starting to show with the increase of professional golfers playing it sociably when they are out of hours. Not saying that we all have to start playing table tennis to improve our golf swings but its great to have other sports behind us which can provide us with fantastic imagery.
Happy Golfing
Katie