OOAK Table Tennis Forum

I have a quick video (less than a minute) showcasing my difficulties reading serves. These examples aren't the highest quality of spin, but they're good enough to cause me trouble. My go to return of service has always been a late push (almost like an over the table chop or aggressive push) because I could watch how the ball moved longer (as opposed to taking it immediately off the bounce) if I couldn't discern the spin from the service motion itself. This extra time would allow me to chop harder and slightly change the angle if I read topspin. This style of return has kept me in more points and perhaps it is the way I should continue to return until I've had more practice reading serves, but I don't like the linearity of my play when my opponent knows I'm not going to attack hardly any serves. Any tips for what I should be focusing my attention on when receiving service?

You must read where the server contacts the ball and in what direction the racket then moves (up/down/up+side/down+side).

Install the ttEdge App on your phone and keep using it. It teaches you to look at the bat and contact point.

_________________
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

Thank you haggisv. You just projected my thought & suggestion on closely observing contact point and bat angle and yes this comes with a matter of time and practice.

Thanks for the info. Lowering myself to make contact occur at eye level has been extremely helpful. I downloaded the app and I like the concept, but I'm not sure how helpful it is yet. Specifically with the service return part of the app I'm only missing one or two per game and that's mostly because I'm trying to get the max points. If I accept a lower score due to slower response I'm 100%. I guess it could be one of those things where just being able to think about it more times during a day (since a phone app is so accessible) it might have benefits that go beyond in app scores...which aren't relevant to what I want to achieve anyway :-p

I would suggest you watch only the contact part of the serve.
Like in your example it's pretty clear that the first serve the server's motion goes under the ball and the second serve the motion is on the back of the ball (with a short up-side motion).
I don't think you should watch where the hand finishes cause this won't help against better servers. The contact point is where you should concentrate. The racket angle, the point of contact and the movement vector are the things you should watch at that point.
It's as simple as that. (although it's not simple at all )

_________________
My ooak blog.

Try your best to duplicate the serve yourself, producing the same type of spin. If you can duplicate the serve yourself, it will help you greatly in identifying the spin on the opponent's serve.

I don't think either of those serves had very much spin based on the video. The difference is in the racket angle at the contact point. One he stays under the ball, the other he drag more across the rear (side/under etc). But anyway on the receive side, if you were more active with your shots I think you could have overcome the minor incoming spin. They were not so heavy as to make you be ultra precise imo

_________________
SOULSPIN CUSTOM BLADES
Fh: Spinny rubber
Bh: Not so spinny rubber...

+1. The second receive is a hesitant push against something with very little or no spin.