Can you help me on this?
Kathleen.
Hi Kathleen,
Deciding whether to push deep or short can be a difficult decision, and the answer is not always the same for each person.
Pushing Deep
Pushing deep will cut down the angles your opponent can achieve, and make him hit the ball from further away, giving you more time to recover and get ready for his next stroke. But it also allows him to take a full swing, giving him the chance to put more power and spin on the ball. Aim to land the ball around 6 inches short of the endline, that way if you make a bit of a mistake it won't matter too much. Vary the backspin from light to heavy to make it harder for your opponent to get used to your pushes.Pushing Short
Pushing short (i.e. short enough so that the ball would bounce twice on the table) makes it harder for your opponent to attack strongly, since if you keep the ball low he can't perform a full swing. The chances are good that you'll be able to attack his return, since most players aren't able to return a short ball with a short ball very well. But it does give him more angles to play with, and it's harder for you to do successfully than pushing long. The difficulty with pushing short is that a small mistake has big consequences, so if you get it a little bit wrong you are accidentally pushing half-long (see below) or high enough to attack hard. Long pushes are much easier to do consistently.Pushing Half-Long
The worst push is generally the half-long push where the ball lands in the middle of the table, and then clears the end of the table on the first bounce. This stroke combines the worst elements of both long and short pushes - it gives the opponent a full swing when attacking, it doesn't push him away from the table so it allows him to hit from closer range, it gives him good angles, and it cuts down your own time for recovery. Try to stay away from these.Pushing Long vs Short - Recommendations
Both pushing long and pushing short have a place in your game. Pushing long is safe and consistent, and I would recommend to make long pushes your default strokes. Short pushes can be reserved for when you are well balanced and have a good read of the spin on the ball so you feel you are not likely to make a mistake, or for when your opponent has pushed short first, in which case it is much easier to keep the ball short.Floating the Ball
Regarding floating vs spinning the ball, floating the ball is actually very difficult to do consistently, without making a mistake. Although I am a defender who pushes often, I don't float with no spin all that much, since in order to do successfully, I have to perfectly counter the spin that is already on the ball, and get my bat angle correct as well.It's much easier to use a mixture of light backspin all the way through to heavy backspin, and try to fool your opponent about how much spin you have applied. A light backspin ball is much easier for you to control than a no spin ball, so you'll make less errors, and it's 99% as effective as a float in forcing errors from your opponent.
Hope this helps!
Greg