A good push?

Very true.

There are players that never close their bat for any serve receive. They simple stab/jab at everything, whether top, float or backspin. Over the years they developed a capability to take the ball right at bounce or later if the ball is long. For short topspin, they either go for it off the bounce or let the ball fall and jab underneath. 

I play a couple of these players regularly. 

When I serve with side they have no clue where the ball is going. They simply aim for the middle of table and let the sidespin carry the ball wherever. Again the return has enough backspin to land it somewhere on the table, many times on the side endline &7*%%$.

 

That is a good bread and butter serve (fast/deep topspin serve) to get a reasonably predictable ball to attack.

 

I am a Korean Achuma Killer. Korean Achuma TT athletes are generally O40 and O50 players who have a HUGE FH drive stroke, zero loop, and use OX on BH to punch underspin, fast bump dead balls, and block topspin, the better ones can keep it close to short on a loop that lands mid table.

 

About or almost half the time, I serve either cross-court right to their BH with a fast topspin deep to BH corner or their pocket. MOST of the time, they get the OX on the ball and it comes back long with predictable underspin, often a little high. That is an EASY ball for me to power by them cross court to their FH or right back down the BH line by them. ball rarely comes back.

 

Serving short top can get you different returns from different players.

 

The OX ones will try to medium fast punch deep it to your pocket or BH as fast as they can keep it on the table (they have MUCH practice at this) and if their location is spot on and you are either too upright or looking for it somewhere else, you are screwed.

 

The Joo S H modern defender crowd can do the same thing, but they have more options and at you same level, they generally have more skillz with the sponged LP than the OX LP BH + FH power crush crowd. They can kill the spin, continue it, or change it, plus they can locate it well fast as they can get away with it without going too fast, but it is fast enough to suprise you and give you problems. They can drop it short with any spin ranging from dead to underspin, they can kill the spin and bump it fast to your pocket, they can simply place it medium fast to where you are not prepared or away from where you signal your move, some of them can BH flick it with light topspin if the topspin was light, which a short topspin usually is. My short test with Nexy Chaos LP in 1.0 sponge gave me a set of nice return options on short balls using a medium paced shot, easy to play aggressive on serve return. I am NOT a skilled combo player, ( I am full time 2X inverted who plays some LPs occasinally to learn them and be more ready for LP opponents) and if an LP novice like me can half-azz consistantly give tricky aggressive returns on short balls, then think of what a really skilled full time LP Warrior can do?

 

If the serve is a suprise and they are not ready to aggressively return it, many OX and sponged LP players try to bump it safely to your pocket or BH to stay in the point and wait for another chance.

 

These returns can be tricky and you as with every other situation, profit from being low, crouched and balanced with bat at chest ready to use BH or step around for FH.

 

No one plays alike, but certain types of players have certain options depending on their level and confidence.

 

I really enjoy playing vs LP players. You really have to be aware, be ready, and be decisive, just like you must with inverted players, but you need extra attention to detail or you will have a long day.

Ha...that guy is my old practice partner and teammate when we used to live on the East Coast. He moved out west and never saw him again.

 

  Yes this is true most of the time, however due to the angle, speed and depth of a topspin it can disrupt timing to perform a loop then I occassionally have to put on the brakes and either block the loop or as stated above perform a "push drive".

Many times we use the word "push" but it's really a short chop. You are not hitting the ball in the middle or coming over the top, you are coming under the ball so a push is really a short chop. 

Yes you can "chop block" topspin but it takes very good timing and touch. I regularly play with a 2250 player that does this chop block against my BH loop and it's very effective.

Also to the very first post here where the guy said his coach says to push with your racket at 45* angle...that is just a generalization. Like some of the other replied, it depends on the amount of incoming spin. The chinese coach I take my kids to and myself talk about what o'clock you should contact the ball rather than what angle to use. I think it's a little easier for people to grasp. If your right-handed and someone serves or pushes heavy underspin to your FH and you "push" (short chop) the ball back then contact the ball around 5 or 5:30, 6 would be completely under the ball, with 12 o'clock being the top of the ball. If the ball comes to your BH with heavy underspin then contact the ball about 7 o'clock or 6:30. If it has less spin then maybe around 7:30 or 8. I think it's easier to talk about contact angle using the clock method rather than what degree of angle. It's easier for me and thats how I teach people.

 

My teammate is a pure "pusher", all he does is pushing with inverted and chops with pips. He can push everything and really really heavy. I serve top spin, he pushes it, it might pops a bit but it's short and heavy so still not easy to attack. I don't know how he can do that. When I push topspin, it always flies over the table. T__T 

Someone make a video how to push topspin and no spin, please, pretty please!