How to Play a Forehand Push in Table Tennis

Last Updated on June 26, 2024 by Alex Horscroft

What Is a Forehand Push in Table Tennis?

The forehand push is your fundamental defensive stroke against backspin. Whenever you’re faced with a backspin ball, you either have to counteract the backspin with topspin or play a push. The latter is the easiest of the two by far.

For many, pushes may seem boring or annoying to deal with. I know more players than I can count who detest them. But they form a core part of the game of table tennis. And you need to learn how they work if you want to become an elite player, or even a semi-decent one.

How to Perform a Forehand Push in Table Tennis

To help understand the stroke I have broken it down into four easy-to-understand sections.

Step 1: Stance

• Stand within an arm’s length of the table. Any further away and you will likely not be able to reach your opponent’s shot.
• Your feet should be around shoulder-width apart. Keeps you well balanced.
• You should stand roughly square to the table. Or have your dominant foot slightly behind.
• Weight on the balls of your feet. To improve your reaction time.
• Knees slightly bent. For balance, control, and precision.
• Leaning slightly forward. To aid your movement and balance.
• Have your elbow bent about 90°. Ready to play your next shot.
• Bat should be in front of you. As opposed to facing either your backhand or forehand side.

Step 2: Build Up

• Move your paddle backward and to the outside of your body. Don’t move it too far as you do not need a lot of force for the push.
• Open your racket angle to around 140°. This of course dependent on the amount of incoming backspin. The greater the spin, the more you open your bat angle.

Step 3: Striking the Ball

• Transfer your weight onto your dominant foot. Push off your back foot and take a step if you need to
• Use your elbow and forearm to meet the ball. Focus on control, you don’t need a lot of power here.
• Contact the ball at the top of the bounce or just before. Gives you a large window to play the push.
• Strike the ball at the side of your body. Not straight in front of you.
• Strike forward and downward at the bottom of the ball. Use a brushing motion to generate backspin.

Step 4: Finish and Recovery

• Follow through the ball. This ensures you make sound contact with the stroke.
• Your paddle should be facing the direction you played the ball. If it’s not, you’re incorrectly adjusting your stroke after contact.
• Return to the ready position. Ready to receive the next ball.

When Should I Play a Forehand Push?

Should

You can play a forehand push against balls with no spin, light backspin, heavy backspin, sidespin, or light topspin.

The primary purpose of the push is to prevent your opponent from attacking, so use it whenever you need to shut down their offense.

Pushes are best played when you are close to the table. This gives you the best possible control and helps you to keep the ball short (more on that in a second!).

Shouldn’t

Pushes are great against virtually all kinds of shots, but there are times you shouldn’t use them. The first instance you should avoid pushing is against heavy topspin.

If someone loops the ball against you or plays a heavy topspin serve you’re much better off playing a block as your defensive stroke.

You should also try to avoid using pushes if the ball lands long on your side of the table. This means you have a chance to attack! So if you’re able to, seize the opportunity!

Effective vs. Ineffective Pushing

Table tennis is largely a game of offense — a quality attacker will usually beat a quality defender. So for most players, their primary goal is to attack first.

This means you need to shut down your opponent’s attack while employing your own. Pushes are the easiest way to do this. Key offensive shots that will earn them winners are drives, smashes, and loops. And guess what, you can’t do any of them against short pushes (pushes that bounce twice on your opponent’s side of the table).

So short pushes should be your primary form of defense.

The only way a player can attack these are with flicks, but these are much slower and will rarely win points outright.

The easiest way to play a short push is to take the ball at the top of the bounce or slightly before. This means it is best if you are close to the table. If you take the ball deep it’s virtually impossible to keep the push short.

Medium-Long vs. Medium-Short Pushing

Often keeping pushes short is difficult. Even as an advanced player it is something I struggle with. But you’ll be pleased to know you don’t always need to keep the ball short to prevent your opponent from attacking.

You only need them to think the ball is short.

This is where the overlap between medium-short and medium-long pushes comes in. These terms refer to pushes that marginally bounce twice on the table and those that marginally bounce once.

Depth is very difficult to judge in table tennis. And only skilled players will attempt to attack balls that just drift long of a second bounce. So use both to help keep yourself safe and keep your opponent second-guessing themself.

How to Adjust Your Push to Incoming Spin

The fundamentals of backspin are quite easy to understand. When your opponent plays a backspin stroke toward you the ball is rotating upwards from your perspective. You must then strike underneath the ball to generate the opposing spin so that it is spinning downwards from your perspective.

The angle at which you strike the ball is dependent on how much backspin your opponent has produced.

The heavier the spin, the more open your bat angle must be. Below is a simple diagram showing the clear angle difference between returning light and heavy backspin.

Recommended Video to Help You Learn the Forehand Push in Table Tennis

To see the forehand push in action I recommend watching this video by Pink Skills. They cover pretty much everything you need to know and the video is just 3 minutes long.

Common Forehand Push Mistakes in Table Tennis

1. Striking the ball in front of the body. Instead, strike to the side of the body otherwise the motion feels awkward and you will lose control.
2. Fully extending your arm. Unless the ball is far from you and you really have to reach you do not need to fully extend your arm. A slight bend is usually best.
3. Flicking your wrist. While flicking your wrist can help produce more spin I wouldn’t recommend it for beginners. It’s harder to control and keep short.
4. Not following through on the push. Many players have a tendency to jab at the ball rather than follow through with it. Continue the movement after contact.
5. Striking the back as opposed to the bottom of the ball. This results in a huge under accounting of the spin on the ball. It may even bounce before the net on your side of the table! Make sure to contact the bottom of the ball.
6. Hitting the ball too early. Remember to hit the ball at its peak or a little before. Not straight off of the bounce.

Next Lessons

If you haven’t already learned the backhand push that should be your next step. You should also read my guides on the backhand drive and forehand drive to kickstart your topspin game.