Question: Serve, Return of Serve, and Blocking Advice for Table Tennis Matches
I am playing my finals against a player I have defeated in league matches 3-0, but during practice matches he beats me all the time, and now I am little nervous going into the finals against him, can you advise me on the following please?
- He has got lot of variation in services and the minute I return he gets a loose ball and he just smashes the ball.
- He plays kind of backhand loop topspin, which is very short on my forehand the minute I try to block, either it goes out or in the net if I get it right by any luck he smashes it.
- He attacks on all my services or puts lot of spin in the ball.
Answer: Let's look at your questions one at a time:
Returning Serve
Returning serve is always a tough part of the game, especially if your opponent has good deceptive services. Here's a few quick suggestions that might help:- Try to loop any long serves using heavy topspin of your own - you don't have to hit it fast unless you are sure of the spin. If you aren't sure of the spin, aim more towards the center of the table and really give it a heavy topspin - this gives you more chance to overcome whatever spin your opponent has put on the ball.
- Shorter serves are tougher - the easiest thing to do is to copy whatever your opponent's bat does - if moves his bat up during contact, move your bat up too. If he moves it from your right to your left when serving, do the same. This helps neutralize the spin.
- You have to watch his contact closely, so you can see which way his bat is moving at the time the ball is struck. If you don't pay attention to the contact, you will always be guessing which spin is on the ball.
- If he does smash your return of serve, don't try to smash it back, just stay calm and block the ball back with no more than 6 inches of swing - use his pace to send the ball back and don't try to skim the ball - put the full bat face behind the ball with just enough closure to keep the ball down.
Blocking the Ball on Your Short Forehand
With topspins to your short forehand, it sounds like you might be off balance when playing the shot, or trying to hit the ball too hard and then too soft - or else you are misreading the spin he is putting on the ball. Again, forget about trying to brush the ball to put topspin on it, simply hold your bat still and angle your bat to keep the ball low, then place the ball so that he has to move to hit it. Many players try to block too hard and hit the ball off the table, and then try to block soft the next time and put the ball into the net. Try to block with little or no swing, and just adjust your bat angle. Once you have found the correct bat angle, you can slowly start to take a bigger swing - say six inches bigger at a time. Keep making small adjustments that bring you closer to the correct result, instead of making big changes that overcompensate in either direction.Serving Advice
If your opponent is attacking your services or putting a lot of spin on the ball when returning, you may be serving too many long serves, giving him the chance to attack. You may also be bouncing the ball too high. These two occurrences often happen to players because they are trying to spin the ball very heavily, and whenever they don't get the brush exactly right, they hit the ball too hard.Concentrate on serving shorter, even if you have to put less spin on the ball, and try to use a mixture of sidespin, sidespin and a little backspin, or sidespin and a little topspin. Even though the amount of topspin or backspin won't be much, it should be very hard for your opponent to correctly judge whether you have put backspin or a little topspin on the ball as well as sidespin. He only needs to make a small mistake for him to put the ball in the net or up in the air for you to hit. You also need to double bounce your short serves, in order to make the long serves more effective.
Hope this helps - good luck in the finals!
Greg Letts
