By Larry Hodges
When receiving, many players are either overly aggressive or too passive. It's important to find the middle range. However, it is even more important to understand that it is consistency, placement and variation that are most important.
By Larry Hodges
We will define a "short" serve as any serve that, given the chance, would bounce at least twice on the receiver's side of the table before going off the end. Any serve that doesn't do this will be considered a "long" serve.
To attack short serves to the forehand, you will need to develop a forehand flip. The shot can be demonstrated by any top player or coach, or you can learn about it in most table tennis books.
By Larry Hodges
Returning serves effectively takes longer to learn to do than any other part of the game. This is due to the incredible variations in spin, speed, direction and depth available to servers. Worse, a good server disguises every aspect of the serve, especially the spin. We're going to focus the most difficult part here - reading spin. (For more info on spin, see my article Everything You Wanted to Know About Spin - But Were Afraid to Ask.)
Ideally, a player should read the spin off the server's racket. No matter how many motions a server goes through, all a receiver has to do is read the direction of the racket at contact, and he will have read the type of spin. This is easier said than done.
The receiver also needs to read the amount of spin. Against a somewhat grippy inverted rubber, this is roughly done by a simple formula: racket speed - ball speed = ball spin. What this means is that a server's racket speed at contact will convert to ball speed and ball spin; if the racket moves fast, but the ball comes out slowly, then most of the energy has been converted to spin. (It's actually a bit more complicated than this. You get more spin if you accelerate into the ball rather than moving the racket at a constant speed, but it's close enough. Plus you have to take into consideration the grippiness of the rubber, as a non-grippy surface will have less spin.)
A server disguises spin in three major ways. First, his racket may go through a semi-circular motion, with contact at any point on the curve. This way, a server may give different spins with the exact same serve motion - the only difference is where in the serve motion contact is made. At the advanced levels, this semi-circular motion is so short and quick it's very hard to pick up.
Second, a server may disguise spin by mixing up spin and no-spin serves. (If a receiver thinks there is spin on the ball, and there isn't, it's the same as misreading a spin.) There are two ways the server may do this. A server may contact the ball near the throat of the racket, where the racket travels slower than the tip. Or he may fake a grazing motion, but just pat the ball with the racket straight on. In both cases, the server may use an exaggerated racket snap after contact.
Third, the server may put so much spin on the ball that it is simply difficult to read the amount of spin.
The only way to learn to return serves is to understand them, and to practice against them. So how do you read the spin?
As your opponent is serving, keep your eyes on his racket. (Against a high-toss serve, you may glance up to see when the ball will be coming down - but as it comes down, you should be watching the racket.) Ignore the direction the racket is moving until contact. Then, right at contact - SNAP! Take a flash "video" in your mind of the split second of contact. In this split-second video, you should be able to see the direction and speed the racket was going at contact. From this, you can judge the type of spin. From the racket speed, and the speed of the ball after contact, you can judge the amount of spin.
What happens if you absolutely cannot read the spin off the racket? Or if contact is hidden? If the contact is hidden (which isn't legal, though it often isn't enforced), you will have to read the spin mostly from the ball alone. The type of sidespin on the ball should be easy to read from the general racket motion - left to right or right to left. It's the reading of topspin vs. backspin that's tricky.
A ball with backspin tends to travel in a line, and slows down when it bounces on the table. A ball with topspin drops quickly, and jumps when it hits the table. A sidespin ball will curve sideways in the air, and jump sideways when it hits the table. If you let the ball come out to you and take the ball late, you will have more time to read this, and make the proper adjustments. However, reading from the ball alone will make your receive more tentative and late, and so less effective.
Eventually, reading spin will become more and more natural, and you won't even think about it so much. Then you can concentrate on what to do with the ball.
By Larry Hodges
Most players know what a third-ball attack is: you serve, the opponent returns, and you attack aggressively, usually with a loop, a smash, a hard-hit drive, or perhaps a quick off-the-bounce drive. It's that simple.
But this means you are relying on your opponent to return your serve in a way that you can attack effectively. While you want to develop your third-ball attack, you also want to develop your five-ball attack, as your fall-back plan.
By Larry Hodges
If you know your opponent's rating before a match, you have several advantages:
On the other hand:
By Larry Hodges
When pushing on the backhand, most players are at one of three levels:
Level One: Get it back!
Level Two: Do something with it! This usually means one of three things: Quick off the bounce and angled; heavy; or short. This is effective at all levels. But there's another level. . . .
Level Three: Do even more!
By Larry Hodges
Are you one of those players with a steady backhand, but unable to really attack or counter-attack with it? Here's a solution: practice temporarily with short pips!
Most players won't want to switch to short pips long term because there are many disadvantages to short pips: can't spin the ball much, difficult to topspin from off the table effectively, and ball doesn't bounce off as lively so you have to generate most of the force on your shots.
By Larry Hodges
Most players serve with a purpose. They are trying to get you to return their serve in a specific way so they can attack it. So . . . don't.
The classic case is the forehand looper who serves backspin to your backhand, anticipating a push to his backhand. He steps around and forehand loops. If he's got good footwork, he'll usually follow that shot with at least one more forehand loop unless you make a great return. So he's getting two forehand loops in a row, exactly what he wants.
By Larry Hodges
You don't need to be a chopper to win with backspin, even in this modern age of topspin. Backspin will always have its place, when used properly. Of course, even attackers often serve backspin, hoping for a pushed return (backspin) that they can loop. However, when should an attacking player use backspin in a rally?
By Larry Hodges
Can you name the fifteen fast & deep serves? More importantly, can you execute them effectively?
