Flick against a long ball and topspin against a short ball?

Aaron Lin Asked 7 years ago

So we know that the standard flick/flip is an attacking stroke used against a short ball, but is there any situations where it's correct/effective to use a flick against a LONG ball?

And likewise, the topspin i know is the standard way to deal with a long ball, but if the ball is short is there any situation where i could use a topspin against a short ball, instead of pushing/flicking a short ball?

Was just thinking about this situation on paper. thanks!

Jeff Plumb Answered 7 years ago

Hi Aaron,

It's great to see you thinking in different ways. I really think that the ability to question things helps us improve!

For a long ball the topspin stroke is always going to be more effective because you can take a bigger swing at the ball, so I don't see any advantage in trying to flick a long ball.

For a shorter ball, it would be great to be able to topspin it but the problem is that because it is short, and will bounce twice on the table if we let it, we can't actually play a big stroke because the table itself is in the way. Nowadays to try and attack the ball with topspin people are using the backhand sidespin flick which is proving to be very effective!