How far back?

Hello Alois,

 A lot of pro-players seem to handle smashes rather well. (See Timo Boll's defense against Hao in the recent Qatar open here at 2:04: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6mJpWHxAung&feature=rec-HM-fresh+div ). 

My question is, how far do you have to step back to succesfully do a lob defence? Can you give an approximate distance in terms of the number of steps? How far back do the pros stand?

 My guess is that, at the club I'm playing, there really isn't much enough space. :-)

Hi Cihan,

The Interantional courts are 14 meters long so that will give you an idea of how far back they go (about 6 to 7 meters).

Normally you would only need to stand about 3 to 4 meters back to retrieve a smash.  Of course it will always depend on who is smashing it.