Blocking Around-the-net Shots and Sidespin Loops

Romeo Chua Asked 10 years ago

My game right now is pretty similar to He Zhi Wen's game, serving long and fast to the forehand of my opponent, and then blocking or punching the ball to their backhand. I faced this player with a powerful forehand topspin and a spinny sidespin loop. Whenever I play against him, he almost always does a sidespin loop (which goes around the net sometimes) and I find it hard to block. How do I deal with these types of balls?

Alois Rosario Answered 10 years ago

Hi Romeo,

The sidespin topspin is a difficult ball to deal with. You may be better to go back half a step and then topspin this ball back rather than blocking it.

The other thing you can do is vary the position of your serve slightly each time so that he can not wait wide on the forehand and get his sidespin topspin shot so easily. Vary the positioning of your serve to different positions on the forehand and also to the middle of the table and the backhand corner.

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Johan B Posted 10 years ago

If you do try to block it you need to open up the angle a bit to compensate for the lower trajectory and lack of pure topspin. At least that's what it looked like on the successful blocks in that around the net video someone posted recently

Romeo Chua Posted 10 years ago

I see. I will try blocking it, since i dont really have much space in our clubroom.