The racket is still well farther forward than the elbow - much more with Timo Boll than with anyone else. He starts his forward stroke by pushing his elbow forward. This creates a whip effect that first pulls his racket hand back a little. The he performs a massive, almost painful looking turn of his shoulder, supported by a push off his left leg, and this releases the built up tension into the whipping action that leads to a contact a little in front of his body.
The "whipping action" Wei Wang refers to is sort of a stretch reflex. The power of the turn stretches the shoulder and bicep suddenly and the muscles contract against the stretch.
Can you develop and improve your body's ability to create this sort of power? Probably. The most obvious movements are plyometrics. Some good ideas on how to get started can be found here. But I'm not entirely sold on the idea that plyometrics are the best way for all athletes to increase sports power. This article sums it up pretty well:
[E]xplosive power is a function of both strength and speed of muscular contraction. Volleyball plyometrics exercises will help condition your neuromuscular system to apply a greater level of force in a shorter period of time. However, if you lack basic strength, their effectiveness will be limited.
My guess is that most table tennis players will find their explosiveness limited more by low limit strength than by their lack of neuromuscular conditioning. Which means that if you train hard with basic weightlifting exercises, your ability to apply that to explosive power on the court may improve by itself.
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