Making Changes

 A lot of PB shots requires some interesting wrist angles.  Most of which we are not aware as we are cleverly evolved monkeys and do a lot of things automatically.  

The basic need is to present the paddle face to a position that is roughly parallel to the net.  Usually there needs to be a few degree of tilt in the paddle face so that the paddle faces the sky.  (Obviously there are exceptions to that, exempli gratis, over heads.)  This is true for forehands and backhands, dinks and long shots.  You are using the full range of your wrist's ability to bend outward and inward.  For full shots you take the ball from a side position, which does the same job of aligning the paddle.  But at the net when dinking and your arm is extended, then there is a lot of wrist play involved.  (Usually not "flippy" wrist play as it's another, complicating variable.)

In my own PB strokes I find that my forehand shots have a side spin to them, rather than a pure top spin.  This is always a surprise and I "feel" that I'm getting the paddle parallel to the net, but the spin says that I'm wrapping the paddle around the ball from right to left and not bottom to top.  

  I'd prefer a bit of top and side spin in a perfect world.  I'm not getting the paddle where I want it for a forehand roll.  As I mentioned above, the only way I can see this is when hitting a soft shot and watching the spin.  This is my feedback.  I need to repeat this and get a feel for the proper stroke and wrist position.  Maybe I can do this, but maybe not as wrists don't bend in both directions the same.  It may be that I need to use some body rotation to get the paddle in the proper position.  I won't know until I figure it out.

How to change something?  Ah, the great philosophers' question dating back to the days of cave dwelling. 

If you want to change something you need some feed back.  If the ball keeps going long, we do something.  If it's wide, we do something.  But if it seems ok, we don't see the need for a change in the stroke and probably will never thing about what is really happening.  Lack of critical observation is a problem.

The pattern to make a change is: identify the want, figure it out at slow speed with feedback, speed it up as long as you get it mostly correct (slow back down if you regress), then build some trust with some repetitions.