How does one play an opponent with a big backhand? There are several versions of this type of player. Some have big backhand smashes and seem to be able to smash anything from that side. Others don't hit quite so hard but keep coming at you with it. Others have big backhand loops. In each case you are faced with an opponent whose backhand is stronger than yours, and is a constant threat to win the point. You have several options, and you can (and should) use more than one of them.

1) Depth

Compared to the forehand, the backhand is often a cramped shot because the body is in the way. And so the enemy of the backhand is depth. If you keep the ball deep on the table, few players can attack that ball as strongly as they can off a short ball. This is the most common reason for an opponent with a big backhand - balls that aren't going deep, thereby giving the opponent opportunities for big backhands. (Note that depth is the first item listed, but keeping the ball low isn't even listed as one of your options. That's because it's assumed that you are trying to keep the ball low. The exception - deep, arcing loops with heavy topspin are effective against most big backhands despite being high.) 

2) Play the Forehand

The most obvious thing is to simply play the forehand side. The problem here is that even with a big backhand player, the forehand might be pretty powerful as well. So figure out early what shots the opponent has trouble with on the forehand, and play those shots there. Often the forehand side isn't as quick as the backhand, and so quick, angle shots there are effective.

3) Play the Forehand, Come Back to the Backhand

Many players have strong backhands when they are in position. So draw them out of their backhand pocket by going to the forehand first, and then coming back to the backhand. (Ironically, this is also an excellent way to play a player with a big forehand - draw them out to their forehand side, then make them play backhands.) 

4) Attack First

If you have good serve and receive, you can most often get the first attack. There's nothing like a good first attack (again, deep on the table) for stopping any type of attack by the opponent.

5) Attack the Middle

Make the opponent move side to side to hit those backhands by playing both wide to the backhand and to the middle. (The middle is the mid-point between forehand and backhand, roughly where the playing elbow is.) This forces the opponent not only to move, but to decide between forehand and backhand. Players with big backhands often favor the backhand even on shots that go somewhat out to the forehand side, and so their "middle" might be toward their forehand side. Find that spot and go for it. The more table the opponent tries to cover with the backhand, the more you can make him move.

6) Consistency

As long as you keep the ball deep on the table, and perhaps move it around some (wide backhand, middle, wide forehand), a consistent backhand can often beat a more powerful one. Don't try to be quicker or more powerful than the opponent with a big backhand; out-steady him while keeping the ball deep and making him move.

7) Changing Spins

Few players have powerful backhands against both backspin and topspin. Find the spin they have the most trouble with, and place it deep on the table. Or go back and forth between deep, spinny loops and deep, heavy pushes to force him to adjust to both.

And finally, there's an eighth option.

8) Develop your own big backhand

Most coaches stress that you should place most shots to one of three spots: the wide backhand, the wide forehand, and the middle. The middle is roughly the opponent's playing elbow, the transition point between forehand and backhand. While most players can cover the wide corners reasonably well (unless drawn out of position first), the middle is often far more difficult to cover, even if in position. It also draws the player out of position, often leaving one of the corners open. While it often takes two shots to the corners to be effective (the first shot is mostly to get the player out of position), shots to the middle are effective on the first shot, and often leave the player open to all three spots on the next shot.

So how does a player cover these middle shots, and recover for the next shot?

How you cover the middle depends on your playing style, but there is a general guideline for most players: If you are rushed or close to the table, favor your backhand. If you have time or are off the table, favor your forehand. (This is especially true if you have a good forehand loop.) But remember these are guidelines. For example, if you have a much stronger backhand, use that whenever possible to cover the middle, and then try to dominate the rest of the rally with your backhand. If you have a much stronger forehand, then perhaps play a step off the table so you aren't rushed, and use that to cover the middle, and then try to dominate the rest of the rally with your forehand.  

But it's not enough to just cover the middle; you have to be ready for the next shot. There are two possibilities: recovering after a backhand, and recovering after a forehand.

If you play a backhand from the middle, then you leave your wide backhand open. If you are relatively close to the table, then you have little time to recover. So the focus here is to follow up by rapidly getting back into position to cover that wide backhand. If you have a strong backhand, then you can take advantage of this situation by often getting two strong backhands in - the first from the middle, and by playing it wide to the opponent's backhand, you likely get a crosscourt return to your backhand, and so get to play a second strong backhand. (In fact, you can keep doing this, locking up the opponent in a backhand-to-backhand duel, if your backhand is stronger. But don't just go to the backhand - also attack the middle, and when you see an opening, or if the opponent is weak on that side, the wide forehand.)

But here's the problem - after hitting a backhand from the middle, if you rush too quickly to cover against a shot to the wide backhand, you might inadvertently leave the forehand side open, and a smart player will follow his shot to your backhand with an attack or quick shot there So your best response after your backhand from the middle is to move back to cover for the backhand, but come to a stop before the opponent hits his next shot. It's better to be slightly out of position but in a ready stance as the opponent hits his next shot than moving into position as he does so.

If you go to your opponent's middle, and he covers with a backhand, then watch to see how he recovers. Most often he'll be open on the next shot on one of the wide corners, and it is your job to see if he leaves the wide backhand open, or covers it so quickly he leaves the wide forehand open. If not sure, there's a simple solution - go to the middle again!

If you play a forehand from the middle, then you leave the wide forehand open. But if you are at least a step or two off the table, you have time to cover for it. In fact, if you are a good forehand player with good footwork, then you very much want to play forehands from the middle of the table, since you really get two for the price of one since you will likely get a second forehand, and you likely can end the point with one of these forehands.

But this often depends on the strength and (more importantly) the depth of your first forehand from the middle. If it is weak or lands short, then it is easy for your opponent to attack aggressively, and in this case your wide forehand is often open. But just as with the backhand, if you try to cover that side too quickly, you'll leave the wide backhand open. So again, come to a stop and get into a ready position before the opponent hits the ball.

If you go to your opponent's middle, and he covers with a forehand, then watch to see how he recovers. Most often he'll be open on the next shot on one of the wide corners, and it is your job to see if he leaves the wide forehand open, or covers it so quickly he leaves the wide backhand open. If not sure, just as before there's a simple solution - go to the middle again! But the danger here is you may let a forehand-dominant player play his forehand over and over from the middle, which is almost always a mistake. If the opponent is looking to play a second forehand from the middle, then go after the corners.

It's a cat and mouse game, where each player is trying to get the initiative, either by attacking the middle or attacking from the middle. If one player can draw the opponent out of position by going to the middle, and then attack an open wide corner, then he's won this cat and mouse game. If the other player makes a strong shot from the middle and follows it with another, then he has won. 

I am often left in open-mouthed astonishment when watching matches as players will return short backspin serves the same way, with simple long pushes to the opponent's backhand, over and Over and OVER!!! There is little attempt to vary these returns or do much of anything to mess up the server. And yet they seem surprised that the server is ready for these simple pushes, usually with a big third-ball loop attack. If the opponent serves and pushes, then perhaps pushing the serve back long over and over will work. But that's mostly at the lower levels. If you want to reach the higher levels, you have to do a bit more with the receive.  

If the serve is long, it's a bit more simple - just loop the serve, forehand or backhand. If you don't loop, at least play aggressive, since a passive return of a deep serve is easy for the server to attack, since he has more time then off a short serve. (Aggressive usually means a topspin return, i.e. a drive or loop, but it can also be an aggressive push.) The same is true of a short sidespin or topspin serve (which is somewhat rare at the lower levels) - you should flip it.

However, against a short backspin serve, you can't loop, and flips are a little trickier. But you have more options to mess up the server, if you only use them. So what should you do against a short backspin serve? There are three main possibilities, but with countless variations. 

1. Push long. Do this to the wide backhand or wide forehand, and sometimes at the opponent's middle (the playing elbow) against a two-winged attacker, so he has to decide between forehand and backhand, and move to do so. Push quick, heavy, low, deep, and wide, with disguised placement. If you do some of this well, but some poorly, your push will be poor; it's better to do all six decently. (Here's an article on this.) Experiment with pushing with sidespin, especially a sidespin that breaks away from the opponent on his wide backhand side. A sudden quick push to an opponent's wide forehand is often a free winner since they get this so rarely.
2. Push short. This stops the opponent from looping. But don't just push short; sometimes aim to push short one way, and go the other. Top players finesse their pushes so sometimes they drop them short at the point of the net closest to their contact point, other times at angles to the forehand or backhand. Often the best move is to fake a short push to the opponent's stronger side against short balls, then go the other way.
3. Flip. This can be done forehand or backhand. These days more and more players attack short serves with a backhand banana flip, using it even against short serves to the forehand. Focus on consistency and control, and save the flip kills for serves that actually pop up at least slightly, or (at higher levels) where you really read the serve well. Learn to aim one way and go the other way at the last second.

Never forget that your purpose in returning a serve is to mess up your opponent. You don't do this by being predictable with passive returns; you do this with unpredictable and effective returns. 

One thing that always stands out from years of coaching is that those who play in tournaments regularly almost always improve faster than those who do not. There are players who train and train, but do not get the constant feedback you get from playing in tournaments, and so the training doesn't always transfer into improvement. Also, players who do not play tournaments regularly are not "tournament tough," and so do not play as well as players who compete in tournaments regularly. (Note - when I talk about playing in tournaments, this includes league matches as well, as long as you are playing a lot of different players there.)

Why is it so important to compete regularly, as opposed to just constant training? The constant training improves your game, but you also need the constant competition to learn to compete against different players, for feedback on your game, and to become mentally stronger under pressure situations. It also gives you incentive to practice.

Some would argue that you get the same thing by playing practice matches against players at your club. While this is partially true, there are two problems here. First, you are playing the same players over and over. You get used to their serves, their receives, and their rallying shots. Then you go to a tournament, and find that everybody has different serves, receives, and rallying shots. You'll never face everything, and even if you did, you'll never get used to everything. But what playing different players regularly does is develop the habit of adjusting to new players. A player who plays lots of tournaments will adjust far more quickly to a new serve or other shot than a player who only plays the same players, and so isn't used to adapting to new things. The constant feedback from playing different players also shows a player what he needs to practice.

The psychological aspect might be even more important. Playing a practice match at the club just isn't the same as playing under pressure at a tournament, where the results count. To many, just the thought of blowing rating points can turn ingrained techniques into shivering jellyfish!

A third aspect is the competitive aspect, as in players who compete have stronger incentive when they train. A player who competes constantly knows what works and what doesn't work in serious competition, and so has incentive to turn the strengths into overpowering ones, and to work on weaknesses that are exposed in tournaments. Knowing you have another tournament coming up gives them a timely reason to train to excel, while those who don't have anything coming up have more of a mental battle to push themselves to excel.

You might want to take time off from tournaments for a time when you are working on something new that is central to your game. Competing when your game is in transition is often a mistake, and can lead to falling back on old habits you are trying to overcome. For example, if you were mostly a hitter but are trying to incorporate more looping into your game, you might want to focus on training until you feel your looping is ready - but once you reach that stage, where you can confidently loop in a real match, then you should get back to constant competition.

Think of tournaments and practice as the Yin and Yang of table tennis. They feed off each other, and one without the other is like a Yinless Yang or a Yangless Yin. Go for both, where you practice for tournaments, and use tournaments as feedback and incentive for practice, and watch your game soar. 

In this modern game of topspin, many players battle to see who can get more topspin on the ball, with more speed and more consistency. After all, isn't that what tends to win games? Yet you might want to consider whether you want to join in this escalating topspin battle every single point. Why not throw an occasional changeup at them - a "dummy loop" - and watch them mess up? Go for less spin, and mess up your opponent's consistency!

A dummy loop is a loop that looks like it has a lot of topspin, but is not very spinny. You execute the shot almost like any other loop, except you start with your wrist cocked up, so there's no natural wrist snap, so little whipping action to add to the topspin. By using a full motion, and exaggerating the rest of the stroke (especially the follow-through), it looks like you've done a normal loop, yet the ball comes out relatively dead, causing havoc for your opponent. It's usually done against backspin, where you are both close to the table (so the opponent has less time to recognize the lack of spin), and where the opponent has a reasonable expectation of extreme topspin (since you are continuing the spin when you loop against backspin, using the incoming spin to add to your own).

Some players dummy loop by contacting the ball closer to the handle, while contacting the ball closer to the tip for maximum spin. It's a little trickier this way, but can be even harder for an opponent to see the difference. How many opponents can tell whether your loop contact was near the tip or handle?

A key point of all dummy loops - do the shot with a full swing, with full enthusiasm, as if you were really going for your spinniest loop. If you hold back on spin by holding back on the stroke itself, the opponent will easily see that. It's also important to keep the ball deep. That way, if the opponent does reacts to the lack of spin, he probably won't be able to hammer a winner off it, which is much easier to do against a ball that lands short. Even a ball with light topspin can be effective if it goes deep.

Against a primarily defensive player, where there's little risk of them effectively attacking your dummy loop, you should constantly vary your spin from heavy topspin to dead dummy loops. The change of spin will mess up a chopper or blocker more than just extreme topspin.

It's fun watching an opponent block into the net, and stare at his paddle in disbelief!