August 5, 2024 - The Slow, Spinny Loop

“It’s an unreturnable shot,” said US Team Member Perry Schwartzberg many years ago after failing repeatedly to block, hit, or counterloop against fellow team member Ricky Seemiller’s slow, spinny loop. World #3 Mikael Appelgren had a similar problem against Ricky, losing to him when the world’s best counterlooper couldn’t counterloop Ricky’s spinny loop.

And yet, fewer and fewer players slow loop these days. Part of the reason is because at higher levels, and with modern sponges, players just go for power loops. And that often pays off at the higher levels. But below that – and as a change-up at the higher levels – the slow, spinny loop is a valuable shot.

The weakness of the shot is that if an opponent unhesitatingly blocks, hits, or counterloops aggressively, the slow spinny loop can be attacked effectively. But since players don’t see the shot that much these days, and are usually set up for faster, less spinny shots, they struggle against the shot if not overused.

A key reason players don’t slow loop as much these days is they don’t know the proper technique, and so end up with a less-than-spinny slow loop that is more easily attacked.

The key point here is a slow spinny loop is NOT just a weak, safe loop. It’s an aggressive shot done at full power – but nearly all of the power goes into creating topspin. It’s usually done against backspin, especially heavy backspin where you can convert the incoming backspin into even more topspin with an almost vertical stroke.

How do you do this? A key aspect is to let the ball drop more than usual. This makes it easier to arc it with super spin, using your entire body, and especially your legs. With power loops, nearly all of the force is forward, but with a slow, spinny loop, you use your legs to drive the ball both up and forward, with the emphasis on up. If you take the ball too high, you’ll go off the end, which is why it’s easier to do if you let the ball drop below table level, with knees well bent. (If you have knee problems, then compensate by simply dropping the racket down more and use more upper body, arm, and wrist.) Then use the whole body – legs, hips and waist, shoulder, forearm, and wrist. Each part of the swing propels the next part forward. The stroke is one continuous, smooth motion.

Just before contact, drive into the ball vigorously, with a big forearm and wrist snap as you contact the ball – but just graze the ball. Make that ball rotate like an angry Tasmanian Devil!!! The whole point of the shot is extreme topspin, not safe topspin.

If you go off the end, don’t slow down your swing; contact a little more on top of the ball and stroke slightly more forward, especially if the ball doesn’t have heavy backspin.

Experiment until you find just how much to let the ball drop, how much to drive up vs. forward, and how finely you can graze the ball. Find a partner and practice, where you serve backspin, partner pushes back heavy, and you slow-loop the ball with great power – with all that power going into topspin. With practice, it becomes an extremely consistent shot since the low ball speed and the heavy topspin pulling it down keeps it on the table.

So, what are you waiting for? Time to slow-spin for the win!