Shot Selection When Forced Back

Hi Alois and Jeff,

I always see matches of famous players on youtube, and I am actually kind of amazed at the way Mizutani plays. He keeps on lobbing and then starts looping the smashes - I wonder how could he do that - are the smashes of Zhang Jike or Ma Long are not powerful? Or is it that Mizutani is better than both of them?

Also I came across a video of Waldner in which he was consistently lobbing really high and then he Counter smashed the smash by opponent.

I also noticed that the Chinese rarely lob - they return all of the smashes with loops, and even the backhand loops of Ma Long works well even against those powerful smashes.

Please could you make a video showing how to Counter Smash?

Regards,

Rahul from India

Hi Rahul,

It certainly is amazing to watch a good player lobbing and then start attacking. It's not that their opponents have weak smashes. What usually happens is that the player manages to get a really effective deep lob on the table with plenty of topspin. This causes the smasher to have to move further back as the ball is deep and the topspin makes it kick ever further. From deeper it is harder to make a smash that wins the point.

The Chinese are really good at playing attacking table tennis when forced back from the table. Once you get forced back however your chances of winning the point are reduced. That's why the take the risk and try to counter attack. If it comes off they can get back into the point.

We actually already have a master class called Defensive Shot Selection. This video takes you through 3 options when you are forced back from the table. The lob, the chop, and the counter topspin.