Receiving fast tomahawk serve into the body

Receiving

Abhinav Upadhyay Asked 10 years ago

Hi Alois,

I have had trouble in receiving long tomahawk serves from right handed players into my body (me being a lefty). It's right into my body and a bit fast as well, I am unable to do the pivot footwork and do forehand topspin. If I try to use my backhand block or topspin, the sidespin dominates and it goes towards the side. What can I do?

By the way, wanted to say, I have been catching up with all the Ask The Coach shows, have to say that I really enjoy watching it, the discussion is quite engaging, and I like the jokes between you and Jeff as well, keep it going :-)

Alois Rosario Answered 10 years ago

Hi Abhinav,

Glad you are enjoying the Ask the Coach Shows.

I find this one the most difficult serve to return just because of the angle of the ball coming into me. I find it is more to do with the sidespin and getting the angle of my bat right. Try to open the angle of your bat up with your wrist. This will counter the sidespin on the ball.

The issues with the placement being into your middle can be solved by having a wider stance. With a wider stance you don't have to move as much and can sway to the side to either use your forehand or backhand.

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Judging the Length of a Serve

A really important skill in table tennis is to be able to judge if a serve will be short or long. If it's short you won't be able to take a full swing at the ball and hence will need to use either a push or a flick to return the ball. However, if it is coming long then you can make a topspin attack. In this video we give you some tips to help you judge the length of the serve and hopefully this makes you a better returner.

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Abhinav Upadhyay Posted 10 years ago

Thank you Alois, I will try those tips and try keeping a wide instance when receiving these serves. :)

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