Hardbat revisited

Bob Van Deusen Asked 10 years ago

Hi Coach, I search the archives about playing against a hardbat player, but I did not find a question like mine. I play inverted and will play against a hardbat penhold player. He has no problem hitting through chops, and various spins- it seems as though his paddle negates these. What I find most difficult (as do many players who play him) are returning his general shots. It seems as though his ball comes to me "dead", and so when using my normal paddle angle for playing against an inverted player,  I hit many balls into the net. Very frustrating! Any suggestions for dealing with this, Coach? Thanks very much! 

Alois Rosario Answered 10 years ago

Hi Bob,

The Hardbat does tend to negate the spin.  The ball will come back to you as if it has some backspin on it.  It may in fact be quite flat but the minds impression is that it is backspin.

Make your stroke more vertical to cope with this and work at brushing the ball up to lift it over the net.

It is difficult for the hard bat player if you generate a lot of spin as the bat doesn’t cope with that well.  If you play with a moderate amount of spin it is easy for him to hit through the ball, but with extreme amounts of topspin or backspin, it is difficult for th hard bat player to lift or block.  This would be especially true for him blocking on the forehand side with the hard bat as a penhold player. finds it difficult to get over these sorts of balls.