Choosing service tactics to suit my game

Table Tennis Match Strategy

Last updated 7 years ago

Zachary Smith

Zachary Smith Asked 7 years ago

As a mini-preamble I'd just like to say that I love your site!  I'm a medical student who has been playing about once every two weeks for the last year and a half and thanks to instructional resources like this and a previous history of athletics I've had the good fortune to progress quickly in my abilities.  The description of my grip/style is essential, I think, to the question: I hope it isn't too lengthy.

I have a congenital handicap (a variant of distal arthrogyroposis type 1) that only allows me to extend my wrist about 5-10˚ (demonstrated in attached photo) and so I've gone through a series of grip modifications—began holding it like a baseball bat, progressed to shake hand, then a series of what I later came to understand were Seemiller variants—until my final iteration (seen in attached).  I ditched shake hand because I was unable to push/drive/loop down the line on the forehand with my handicap.  With my current grip my wrist is able to extend and flex in plane with my arm swing and my elbow is "underneath" the stroke much like throwing a baseball (I'm a former baseball player).  The forehand push is more difficult than with other grips I've tried, but the rest of my game is incredibly strong and biomechanically fluid/natural (complete wrist freedom, ability to pinch bat between thumb and forefinger).  I play topspin shots on FH and BH with the same side of the rubber (black in attached photo) and block with this same side as well.

The advantage of this grip and its accompanying swing mechanics is that I can incorporate the arm without shortening my swing radius (rotate and extend the arm in plane rather than snap the forearm at the elbow like in SH) and activate the wrist fully on both the backhand flick (like other players) and the forehand flick (something made impossible with SH by how one has to reach for the ball).  Since my flick game and topspin are my obvious strengths I was wondering how to build a service strategy in order to force my opponents to play into my strengths while also maximizing the impact of my strengths through forcing them into positions and footwork on the service return that enhance my ability to start attacking a rally on the 3rd ball at any time; if you could include how this may vary for players who favor their BH and those who favor their FH I'd be forever grateful.  My service game has been strong with every iteration of my grip/mechanics so no need to worry about what I can and cannot execute with my alternative grip, I'll find a way!—this is purely a tactical query.

I pray I haven't come off as too braggadocios in this post, but my fear is that if I am not earnest about my abilities and strengths then I may not allow you to give the otherwise sage advice that I know you would.

Many thanks in advance!

Wrist Extension

Grip from "behind"

Grip facing "forward" (topspin side)

Grip "side on"


Alois Rosario

Alois Rosario Answered 7 years ago

Hi Zachary,

Thanks for the background.  It was important to understand what is possible and what will be effective.

I think working on the backhand serves are the best way to start.  Work on short topspin serves to either forehand or backhand.  You have the perfect grip for this.  To make these topspin serves effective you will also need to develop a backspin variation of the serve.  Not as many players are using Backhand serves at the moment so you will find that this may become quite effective.

You can then extend the range of your serves to including faster variations.


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Zachary Smith

Zachary Smith Posted 7 years ago

Thanks, Alois, I'll definitely start working on some backhand serves!  I've seen players from earlier eras stand just left of center (for a right hander) when serving backhand, is this standard?  As a stop gap until I increase my serve repertoire I've been using a forehand tomahawk with a *lot* of counter-clockwise sidespin.  I haven't played much since making this last change to my grip (that featured in my first post), but i've had some amazing practice sessions with a robot and enough earlier experience as a Seemiller player to know that I've finally found a home, so I'm eager to work on my backhand serves asap so as to remain competitive during this liminal phase.  Are there any players past or present whom I should look to emulate or use as a rough model?

 

Thanks, again!

Zachary


Alois Rosario

Alois Rosario from PingSkills Posted 7 years ago

Zoran Primorac used the Backhand serve well.



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