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Serve and attack strategies |
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FruitLoop
Super Member Joined: 09/20/2018 Location: Europe Status: Offline Points: 405 |
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Posted: 06/20/2019 at 1:04pm |
You can do sidespin versions of backspin/nospin as well (as long as you don't take no spin literally). The full spectrum is available.
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blahness
Premier Member Joined: 10/18/2009 Location: Melbourne Status: Offline Points: 5443 |
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Underspin/no spin is much easier to attack off of, but I feel that it places less placement control issues for your opponent (they don't face heavy sidespin which makes it harder to place the ball sideways accurately). But in general, much easier for beginners to use!
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BH-Man
Premier Member Joined: 02/05/2007 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 5042 |
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Next Leve makes a good point about no-spin, focusing on that serve as a primary serve.
It is also good to use the no-spin as a variation to your heavy under spin serve if you can sell it with the same serve motion. You get mistakes or much easier balls when you sell it. That makes attacking in whatever way you like to attack easier if the ball is higher and/or longer than opponent intends. |
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BH-Man
Premier Member Joined: 02/05/2007 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 5042 |
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...and on the subject of looping, I love looping and play a very spin based game, very important to me...
... but there are also players who make 2000 west coast level who do not loop at all. Their topspin in closer to a drive than a loop. Yet, they are consistent at that power level and speed. Some are pips/anti players. Some are inverted players who learned TT so long ago looping wasn't needed to play 2000 level. |
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BH-Man
Premier Member Joined: 02/05/2007 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 5042 |
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I think you are talking about players in your Northeast region. I lived there a few years, and for adult players, that pretty much held up to be true. The ones who could do a loop were generally so inconsistent that they were pissing away points like going to the toilet when they looped. There are a number of 1000-1200 adults who can loop surprisingly well in my west coast No Cal area, but have other defects that keep them their level. These would likely be 1400-1500 in Upstate NY or Oklahoma/Texas. Areas with junior training clubs are different animals entirely. There are some USATT 400-500 kids who have not yet been unleased for the big time tourney, this crowd would roll the normal 1500 level adult over so bad it would make them want to quit the sport for good. |
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mentortt
Super Member Joined: 07/17/2018 Location: NY Status: Offline Points: 307 |
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Good points @NextLevel. For rating 1000 level, if you can have a good stroke, it will be not hard to reach 1300. TT is much more than strategy. Mental strength, how to handle losing situation, .....
Play more tournament games and league games and study video for losing games, you will improve a lot.
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Dion Cassio
Beginner Joined: 05/16/2019 Location: Brazil Status: Offline Points: 7 |
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Wow, lots of great tips for a beginner, that's why this forum is wonderful. Thankful.
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NextLevel
Forum Moderator Joined: 12/15/2011 Location: Somewhere Good Status: Offline Points: 14845 |
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As you get better, you will find that some things stop working as you play better players. Larry Hodges probably has the best articles for such tricks (read his blogs and books). But at the higher levels, you just want to serve short because most opponents will loop anything that comes long especially if it is lazy long or accidentally long. In general, I would say that most of your serves at your level should be no spin serves which are disguised to look like backspin serves, but kept low. Until you learn to serve and loop backspin consistently, you will be able to play well behind these serves. If people push them, they will usually come a little high and you can play attacks behind them. If the serves are relatively low, you won't get the ball crushed at you. And if someone digs into them very hard, there is a limit on the backspin they can put on the ball and you still have an opportunity to attack. As you get better, people can do a bit more with these serves, but not so much more that you never need them again. You can learn to serve no spin to all points on the table as a start. When you learn to loop really well, then you can start serving more backspin. Serving sidespin is helpful but you need to drill it much much more as when people make a mistake on sidespin serves, you need to learn to adjust your stroke for the impact of your sidespin. Also note that it is possible to serve a better serve than you can comfortably play behind. Sometimes, the spin you put on a serve gives the opponent enough to work with that even if they mess up the return, you don't know how to approach the ball. That is one of the reasons why I think generally serving no spin deliberately up to a decent level (maybe 1500-1600) is a good strategy. You can add and learn other things as you should, but this can be the dominant serve. The main reason is that it lets you get used to attacking behind your serve as most players below 1600 won't do anything that prevents you from getting a good stroke in. And you learn to see what their stroke does to the ball since you didn't really put much on the ball.
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I like putting heavy topspin on the ball...
Cybershape Carbon FH/BH: H3P 41D. Lumberjack TT, not for lovers of beautiful strokes. No time to train... |
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mjamja
Platinum Member Joined: 05/30/2009 Status: Offline Points: 2895 |
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Gary,
If you do not have a copy yet get a copy of Larry Hodges "Table Tennis Tactics for Thinkers". Goes into detail about the kind of thing you are asking. One of the problems with answering you in this short form format is that a lot of what you want to do depends on the style, strengths, and weaknesses of your opponent. Larry's book has one (or maybe 2 chapters) on tactics certain styles should use and tactics to be used against certain styles. On Larry's website "www.tabletenniscoaching.com" he has an archive of hundreds of tips of the week. I think he now has them grouped by general topic area so you should be able to find groups on serving, serve and attack, or something similar. Good luck with improving your game. Mark
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mts388
Platinum Member Joined: 03/21/2014 Location: Sonora CA Status: Offline Points: 2382 |
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A tip hevyspin gave me years ago. When you have a box of balls and are practicing your serves, practice stepping around and getting in the ready position to receive their return. The tendency is to serve the ball, stand there and watch where it goes. If you do that when practicing, you'll do that in a match.
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GaryBuck
Member Joined: 10/16/2018 Location: Califiornia Status: Offline Points: 33 |
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Plenty of golden advice here. Thank you to you all. The Glegg videos recommended by NextLevel were particularly interesting. He illustrates serving light backspin to the crossover point from near the middle of the table, and explains why. This is the sort of practical serve and attack strategy I am looking for. As I get better, and understand my own game better, and also learn to read my opponent's game better, I will obviously develop appropriate strategies for each occasion. But until then, a few basic serve and attack strategies would help me. I have a stronger backhand than forehand, but generally I am developing a typical two-winged modern game, with good coaching, and my skills are fairly evenly developed. Anymore practical suggestions for basic serve and attack strategies? Which ones served you well when you were develing your game?
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GaryBuck
Member Joined: 10/16/2018 Location: Califiornia Status: Offline Points: 33 |
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Thank you. This is exactly what I am working on--looping backspin. Against the robot, I can do it consistently with fairly good shots; in practice against a partner, I get most of them on the table, but the loops are not strong; in matches, they are even weaker, and strong players can attack them easily, especially if the placement is not good. What I want to do now is add some tactical thinking to my serve and attack. |
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alphapong
Silver Member Joined: 05/11/2004 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 622 |
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I think it is a little more complicated. If your forehand and backhand were of equal strength (not likely) and your reach was equal for forehand and backhand (which it is not) after service you would want to place your paddle in the middle of the available angles that you just created with your serve. For example: If I served exactly to the middle line, immediately after service I would want to have my paddle exactly on the middle line as that is the middle of the possible angles. If I served short to wide forehand, immediately after service I would want to have my paddle to the right of the middle line as I now have to protect against the wide forehand angle. If I served short to wide backhand, immediately after service I would want to have my paddle to the left of the middle line as I now have to protect against the wide backhand angle. Since reach is not equal for forehand and backhand, you would want to be slightly to the left of what is described. Additionally if you are mobile and favor your forehand you would want to be even more to the left. So for the average mobile player who favors his forehand, after serving short to the wide backhand from the backhand corner, you probably do not need to move much at all to cover the possible angles. However if you serve to the short forehand from the backhand corner you would need to move toward the middle so you can cover the wide forehand angle. |
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GaryBuck
Member Joined: 10/16/2018 Location: Califiornia Status: Offline Points: 33 |
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Next Level, Thank you for the helpful suggestions. I have watched these Clegg videos and the Hodges article, and found them very useful. Your other advice is also much appreciated. As you suggest, despite the general advice to serve and attack, there seems to be little practical guidance on exactly how to develop these skills. Gary
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alphapong
Silver Member Joined: 05/11/2004 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 622 |
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The combinations you choose should be based on the type of ball that you want hit. First, do you prefer to start the point off with back spin and then open with topspin against a backspin ball, (these rallies generally move slower and can be popular for larger stronger players) or do you prefer to start the point immediately with top spin and play topspin against topspin. (these rallies generally move quicker and can be popular for smaller player who like to work off of their opponents pace. I think almost every little girl likes this.) Second, do you prefer to score with your backhand or forehand? If you prefer to play forehand, you can serve short to the forehand with backhand, reverse pendulum, hook or tomahawk and you will get more balls to the forehand side that you can follow up with a forehand attack. Do you feel your backhand is your stronger wing, or better than most of your opponents, or do you like to play step around forehands from the backhand side? You can serve pendulum or reverse tomahawk short to the backhand and you will tend to get more balls to attack from your backhand side. Things change a bit at higher levels as many players will backhand flip almost any serve. But at 1000 level you should not have to deal much with that. Which ever pattern you pick as your primary pattern, don't forget to also work on some complimentary serves. For example your short serve to the forehand will be more effective if you also have a good fast serve to the backhand that you can use occasionally to keep the receiver from cheating over to the forehand side every time you serve.
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mhnh007
Platinum Member Joined: 11/17/2009 Status: Offline Points: 2800 |
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In general what you put in the serve, will come back to you on the return. In the beginning, you may be more comfortable with looping under spin ball, so you will want to serve with under spin serve. The amount of spin, and depth of the serve will depends on the the ability of your opponent to attack on your serve. I would serve light under spin, half long to start and adjust from there.
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mentortt
Super Member Joined: 07/17/2018 Location: NY Status: Offline Points: 307 |
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In short, learn to loop and quality of loop and consistent looping will show up in rating improvement. Sometime it needs to loop slow, not fast. I have seen 2000 rating person has no backhand loop et al with very strong forehand loop. It will take a long time and everyone is different. But for 1000 rating level, my suggestion is focusing on foundation, especially footwork. Keeping pushing is fine. You need to be in right place at right time. It will benefit a lot in the long run.
Edited by mentortt - 06/18/2019 at 4:27pm |
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NextLevel
Forum Moderator Joined: 12/15/2011 Location: Somewhere Good Status: Offline Points: 14845 |
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here is a Larry Hodges article that is at least partly related.
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I like putting heavy topspin on the ball...
Cybershape Carbon FH/BH: H3P 41D. Lumberjack TT, not for lovers of beautiful strokes. No time to train... |
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NextLevel
Forum Moderator Joined: 12/15/2011 Location: Somewhere Good Status: Offline Points: 14845 |
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This is the first of a 3 or 4 video series that I consider a minor classic on the subject.
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I like putting heavy topspin on the ball...
Cybershape Carbon FH/BH: H3P 41D. Lumberjack TT, not for lovers of beautiful strokes. No time to train... |
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NextLevel
Forum Moderator Joined: 12/15/2011 Location: Somewhere Good Status: Offline Points: 14845 |
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I hit with the son of a player who is around my level. The son has been playing forehand topspin for as long as I have seen him hit the ball and was under USATT 1000 until recently. The quality of the spin of the aforementioned topspin is open to debate but the form was not. I have seen many players under 1000 USATT loop, some of a few I coached, the quality of their loop notwithstanding.
In the end, the structure of getting and attacking passive returns was the question posed. Let's focus on that rather than a form of ratings exceptionalism (of which I am not entirely innocent, but in this case, I want to just answer the question). I find it a bit sad that there is no clear article on serve and third ball that explains and connects them to help Gary. The gist is to try to play an offensive shot of returns of your serve and to try to serve well enough to force a return you can attack. Gary wants advice on what he should be doing and how he should be approaching this. Even if he can't loop, the idea is still sound.
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I like putting heavy topspin on the ball...
Cybershape Carbon FH/BH: H3P 41D. Lumberjack TT, not for lovers of beautiful strokes. No time to train... |
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pgpg
Gold Member Joined: 11/18/2013 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 1306 |
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This. They should learn though, but then they will stop being 1000. Conundrum...
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USATT: ~1810
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wilkinru
Silver Member Joined: 04/28/2015 Location: Las Vegas Status: Offline Points: 604 |
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I recommend learning to loop against backspin as much as possible. In practice matches if your opponent pushes back, try to loop it when it's in your 'strike zone'. If it isn't, push it back and try again. The quicker you learn to loop backspin the quicker you will progress. At 1000 it's a lot of pushing wars...I know, I was there for years. I also know it's a lot of work to get out of the habit of doing - because losing sucks and learning to loop backspin will mean losing.
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mentortt
Super Member Joined: 07/17/2018 Location: NY Status: Offline Points: 307 |
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I have never seen 1000 rating person which can loop correctly. They are keep pushing ball until opponent makes mistake. My suggestion is for rating 1000-1300, focus on forehand smashing and backhand push. If you can know how to loop, it will be 1300-1600. If you can loop and smash consistently or you becomes blocker or lobber, it will be 1600+. I consider 1600-1800 are intermediate USATT player.
Edited by mentortt - 06/18/2019 at 2:07pm |
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NextLevel
Forum Moderator Joined: 12/15/2011 Location: Somewhere Good Status: Offline Points: 14845 |
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Serve backspin (ideally short, but sometimes it doesn't matter at the 1000 level), get long push return to either side, loop to either side, with forehand if one winged looper, with appropriate side if two winged looper. Serve no spin or lighter backspin and do the same as above. Serve backspin or no spin, get the returner to roll or topspin the serve lightly, then attack to either side same as above. Serve pendulum sidespin to backhand, get a push or topspin return, attack. Serve reverse sidespin to forehand, get push or topspin return, attack to either side. The main thing is to be aggressive vs passive returns and to practice against the kinds of returns you get in matches. If people are side swiping or chopping your serves you need to practice against that as well. In general a serve that is backspin or looks like backspin will get a push return. This is the serve that is most often pushed long and which most loopers open behind. But if you prefer to open behind topspin be careful as if the opponent can read it is topspin they will usually try to open first. Therefore you need to be quick to block or counter if you open behind fast or obvious topspin.
Edited by NextLevel - 06/18/2019 at 1:35pm |
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I like putting heavy topspin on the ball...
Cybershape Carbon FH/BH: H3P 41D. Lumberjack TT, not for lovers of beautiful strokes. No time to train... |
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heavyspin
Gold Member Joined: 08/16/2005 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 1533 |
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I don't know if this applies to you, but a common error made by lower intermediate is to serve from the backhand corner and remain in the backhand corner. They should take a step toward the middle immediately after the serve and the weight should be balanced to be ready to move to either side.
If you can produce a good amount of spin, fast loaded serves should produce weak returns at your level. One tip. Assuming right handed, a backhand sidespin backspin cross court serve (pulling left to right for side spin) usually gets returned to your backhand side so cheat a tiny bit preparing for an attack from your bh corner. This is due to your opponent hitting or pushing against the spin. More advanced players can return down your open forehand line going with the spin.
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An EJ to a table tennis player is an equipment junkie. An ej to a mathematician is a standard basis vector.
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GMan4911
Silver Member Joined: 08/31/2012 Location: Earth Status: Offline Points: 830 |
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At 1000 USATT, it's doubtful you have the ability to loop let alone loop with consistency. Without a loop, you can't serve and attack or your attack options will be limited. Come back when you can loop at least 10 or 20 times without missing a beat with a practice partner blocking for you.
Edited by GMan4911 - 06/18/2019 at 12:23pm |
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Fulanodetal
Gold Member Joined: 06/28/2013 Location: Canada Status: Offline Points: 1226 |
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Well, here's the first result for a simple search on google= Table Tennis Third Ball Attack. The reason I watch pro matches is precisely to study what the pros do. Ma Lin was a master at this. So is Ma Long. ZJK and pretty much any of the CNT players with an attacking style. It takes a long time to get consistent in this regard, depending on how many hours of practice you do per week. You have to develop the mentality that you WILL ATTACK mo matter what the return is placed on your side. It has to become an instinct. And that takes practice. You will miss plenty of times at first. Eventually your attacks will not miss the table. FdT
Edited by Fulanodetal - 06/18/2019 at 12:01pm |
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obesechopper
Silver Member Joined: 04/20/2011 Status: Offline Points: 839 |
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You can, but at your level I think getting your basic strokes and serves consistent is more than enough. Improve the techniques, make sure they land routinely and at 1000 you can really serve anything you want and still win. Even one of those 'warm up' top spin hits to the other side would be sufficient.
If you want basic serve and attack strategies, just go on youtube and search for 'table tennis third ball attack'
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GaryBuck
Member Joined: 10/16/2018 Location: Califiornia Status: Offline Points: 33 |
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I am a relatively new player, a lower intermediate (USATT rating about 1000). For my level, I have fairly good technique, and fairly good serves—I get decent spin, and can vary the spin and placement somewhat with FH pendulum and BH serves. I now need to develop my match play. “Develop your serve and third-ball attack” seems to be the most common advice, but I cannot find much advice online about which serves lead to which attacks.
Any advice about basic serve and attack strategies, or combinations to work on? (I.e. serve xxx, expect yyy, then do zzz.) What are your most useful serve and attack strategies. Any, and all advice would be welcome. |
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