Weird serve

Hi, I would like to know how to receive properly a serve I can't figure out yet (I'll try to explain it despite I'm not a native English speaker). 

My opponent bends his knees very very much, almost to the ground and serves with a lot of sidespin using the forehand side of his bat (he's right-handed). The serve comes really long between the middle of the table and my forehand, and with TONS of sidespin.

Additionally, sometimes it has topspin and sometimes underspin. So I'm never able to get that serve to the other side of the table. It bugs me a lot because he uses that serve quite often during the match.

Thanks a million

Hi Christian,

It sounds like you are receiving the Tomahawk serve. You need to be able to counter the sidespin. The sidespin will drag the ball of your racket out to your opponents forehand. To counter this you need to use your bat like a rudder and aim towards his backhand side.

In addition you need to be able to judge when the ball has backspin and when it has topspin. This really is just a matter of practicing receiving a lot of times. The ball will have backspin when your opponent hits underneath the ball. It will have topspin when he hits up on the back of the ball. To counter the backspin, you will need to lift the ball up. To counter the topspin you will need to angle your bat downwards.

Receiving is one of the most difficult and frustrating parts of the game of Table Tennis so don't be too hard on yourself. Just keep working on this skill and trying to improve.

We are planning on making a DVD on this topic later this year.