Fear of attacking

Hi Alois and Jeff,

I wanted to ask you something. It's a stupid question but the answer is quite important for me... While playing close to the table I want to attack half-long balls but I can't because I'm afraid not to hit the table with my bat... What should I do? Due to this fear my forehand topspin against backspin is going backwards and my finish position is too high. That means wrong way to stroke the ball correctly. Can you say something about that?

Hi Peter,

Try to watch the ball really carefully.  Wait till it drops off the end of the table and then have a more vertical stroke.  When you are practicing even let the ball bounce twice so that you are getting an idea of the flight of the ball.  You need to get the idea of the flight of the ball so that you can start to predict the bounce.  It is a fear that you will get over once you start to have confidence in your judgement of the flight.