Attacking serves

Sam Quek Asked 14 years ago

Hi Alois,

Its being awhile but I'm busy lately and like always i am playing table tennis.

During this period of time, I'm being playing defensive for quite sometime but I was "KO'ed" all the time by my friends (who are usually attackers). Then I found out that this is going nowhere and I wanted to change to offensive game.

As a principle you guys always say, "attack a long serve". But whenever i tried to topspin a serve away, the ball always goes out of the table and sometimes its in. Please give me some tips for attacking serves and "negating" the spin on the ball.

Lastly, i'm pretty confused about the loop. My other friends topspin the ball just like you, but whenever i do that, it goes out of the table! Is this something wrong with my bat? Then, whenever i tried to loop, i have to turn my body to my right and open my legs wider to loop and its usually in. Is this technique reliable or accurate? How can I make it better?

Oh yeah, lastly, can you please give me some tips on how to be an effective attacker? I'm pretty new in the offensive game.

Please answer my question, hope to hear for you soon.

Alois Rosario Answered 14 years ago

Hi Sam,

The key to the topspin is the contact and the finish position.  First check that your rubber still has grip.  Rub the ball across the rubber and see if it has grip on it.  If not then it is time to change your rubber.  If it is grippy then you need to focus on the technique.  So go back to hitting the ball slowly and see if you can get the ball to spin forwards.  Make sure your finish position is correct as we show you in the lesson on the Forehand Loop Off Backspin.

To negate the spin on serves you need to brush the ball very fast so that you are putting your own spin on the ball and getting it to go in the direction you want.

If the ball is not going on consistently then check those two important factors of brushing contact and your finish position.

To be an effective attacker think about making the first topspin consistently well before your opponent can make their attack.