Returning Serves: Dealing with Spin

In table tennis, returning serves with a lot of sping: it's very hard for everyone. Here's my thinking about learning how to return super spinning serves.  It's beginner (competitive) level. 

Brickell PingPad Center
(more about this at the bottom)

I think of the spin on serves as having two axis: Up/down (top or bottom spin), left/right.  Some serves combine the two axis.

Up/Down
So if the server cuts the ball on the serve (ie undersping), the return will tend to go low and hit the net. So I need to angle it up to get it over the net. Probably, I should cut it back to keep it low and hard for my opponent to hit. So a cut serve is best returned with a cut return.

If the server brushes upward and applies topspin to the ball, a return will tend to popup and fly off the end of the table. I must close the angle of my racquet to keep it down. If possible, I should put topspin on it by brushing up behind the ball.

Left/Right. Note: as the returning server, I think in terms of my left and right. And for this primer, I'm assuming we're all righties.

If the server uses a back hand serve and brushes the ball from MY right to left, a return will tend to fly off to my left and miss the table. So I hit the ball back toward the right side of the table. Simply, I return the ball towards the side that the server racquet's come from.

On the tomahawk serve and others where the racquet comes straight forward brushing one side of the ball. Here's the rule. I should return the ball away from the side that the racquet brushed.  They brush the left side, I hit to the right. They brush the right side, I hit to the left (all from my POV).

Both Axis at once!

If the server uses a forward serve brushing the ball from my left to right, my return will tend to fly off to my right, so I hit back towards my left to keep it on the table. Again, I hit towards where their racquet came from.

BUT, in competitive table tennis games, the server is adding a lot of deception and hitting the ball in such a way that it's hard to see which axis they are on (this is a great line from Ping to Pong's video). And good players, to make it even harder to follow, will throw the ball high in the air so in watching ball, you cannot see their paddle's position until the ball falls back down.

Here's a video which shows another way to put the spin on the ball.

 

 

More experienced players and coaches don't talk (or think) in the simple axis concept that I do, they seem to categorize by the type of serve. Here is "Ping to Pong"'s (film author) categories of spin:

Here's his video which analyses the tomahawk, pendulum, hook, reverse pendulum, and so on.

 

One great point that he makes: Look at the contact point between the server's racquet and ball: ignore all the fake  movements before before and after the contact point. Great advice. Nicely said.  Effing hard to do.  

So now I need to recognize a reverse pendulum serve and send it back to the server's backhand. Also, the hook and tomahawk. And send them back to the server's backhand.

And I need to recognize the pendulum and send it back to the server's forehand.

Another point, many people talk about the TT ball having a clockwise or a counterclockwise spin.  Opinions please: Do other players really think that way? It seems so abstract to me and I can't seem to get my head around it. Many players seem to talk about watching the spin on the ball. This seems impossible to me....

 Pingpod center in Brickell,

Neslihan Özdemir  

Want to read more?
Getting Started playing Table Tennis (includes videos of me playing in 2023)
Playing Table Tennis when I travel and at home 
Returning Serves and Dealing with Spin - This article
Table Tennis in Girona with Professor Artacho
My TT Tournament Performance as of 2023 

Table Tennis in Girona with Elisabeth Granados Artacho

 This is one my travel visits to Table Tennis Clubs around the world.... 

I spent five days in Girona and had hoped to play ping pong every day. There was  a good looking club, the Tennis Taula Girona.  I contacted them well in advance and it seemed like they had a group that I could sign up for the week. When it got closer, I was told that they had cancelled the group since there were not enough signups. I was very disappointed.  After a series of emails where I tried to sign up for daily private lessons, they found an instructor for a private lesson on my last day. Oh well.  

I went to a huge public gymnasium in Girona, Catalonia, Spain.

My teacher was the talented, charming, and multilingual Elisabeth Granados Artacho.  She was a top player in her region for years but is now a teacher. She retired from competition sometime in her 30s. I think she is still in her 30s. 

Elisabeth Granados Artacho, Mi Maestro de Tenis de Mesa

The facility was fantastic and I really enjoyed the lesson  especially since I hadn't played or exercised in two weeks. Specifics:

Just like every teacher, she saw me failing to reset after every shot. I seem to watch my shots and wait. I should be resetting.  And like other teachers, she drilled me on short shots to be sure to get my foot forward under the table.

Slamming.  She drilled me on the difference between an aggressive top spin shot and a simpler slam. This was particularly new on forehand but she pushed it both on forehand and backhand.

My follow through tended to be a little exaggerated. She showed me how to keep it under control.

However,  she also pushed a few ideas that are a little different from what I have heard so I've got more to think about.

Forehand. She wanted me to turn more on my forehand. Drop my right leg further back and rotate my shoulders more. 

Backhand. Again, she pushed more body, not just arm. She wanted me to rotate my shoulders. It's more of a drop of my right shoulder and a rotate back of my left one. Then the body supports the shots so it's not just with the arm.

For off the side short backhands, she had be take a big step around the top.

I really enjoyed my lesson with her. I would have loved to have had one lesson daily for the week I was in Girona.  I'd like to say "next time" but honestly, how often do I get to visit Girona?

And I am working on my Spanish including  Las Palabras de Vocabulario de tenis de mesa. 

Want to read more?
Getting Started playing Table Tennis (includes videos of me playing in 2023)
Playing Table Tennis when I travel and at home 
Returning Serves and Dealing with Spin
Table Tennis in Girona with Professor Artacho - This article
My TT Tournament Performance as of 2023 

Table Tennis Status: A Year or so in...

John Edelson's competitive table tennis career has not gone great.  Click to see my (John Edelson's) current ranking.

I had been under the impression that if I took a few lessons and played hard / trained three times a week, I would become a competitive player.  Here's what that approach has yielded so far:

Quick summary - My ranking started low and rather than improving, has dropped. I'm at the very bottom of the competitive rankings.  

John Edelson's Table Tennis Rankings

 A Solid Start.  I played in my first tournament in March of 2023 and I was encouraged by having a few wins. I was awarded a player rating of 1110 which I thought was a  respectable rating. I played again in May and did about the same and my rating increased to 1118. I was thrilled. 

But then a lot of losing. Unfortunately. since then, I have been matched against a more competitive crew  and I fear my current rating is a better illustration of where I fit in the competitive table tennis world. Basically, at the bottom.

In my next tournaments, I have not done so well (in one tournament I didn't win a single match) and so my ranking is now down to 977.  In retrospect, my initial scores might have been a bit of a fluke since I was matched against several players with no ranking at all and I beat them. Their names might have been Mo, Curly, Larry, and Shemp.  

Opponents from First Tournaments?

You can see my rating as it evolves here. 

You can look up any competitive table tennis player's ranking on the USATT website, here's a shortcut.

Improvement Feels Inevitable. BUT, I am still working at it and my technique is improving. There's also the question of my fitness. When I watch myself playing, I am surprised to see that I appear very low energy on the court. I look tired. I feel like I'm being intense but compared to the others, not so much. So I'm trying to also get more in shape by generally improving my workout schedule, diet, weight, and mentality.

Stay tuned. For more background and to see what I look like as a player, here's another article  about me getting started in table tennis . (It includes some much requested videos of me playing table tennis)

BTW, I do still do a bit of martial arts in the form of doing boxing-based circuit training at 9 Rounds in Ft Lauderdale. I hit pads but no longer spar. Here I am with the speed bag.

Getting Started playing Table Tennis (includes videos of me playing in 2023)
Playing Table Tennis when I travel and at home
Returning Serves and Dealing with Spin
Table Tennis in Girona with Professor Artacho
My TT Tournament Performance as of 2023 - This article

I play often at Beach Community Center. It's a mixed group but there are some truly excellent players:

Top Players: Micheal Walk, Chris Georgakopoulos <?>, Casear (Peru), Alex (Polynesian)
Next Level: Willy, Paul