Countering spins

Hi Alois and Jeff

Im a right hand penholder and I play table tennis at school. It's the last week of school and I my arch rival is beating me a bit too much.  He's a heavy spinner which happens to be my weakness!  Most of his shots are topspin and doesn't smash when he gets an opportunity.  How can I counter heavy spins?:-)

P.S Should I use Hi Zhi Wen's serve?

Hi FAris,

Try to stop him from making the heavy topspin to start with.  See if you can keep the ball closer to the net so that he needs to push the ball.

You can try the He Zhiwen serve and go wide to his backhand side as well.  It is all about trying to stop the attack coming at you first.

If he does make the attack, think about using a simple block stroke.  Don’t try to do too much with the ball just get it back on the table and see if he can cope with another ball in the rally.