OOAK Table Tennis Forum

Hi,

I'm having trouble returning a Short BH under-side spin serve from BH corner down the line to my FH side near the net. (Ovtcharov like serve but close to the net and slow)

I can get the ball over the net but low but this usually sets me up for a loop to my BH side or a long push to my BH side and the point usually goes downhill from there once I get defensive.

I am looking for options to attack this serve. Its too short and low to flick and the side-spin make a drop shot risky as the ball may pop up.

I play at around 2000 level and my opponent is a solid 2200 player.

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Yinhe Venus V-1/ Rasant / Omega IV Pro
Ebenholz NCT V/ Express 2 / Thor's

1-Practice lots of short pushing. Your touch will improve over time and you will able to keep the ball low and short.

2- Practice a drill where your partner serves short to your FH, you short push (right foot in if you are right-handed), your partner pushes long to your BH, you get back quickly and BH loop.

3- do in-and-out shadow practice focusing on the movement outlined in 2 above.

A few things that might help -

take the ball early when pushing it back - right off the bounce - so you can keep it really short
look for the "very" short serve - you should aim to direct it very wide to his fh. The idea here is that if a serve is really short (like 3 bounces or more on the table), you gain slight advantage in terms of available angles. The only way to exploit it is to keep your return a moving target but aim as wide as you can when you see this particular serve.

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Butterfly Timo Boll ALC FL, FH - Tenergy 05, BH - Tenergy 05
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