Ask The Coach Forum

Hi Jeff,

Appreciate some of your personal experience sharing on this, when you mentioned previously that you were using Butterfly Sriver speed-glued, the rubber is able to loop a backspin ball or any spin ball well, and you can tend to be lazier because all shots would not need to be that precise....  Do you mean that for instance, if you loop the backspin ball with the top edge of the racquet slightly away from you, or slightly towards you, and even with these variances of racquet angles, you were still able to successfully loop the ball over to opponent's table successfully?

But since you used Tenergy 05, it is so unforgiving that every shot has to be a good one, did you mean that using Tenergy 05, the racquet angle has to be almost spot on correct everytime you loop backspin ball and any spin ball, so as to make sure the ball can go over to the opponent's table successfully?

Hi Lionel

When I was talking about being a little lazier with a glued up Sriver, I was more talking about playing a counter loop against another loop. With the glued up rubber I could get away with the angle being a little off or hitting the ball not quite in the middle. With the Tenergy 05, I find that when counter looping, I need to hit the ball in the middle and get the angle right otherwise I tend to miss.

I have found the Tenergy 05 to be very good against a backspin ball, perhaps slightly better than the glued up Sriver!

I think it is important to remember that the main thing to concentrate on is your technique. If you have your technique right, you will be able to play well with any decent Table Tennis rubber. Sure, find the rubber that suits your game, but make sure that the perfect rubber is secondary in your thinking and that technique is first!

Hi Jeff,

Yes, strongly agree that technique is definitely first!  I would like to ask about one experiment I did previously...I am using Chinese wood-carbon blade and Chinese hard sponge rubber, trying to loop a backspin ball from my partner using Stiga wood blade and Japan TSP Bjourn rubber, occasionally I could get the ball over the net and onto his table, though sometimes I couldn't.

Then, we swapped racquets, he served backspin to me using my racquet, and I tried to loop using his racquet, and for all five serves from him, I could not get any ball over the net (a big margin from the top of the net!).  So, if technique has been the same for both racquets I used, then what was wrong here that I could not loop the ball over using his racquet?  Appreciate any of your analysis advice as it will help me in my improvement of my game, thanks a lot....  

That's sound right, not only did Jeff switched to Tenergy 05 from speed-glued Sriver, so did Timo Boll, and some other players too... In fact, there is another analogy which I read recently from the web, those who previously played speed-glued Bryce switched to Sriver G2/G3.

Anyhow, as Jeff and Alois had been stressing for some times, focus on the techniques first, equipment is secondary...However, sometimes I may doubt myself whether my technique is wrong if a ball did not clear the net or over the opponent's table edge.  So a decent equipment is still necessary.

Can anyone advice if Yasaka Mark V is very forgiving for those slight variances of racquet angles during hitting, and locations of the ball on the racquet? 

Hi Lionel,

With regards to your experiment, I'm not really sure why you couldn't loop the ball with a different rubber. The ball will come off different rubbers in slightly different ways. Often this is referred to as the throw angle. The throw angle is the angle the ball comes off your rubber when spun. The rubbers with higher throw angle tend to make it easier to lift heavy backspin. Perhaps this has something to do with the difference?

I would try to stick with one rubber you like, and keep practicing your topspin against backspin. Once you have developed this stroke, I would imagine you would adapt more easily when switching rubbers.

Jeff.

Thanks for advice, this is right for the fact that I can't be "lazy" trying to find an equipment to make up for the weakness I have in looping though I am considered quite above average in terms of successful looping. 

I often miss the ball as I tried very hard to just BRUSH the ball against the rubber and not let the ball sink deep into the sponge and blade (which you can hear the ball knocking noise).  If there is less knocking, and much more brushing friction, the loop which meets this criteria is always a precise skill and the spin will be just great (clear the net, and not off the edge).  Thus, if I tried too hard to brush, I may miss the ball, and on some cases, I just barely touched the ball and the ball just falls down vertical from my blade without any spin (since the bare touch actually countered all the spin from receiver).  So I tried to search an equipment to make up for this weakness I have, that means, I wish to knock the ball besides brushing (to ensure I will not miss the ball), and at the mean time, the ball should clear the net and not over the table edge.  If I used some of my existing blades and rubbers, I could not have one which can meet this requirement.  Knocking slightly more brings the ball to the net. 

Alois did reply that if that's the case, then just concentrate on the skill to have some knocking, and practice from here.  But I could not get the ball over the net if some knocking happens.  Any idea how I can improve further on this?

As for your analysis, I think it might be right of the Throw Angle theory.  Using an unglued Sriver and Yasaka Mark V, are they forgiving for looping?

 dear all,

 like any one of you,i spent countless days or maybe months trying to loop back a backspin serve or return.at first i thought it was mainly on the arm action or just the quick brushing up of the ball.after long and countless trials, i found out that the lifting action to lift the ball comes from the straightening of the bended leg when you drop your shoulders to hit the descending ball.The action is simultaneous, your catch the descending ball with racket dropped below and open,then hit the ball simultaneous with the straightening of of the leg as you rise up brushing the ball and you will observe that the lift and topspin of the ball is created.of course, your rubber should be tacky and thick enough, unlike those that are attached on the premade bats.