OOAK Table Tennis Forum

This is my main challenge at the moment. There are four options:

1) Carry on the rally, returning with LP, varying pace and length.
2) As (1) but add a twiddle and use SP to vary or generate spin.
3) Twiddle and counter-attack with SP
4) Move around and play an attacking FH from the BH corner

The problem with 1 is that it doesn't place any pressure on my opponent, and unless I do start to introduce variations, it's a lottery who makes a mistake first. Or, the opponent gets a weak ball and attacks effectively. I don't have an easy attack against a weak ball, so statistically they're more likely to get one.

I'm working on 2 a little, but at present I find twiddling to be more risky than not twiddling, when the pressure is on.

For the same reason, I very rarely do (3). Additional reasons - I spend almost no time drilling and practicing a BH shot against push/float. It's not a core shot in my reportoire. And, and Adam and I were talking about this just yesterday, it seems that there's a psychological barrier too. Twiddling, getting the timing right, getting the bat angle right, and playing a good BH shot is a lot of pressure to overcome - the brain just says no, and plays safe.

Option 4 is the option I'm training. This is what Adam does too. Rationale - I train FH against chop/push/float, heavily. It's a strong and reliable shot. As long as I get into the right position, it's the best option. The risks are that a) you need to place the shot to make the opponent move, or you're just going to get nailed with a block down the line to the FH b) It's a big and fast move to get into the right position, leaving enough space to play the shot without getting "tucked up" c) You need a lot of strength and fitness to make that pivot and then get back to the middle of the table to handle the next shot. However, I'm working hard on this, and it's coming along.

Tonight's task at training is to play games with a one or two push rule. Any more than that and I lose the point - I have to attack from the BH, until the movement becomes second nature.

I think twiddling is an unnecessary risk, really.

The way I get out of this situation against better players is the slow, spinny loop. Last year I used to play a cross-court powerloop. That's quite a hard stroke to play really, but I got good at it for a while. I stopped using it though because as I started playing against better players I found that they invariably had little difficulty blocking it down the line. If I didn't play an absolute belter of a shot, they could even punch/counter-hit the ball down the line for an outright winner - best case scenario they'd soft-block it on and I'd be able to run and play a half-loop as my next shot.

I guess you can't really play that shot with the SPs (or, if you do, it'll not have enough spin on to stop players from punching it) so placement is absolutely vital.

If you're fit enough, like I know you are, playing a FH from the BH corner is ALWAYS the right shot IMO. It's exactly what JSH does.

Yep. Again, exactly what Adam said yesterday. Yes, all the other options are options, and maybe he'll play them once in a while, but the right shot is always FH from the BH. Look at *any* top modern defender in the world. None of them twiddle and play a BH. All of them, without exception, make the FH from the BH corner a bread and butter shot.

If I do play a "slow" loop or roll with my FH I just get killed with a punch, because there's no way enough spin. Found this to my cost against Debater. Nope, needs to be hard, fast, early, and accurate. None of which are easy, but I'm training hard, and it's improving.

Play the shot like an inverted shot using a lot of topsheet grip. You may be genuine surprised if you have the forearm and wrist speed.

Yeah - this is how I play against chop and push and it's very effective. But slow looping seems much more tricky.


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After Ricky left, I played on with the new chap, playing a best of 5 match up to 11 where if I played more than one "non-aggressive" shot in a row, he got the point. This was really worthwhile, and make a big difference to how I thought.

Played a 'one push' match against my dad and lost 2-1, 11-9 in the decider. Gave 2 points away by pushing twice. Wasn't very happy with my play to be honest.