OOAK Table Tennis Forum

I have a problem. When I see a high ball I react instantly like a starved dog being thrown a chunk of meat. I attack all out with full body motion and hit the ball like I want to break it. I can't help it, the behavior seems hardwired in my brain. The end result is that my smash is reliably point-ending, just not consistently my point.

It seems obvious that I should just slow down. But 2 problems: 1) how do I untrain myself from attacking a high ball all out? 2) If I slow down doesn't that defeat the purpose of trying to end the point right there?

The other thing is I'm probably doing something wrong. For people familiar with baseball, my smashing motion is like a pitcher throwing a fastball. That is, I lead the stroke with my racket shoulder and then sort of catapult my whole arm from my shoulder, with complet body motion -- exactly like a baseball pitcher. This is wrong, right? What is the proper way to smash? Should I not twist my body? Should I keep my shoulder back? Should I use more elbow?

Get with a practice partner and have him feed you high balls to smash. Put targets on his side of the table and practice smashing at those targets--maybe put one at wide forehand, one wide backhand, and one in the middle (playing elbow area). This will force you to slow down your shot and think about placement; if you keep doing this eventually it will become instinct. Most of the time if you just slow your shot down and hit a well-placed shot angled away from your opponent it will be enough to win you the point. Then, once you're good with placement you can start increasing your speed again. As far as technique is concerned, Greg L. has a breakdown of all the basic shots here on his site:

http://tabletennis.about.com/od/basicst ... kes_ov.htm

good luck

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Excellent advice!

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OOAK Table Tennis Shop | Re-Impact Blades | Butterfly Table Tennis bats
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Here is something for you to check and see if this is causing the misses.
When you do hard loop drives and then get that perfect high one to kill, do you change your swing? Do you use a bigger backswing? I see it alot. The perfect ball comes in and they miss. They changed thier form. If you just use the same backswing but explode harder on the ball, you will have a higher % return.
Another break in form is folding the wrist back to get the "fly swatter" effect in there.
What I am getting at is changing your normal stroke when you get a high one and have to much time. I concentrate on form when I get those meatballs because I used to do the same thing.

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Shakehand, left handed.
Blade, Yinhe, W-1
Forhand, H-3 National
Backhand, Sriver FX Max

Watching my training vid and it specifically addressed this problem showing a pro doing it wrong. Now being a pro he didn't miss the table with his smashes, but the pro he was playing was blocking them back all the time. The problem as pointed out was he was over-balancing on the shot and leaving the table open for a split second each time. So eventually the opponent saw his opportunity and smashed one back down the table while the smasher was recovering. It goes on to point out over-balancing with the body so that your shoulder drops too far after the smash tends to lead to a missed smash. I have to watch it again, but I think it was saying adopt more control in your smash swing and try to keep it from throwing your body off-balance. Hope this helps too.

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I'm always in the dark, but the Dark sheds lights upon everything!! Beauty is only pimple deep! Beauty is in the eye of the pipholder!
S/U 1: Blade: Bty Gergely . FH Black Andro Rasant 2.1 . BH Red Tibhar Grass Dtecs
S/U 2: Blade: Bty Gergely . FH Black Hexer+ 2.1 . BH Red GD Talon
S/U 3: Blade: Bty Gergely . No rubbers...thinking of adding Red Dtecs and Black Rasant
Aussie Table Tennis Shop / Aussie Table Tennis Facebook Page / Equipment Review Index / Read my Reb Report Blog: click here.

Thanks all for the tips. Now the hard part is implementing them. I smash better during practice when there is no score involved.

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Galaxy K-4/ Xiom Vega Pro/ Xiom Vega Pro

put topspin on it.

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Chasse Patate

Yep that always helps

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I'm always in the dark, but the Dark sheds lights upon everything!! Beauty is only pimple deep! Beauty is in the eye of the pipholder!
S/U 1: Blade: Bty Gergely . FH Black Andro Rasant 2.1 . BH Red Tibhar Grass Dtecs
S/U 2: Blade: Bty Gergely . FH Black Hexer+ 2.1 . BH Red GD Talon
S/U 3: Blade: Bty Gergely . No rubbers...thinking of adding Red Dtecs and Black Rasant
Aussie Table Tennis Shop / Aussie Table Tennis Facebook Page / Equipment Review Index / Read my Reb Report Blog: click here.

Good advice here, I'll just add a few things as I've had the same issues.

In order, first when you see a high ball, you probably tend to rush. Instead, take your time to get your feet in position and let the ball come to a comfortable height. You actually have lots of time. Try counting to slow yourself down.

Best time to hit is when the ball is at the top of the bounce, no need to hit it earlier than that. If it's really high, better to let it come to a comfortable height before you hit it. If it's higher than your shoulder, it's too high with normal technique (see the balloon smash in the October Butterfly News for an alternate technique I'm not going to bother to learn).

2) Joo's advice is good, no reason to hit more than 90% and it's easier to hit a little softer until you get consistency and then rachet up then to try to hit 100% and take speed off. Your stroke and balance probably go haywire when you try to hit the ball too hard.

3) Most people take too big a swing, you don't need a huge backswing to smash, use your body instead of your shoulder and close at the elbow for a finishing snap If you want a picture of perfect smash technique, the Butterfly World Report from September has Toshio Tasaki smashing. He has probably the hardest smash in the world: http://www.butterfly-world.com/newslett ... news53.pdf

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-- Andrew

Spintech All Around Penhold blade
Spinlord Keiler II 1.5 black
Nittaku FastArc G1 red

729 all around blade
Tibhar Grass D-Tec S Red
Nittaku FastArc G1 black

Thanks for the link Andrew. Have not read this before, but its a good journal by the looks.

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I'm always in the dark, but the Dark sheds lights upon everything!! Beauty is only pimple deep! Beauty is in the eye of the pipholder!
S/U 1: Blade: Bty Gergely . FH Black Andro Rasant 2.1 . BH Red Tibhar Grass Dtecs
S/U 2: Blade: Bty Gergely . FH Black Hexer+ 2.1 . BH Red GD Talon
S/U 3: Blade: Bty Gergely . No rubbers...thinking of adding Red Dtecs and Black Rasant
Aussie Table Tennis Shop / Aussie Table Tennis Facebook Page / Equipment Review Index / Read my Reb Report Blog: click here.

Yes, I think it's a good technical resource. Butterfly will send it to you by email monthly if you sign up, and it's free too!

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-- Andrew

Spintech All Around Penhold blade
Spinlord Keiler II 1.5 black
Nittaku FastArc G1 red

729 all around blade
Tibhar Grass D-Tec S Red
Nittaku FastArc G1 black

I guess I have to be totally different.

For high, medium distance balls, anything over the head, I seldom smash. Instead, I will use the tennis slice serving stroke and aim at the forehand corner. The ball will have a weir, very heavy slicing, and curving under/sidespin to the opponent's forehand. Even if he touches the ball, which for most time, he won't even touch it, the returned ball either will be flying out of the table to your right or at the bottom of the net. It is not easy to do, you have to use a lot of wrist action.

Now, I have not seen other players do it, I learn it from my son when he played tennis and thought it might be an effective stroke to learn.

Here, my 2 cents.

yes I know the stroke, I use it on occasions if it's a real easy put away. However if they're not so easy, the chance of missing the table is much higher, so I think a well placed smash is more likely to win you the point...

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OOAK Table Tennis Shop | Re-Impact Blades | Butterfly Table Tennis bats
Setup1: Re-Impact Smart, Viper OX, Victas VS 401 Setup2: Re-Impact Barath, Dtecs OX, TSP Triple Spin Chop 1.0mm Setup3: Re-Impact Dark Knight, Hellfire OX, 999 Turbo
Recent Articles: Butterfly Tenergy Alternatives | Tenergy Rubbers Compared | Re-Impact User Guide

Yep have to agree with Haggisv. I have used that shot both in tennis (more effective) and TT (rarely) and I know how easy it is to miss in TT. I'd say a smash (even with its miss rate) would still have about triple the strike rate. But if it works for you Tat don't let us deter you.

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I'm always in the dark, but the Dark sheds lights upon everything!! Beauty is only pimple deep! Beauty is in the eye of the pipholder!
S/U 1: Blade: Bty Gergely . FH Black Andro Rasant 2.1 . BH Red Tibhar Grass Dtecs
S/U 2: Blade: Bty Gergely . FH Black Hexer+ 2.1 . BH Red GD Talon
S/U 3: Blade: Bty Gergely . No rubbers...thinking of adding Red Dtecs and Black Rasant
Aussie Table Tennis Shop / Aussie Table Tennis Facebook Page / Equipment Review Index / Read my Reb Report Blog: click here.

Reborn, that's the only stroke I use with good results.