All about chop or push

Hi Alois & Jeff,

I'm closing following the suggestions on ping Skills and could say I'm improving my play. Thanks for that.

But I'm very poor at a push and these the observation I made on mistakes

1. When I try to push underneath ball to add more backspin the ball fall off the table due to more horizontal movement.

2. When I try to control this, means a slow push the lift off net and the opponent is able to smash it.

3. When ball has back+side spin, if I try to push such ball, due to side spin the direction of ball will not follow where I think it has to.

4. With the same back+side spin if again I try to control the ball is lifting off add if try add backspin to counter effect of sidespin it shoots off table.

5. In cases when I try to add side push with a push either it falls in net or lifts off the net more and opponent is smashing it like piece of cake.

6. And also when I try to place ball to side edges of my opponent with a push it usually goes off table, though taking advantage of his position it is fetching him point but not me.

7. When I receive a short serve by forehand flick is not helping me as I drop ball in net while lifting it and so when I take push on it it shoots off. How to push this "short serve without back spin".

Apart from these questions if You can add more tips or suggestions if you feel worth sharing.

Regards 

Ram

Hi Rama,

The push looks simple but it take a lot of touch to get it right.

Firstly relax your hand and allow it to adjust to the spin and speed on the incoming ball.

Then it is a matter of getting the bat angle correct and allowing your wrist and finger to return the ball.  Not using too much force or large arm movements.  The subtleties are the thing that will take the longest to adjust to.  The subtle more spin where you will need to get your bat angle turned back or with the no spin to come more vertically down on the ball to keep the ball low.  All of this while maintaining that relaxed wrist and fingers.

This will also allow you to adjust to the sidespin on the ball.  To do this you need to firstly understand what spin is coming in on the ball and then adjust your angle to counter the sidespin.

The bottom line is to practice the stroke a lot, allowing for the subtle changes in spin and speed.  Then adjust your hand for each of these balls.  Until you see a lot of balls coming in and try to return them you will not have a good feel for the push.