What is Third Ball Attack?
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A great third ball attack
Photo courtesy of ITTF
The term third ball attack refers to a tactic where you play an attacking stroke on the third ball of the rally. The key features of this tactic are:
- Serve the ball short to stop your opponent attacking
- Your opponent returns the ball long
- You attack the third ball of the rally
If you can follow this tactic regularly in a match, you will be in a great position to win a lot of points. To implement this in your own match play, you need to spend a lot of time practicing your serve. You not only need to be able to serve the ball short but you also need to be able to vary the spin and placement of your serve to make it hard for your opponent to return the ball short. If you can get your opponent to return the ball long you will have the opportunity to play an attacking third ball.
HARI
commented on October 26th, 2010 at 12:39 am
if they are good at flick what i want to do ?
Jeff Plumb
commented on October 26th, 2010 at 8:34 am
You can still attack their flick. The flick won’t have backspin so you don’t need to lift the ball. Your stroke will be more like a topspin off block.
Also the more backspin you put on the ball and the lower you serve it the harder it will be for them to flick.