Ask any beginner who has been playing a while why he is having trouble winning games, and a common excuse will be the difficulty of returning serve. You'll hear this put in a variety of ways - from blaming the opponent ("I could beat so-and-so if he didn't have those tricky serves"), to blaming the equipment ("The table/ball is bouncing funny"), but you will rarely hear someone say that it because their own return of serve is bad! Don't fall into this trap - if your opponent is serving legally and you are having trouble returning the ball - it's not him, it's you!
For beginners, the return of service is very probably the most important stroke in the game. Even at high levels the return of serve is a very important stroke, and is trained accordingly.
As with the service, it is possible to break up this discussion of the service return into four topics:
- Why is the Return of Serve Important in Table Tennis?
- How to Improve Your Return of Serve - Theoretical Advice
- How to Improve Your Return of Serve - Practical Advice
- How to Troubleshoot Your Return of Serve
