Attacking Short Balls in Table Tennis

Francisco asked how to attack a serve where the second bounce is near the end of the table. If the ball is high enough, you can play a topspin stroke with your forehand but it is difficult because you can't take a big swing at the ball. Nowadays a lot of players are attacking this type of ball with the backhand sidespin flick. With this stroke you can use a lot of wrist and generate a lot of speed with your bat right over the table.

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Below are some other videos we've made. Feel free to check 'em out!
Will See Won't See Olympic Table Tennis, Table Tennis Forehand Counterhit Lesson, How To Execute the Ma Lin Serve, Learn the Backspin Reverse Pendulum Serve, Playing a Faster Forehand Topspin.

Good luck with your table tennis.

Cheers,
Jeff Plumb and Alois Rosario

[pingskills]

Hi Mohammad Alam,

For the backhand watch our video on the backhand counterhit (you can find it on our website under the strokes & techniques section of the lessons page) and concentrate on the start and finish position. If you get these right then the control will come. When practicing try to hit 5 on in a row, then aim for 10, 20 etc. It does take time to get right so keep working on it.

[pingskills]

The first thing you need to do is watch what type of spin they put on the ball. Once you can recognise the spin, you can counter it.

[KingStix]

Been watching your videos and been improving my ping pong game greatly.
I've gotten much better at tennis as-well....ping pong transformed my tennis game into aggressive point taking goodness
I thank you from the bottom of my heart

[pingskills]

The more backspin there is on the ball, the more open your bat will need to be. You still need to make sure you have a brushing contact on the ball to get plenty of topspin on the ball.

[pingskills]

Thanks for the suggestion. The problem is that we have hundreds of videos so even writing down the original transcriptions with the right timecodes is very time consuming process. Is there anyway to speed this part up?

[elcocodriloazul]

This is very true. I saw a video of this where Ma Long did use the other side of the racket to deal with short balls. I noticed cos i remember my old coach always hammer to me not to use the other side of the racket on the oposite side of the table.

[tenshd]

hi can you make a video on just simple playing table tennis in which you switch to forehand and backhand and continue playing?

[saimadnan]

Hey .. Sir can u show me how to do serve like dimitrij or kenta matsudaira .. #pls do answer

[Thanantic]

Awesome idea with the backhand loop. My forehand against short balls is really holding me back. My backhand is starting to blossom. looks like I will have to work like crazy to get into position though. Any tips on footwork besides generally standing more towards the centre of the table?

[pingskills]

Yes the flick can certainly be effective. It becomes harder as the ball gets lower and has more backspin however, so that's why the short push is still a necessary stroke.

[reinterpret_cast]

You have to relax your wrist and try to brush the ball fast instead of force contact. It's quite difficult in the beginning but with a lot of practice you'll be able to generate more spin

[gauravsobti]

@pingskills sir I have been advised 1 month rest with no tough exercises because I dislocated disc at my lower back. I miss playing table tennis and sir I am afraid I will lose my touch if I don't play for a month. Please tell me what light exercises I can do to remain in touch and fit.. Thank you..

[paulsexploreworld]

Excellent, I watch daily your video n try it out in my office cafeteria TT board..my colleague asked me where did you learnt this one.

[LHVDesign]

Could you do a video about how develop a ball with a lot of back spin (chop players), i know the tecnnhique (DRIVE), but i can apply it.

[FrankGixxMotovlog]

PingSkills  What rubbers and blade do you use? Pls. I need to know

[apachetechnologies]

Excellent....
I want to learn to return the service that just pushed and bounces high but slow.

[samme]

I have a question. What's the use of the pips-out rubbers and how come i haven't seen people use those kinds of rubber for their blade?

[CludN]

Alois, you have a beautiful backhand sidespin flick! Just like Ma Long's (not Zhang Jike's)

[darksam]

can u make a vid of TT concepts like control, speed, spin ...and the best global brands like butterfly maybe ?

[wesleyong]

hi, how do it returns the serve if it is long backspin with some sidespin maybe.i tried using long pimps to chop but the ball flies away