The forehand drive is the basic attacking stroke: a compact forward and slightly upward hit with a slightly closed bat, taken in front of you near the top of the bounce. Its power comes from turning the hips and shoulders and moving your weight from the back foot to the front foot, with the arm moving with the body rather than swinging on its own. From the side and front a camera can follow your rotation, weight shift and follow-through; it can't see the ball or the bat face.
Rotate back, load the back foot
Start in your ready position about an arm's length from the table: feet slightly wider than your shoulders, right foot a little behind the left (left-handers mirror this), knees soft, weight on the balls of your feet, upper body leaning slightly forward.
balanced and ready to turn, not upright.
Hold the bat in front of you with the elbow bent somewhere around 90 to 110 degrees and the bat face slightly closed (tilted forward toward the table).
the bat already set at the angle you will hit with.
As the ball comes, turn your hips and shoulders back to the right and shift your weight onto your right (back) foot. The elbow and bat go back with the body; the body starts the movement and the arm follows.
a short coil through the hips with weight settling into the back leg.
Rotate forward, contact at the peak
Start the forward swing by turning your hips and shoulders toward the ball and moving your weight onto your front foot. Let the arm travel with the rotation instead of swinging it on its own.
your hips leading and the arm being carried along.
Keep a small gap between your elbow and your body (don't clamp it to your side), and speed the forearm up only slightly as you reach the ball.
a short, quick finish to the arm, not a big swing.
Contact the ball in front of you and slightly to the side, at or near the peak of the bounce, with the bat still slightly closed. Don't change the bat angle mid-stroke.
meeting the ball early, while it is still high.
Finish in front, reset
Follow through forward and slightly up so the bat and playing arm finish pointing where the ball went, not wrapped across your body or over your neck.
the stroke ending out in front, toward your target.
Come straight back to the ready position, weight back on the balls of both feet, for the next ball.
a quick reset, not admiring the shot.
Feel it
A good drive feels compact and driven by the body: the hips turn, the weight moves from back foot to front foot, and the arm is carried through with only a small extra speed-up of the forearm at the end. Studies of the closely related topspin forehand found that more advanced players got a larger share of racket speed from turning the lower trunk and reached top racket speed in a shorter time, rather than simply swinging harder. If your arm feels tired and your legs feel still, you are hitting with the arm alone.
Fix-its
- You swing with the arm only Shadow the stroke with the arm still and just turn the hips and shift your weight, then add the arm as a passenger. The body starts, the arm follows.
- Your weight goes the wrong way (chest forward, hips back) Feel your weight sink into the back foot on the backswing and arrive on the front foot at contact. Upper and lower body should move forward together.
- You twist the shoulders but not the hips (the 'robot' look) Start the turn from the hips so the shoulders follow them, rather than rotating the shoulders on a still lower body.
- You wait for the ball to drop Move in so you can take it in front of you near the top of the bounce. A ball taken low and late turns into a different shot.
- You finish across your body or drop the wrist Stop the bat out in front, pointing at your target, with the wrist level and the bat angle unchanged from start to finish.
Drill
- Shadow drives without a ball: ready position, turn back onto the right foot, turn forward onto the left foot, finish pointing forward, reset. Add one technique point at a time.
- Multiball or robot forehand drives from your forehand corner: focus only on contact in front near the top of the bounce, then reset to ready after every ball.
- Forehand-to-forehand rally with a partner, diagonal (cross-court): keep the stroke compact and the finish pointing where the ball went.
- Film a set from the side or front in slow motion (120 fps or more if your phone has it) and check hip turn, weight shift onto the front foot, and a finish out in front.
Sources
- Table Tennis England — New League Player Notes (2025)
- Ben Larcombe, Expert Table Tennis — How to Play a Forehand Drive (2012)
- Iino & Kojima — Kinematics of table tennis topspin forehands: effects of performance level and ball spin, ISBS Proceedings (2008)
- Bańkosz & Winiarski — Correlations between angular velocities in selected joints and velocity of table tennis racket during topspin forehand and backhand, J Sports Sci Med (2018)
- He et al. — Lumbar and pelvis movement comparison between cross-court and long-line topspin forehand in table tennis, Front Bioeng Biotechnol (2023)
Last checked 2026-10-26.