OOAK Table Tennis Forum

Our club has a robot and I've used it to practice my counter hits with topspin. Last night I thought I'd have a go on backspin to see if I could do a bigger faster forehand to try develop my loop better by being forced to do a better stoke. First I thought I'd do a few backhand pushes just to get a feel for it and I couldn't believe how aggressive the backspin was. It was far move than anything I had come across at our club. Although I was trying to push them back they weren't even making the net, it was like I misread the ball and thought it was topspin when it was backspin. To me about a dozen balls to get it sorted but then was ok, but only pushing.

Switched to the forehand and took a massive effort to be able to loop them up and over the net. My strike rate was quite low and I only did this for about about minute or so as balls were going everywhere when others were trying to practice.

Obviously my technique needs work but gee it was hard. Has anyone else experience the the backspin on these things are really difficult. Not sure if it is good or bad for me to practice this. Felt I was getting bit wild.

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Donic Waldner Senso V1,FH Baracuda Big Slam 2.0mm ,BH Victas Triple Regular 2.0mm

I agree that the backspin setting is very tricky indeed. I'm not sure if there's a way to tone it down, or if it's just very fierce, and if we can loop it we're doing very well. Just seems tricky to get anywhere close.

Larrythoman, on the Newgy website, has this suggestion - it's obviously for an older model, but the general process is clear: start by making it bounce on the other side first:

http://www.newgy.com/ttcommunity/Archive/Oct2001ask.html

Anyone else got relevant experience or advice to share?

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Yasaka Sweden Classic | 802 OX | C8 OX
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It is hard, yeah. It's not realistic in my opinion.

It is doable though. If you're playing the right stroke and brushing the ball properly, that is Good practice for grooving your stroke but you'll rarely come across backspin that heavy.

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Dunc - what setting do you have it on? And do you make it bounce on the other side first, or just bounce once?

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Yasaka Sweden Classic | 802 OX | C8 OX
Check out my blog - LordCope's Latest Learning Log - 10+ years of accumulate mistakes!

It was a club robot and I haven't used it for about a year but I'd put it on about 6/10 backspin and single bounce. Once you go to 8/10 backspin or higher it's beyond unrealistic.

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LPs: Butterfly Feint Long II (1), Butterfly Feint Long III (0.5, 1.3), Tibhar Grass D.TecS (OX), TSP Curl P1-R (0.5, 1, 1.3), TSP Curl P4 (1.3)

Because the speed and spin are not independent, a higher setting also means it comes at you faster, which makes it harder to lift. It's probably good that it goes to a setting that you can no longer handle... gives you something to aim for.

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+1 That's been my biggest complaint about that robot. Ridiculously hard backspin. Not realistic at all.

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First off, I think if the Ball Speed was set on 6, that was much too high. Lighten it up to about 3.5 or so (You may need to increase the head angle also) and try again. First start with head angle about "C" with ball landing on the robot side first. The spin will be less by the time it strikes the table twice and reaches the top of the bounce on your side, which is where you want to contact the ball with your paddle.

After you are consistent with attacking these served balls, then increase the head angle to between "E" and "F" and have the ball land first on your side of the net. You want a fairly high return at first. After you can loop the high backspin consistently, then try lowering the head angle and slightly increasing the ball speed to get a lower, more driving trajectory . 4 is what I had it set on when I just now tried this here at work.

With good technique, you should have no trouble consistently looping or driving the ball at these settings. IMO, this is lighter spin than what I typically encounter with a good pusher using sticky inverted, a LP return of one of my loops, or a good stiff chop with any type of rubber.

Perhaps the most important aspects of a good attacking stroke against backspin is racket speed and stroke angle. If your aim is to attack the backspin with strong topspin, you need a whip-like stroke and the stroke angle needs to be more up than forward. As you attack with more speed the stroke angle goes more forward, but not as much as looping a topspin or dead ball. Also aim more for the back of the ball rather than the top of the ball.

Another more advanced way to combat heavy backspin is to contact a little more on the outside of the ball instead of on the back of the ball inline with the ball trajectory. The spin will not be as heavy when you contact the ball off axis like this.

You can also attack backspin with slower strokes, but in those cases you will need to really open your racket angle while still stroking more up than forward. This type of stroke is riskier in my opinion as the backspin tends to really dig in to the racket surface and results in a more unpredictable attack as the backspin is converted to light topspin and also results in a slower speed attack. Less risky, IMO, to keep racket speed high (remember--whip-like) and combat the backspin with racket speed and stroke angle resulting in an attack with heavy topspin/slower speed or good topspin and faster speed.

Larry

Thankyou for all your replies. I'll give the "c" serve option a go.

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Donic Waldner Senso V1,FH Baracuda Big Slam 2.0mm ,BH Victas Triple Regular 2.0mm