Getting More Power Out of Your Traditional Penhold Backhand

The other day I was watching a recent match of left handed Jpener Cazuo Matsumoto and I noticed he was attacking short serves with a Traditional Penhold Backhand (TPB) with a lot of power.

So I searched out how this is done and how he does it. Thankfully, Cazuo has a youtube channel detailing this specific shot. Furthermore, if you put closed captions on and in the settings put transcribe to English, you can roughly make out what he's saying.

To summarize to you what he said, some time back Cazuo got the inspiration to be able to add more power to the backhand. If you watch any video or demonstration on the TPB, you will see players practicing their TPB moving like a piston.

While fundamentally sound, NO POWER.

Cazuo explains in the video that he tried to emulate what shakehanders do with their backhand. I can also attest to when I have tried RPB, my power comes form the wrist and forehand together. With the motion Ryu is demonstrating above, there is no wrist movement and no flick or snap from the forearm. it's simply a piston punching motion.

In the video Cazuo describes doing the same motion but adding some forearm & wrist snap to it. He said your arm should be relaxed to get that snap. You also obviously want to take the ball at it's highest point to give yourself the most room for error. 

But that's it. Take your TPB as you know it and try to incorporate a little more forearm & wrist snap to it. Watch the video to see how Cazuo does it. You will see in his backs-wing he's bending the wrist back slightly to snap forward. Much like a normal backhand. Do not keep the same locked wrist movement through out. See if you can get in the habit of hitting more and not passively TPB blocking as much.