Monday, October 21, 2024

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 returning servces


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), my 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 to hit.
If the server brushes upward and applies topspin to the ball, my return will tend to popup and fly off the end of the table. I close the angle of my racquet to keep it down. If possible, I  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 from MY right to left, my 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 tomoauk 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).

More experienced coachers don't talk (or think) in the simple axis concept that I do, they seem to categorize by the type of serve
. Here for instance is a video which analyses the tomahawk, pendulum, hook, reverse pendulum, and so on.

Here is Ping to Pong's (film author) categories:


Before I jump into trying to reconcile his way of thinking with mine, I want to highlight a great point the 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. 

Category 1 -  The ball  will curve to your left side this means that all the serves in this category will have a clockwise spin to the left. This is a pendulum serve.

Category 2 -  The ball  will curve to your right side this means that all the serves in this category will have a counter clockwise spin to the right. This is the backhand serve, reverse pendulum, hook, and tomahawk.  

Cat 2 such as a backhand serve = a server pulls from my right to left. So I need to return towards my right or more simply, towards where his racquet came from. More generally, if they do any of the category two serves, I think of it as a backhand serve and I hit towards their backhand.  So everything except a pendulum serve goes back towards their backhand.

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.

Anotehr 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.

- - - - -Playing in Brickell PingPod  ---- - - - 

I was down in Brickell, a part of Miami, this week for a few things and rather than sit around, I booked into the Pingpod center in Brickell, it was a nine minute walk from my hotel. In reality, it was longer since the center is not exactly where the address suggests it should be and the signage is not so clear.  But once I found it, very nice.  Small, there are only four tables but a great space. 

I had booked in with a coach for beginners, Neslihan Ă–zdemir (girlonthebikeNY). I told her I really just wanted to practice, not tons of instruction. We  mostly played games and of course, all my bad habits and unforced errors were pretty evident.  She  ran me through some drills and reminded me, as everyone does, to stay low, to get ready for the next shot, to hit forehands with my body (not just my arm), and that the more reliable shot is usually cross court (not down the line). 

She taught me a new serve which was great. I had been hitting my slice serves pretty hard with tons of spin. She showed me that a much more understated serve with just a little backspin, hit short, and with a shorter softer stroke was also possible and often effective. Cool!

At one point, I did ask her about serve returns since it was on my mind. She made two points, one of which was new to me.

1.  Watch their paddle at the point of contact with the ball,
2.  Stare at the ball and you can actually see the spin on the ball. I've tried this and so far, have not made any progress. But I'll keep starting at the ball and see if it comes into focus soon...


We only hit the record button only once, that's the video point above. I took one photo of the facility before we started.  

I would have hung out for the social hour or whatever it was that was a little later if I didn't have a previous commitment. I saw a guy on the next table (Harvey!) that I had met before at the Broward Table Tennis Center.
 
Brickell PingPad Center

(thanks Nesli for correcting my use of the PingPad Center's name, Did I get it right this time?)