Return club mate's serve

Hi Coach.

There a player at my club I'm finding it hard to return his serve. I have to use my serve to win the points as I can only return about half of his serves. The ball always goes flying off the end of the table or into the net. What seems to work is if I go right under the ball like a push. I can't always do that. How can I get myself to play that shot every time? Or do i need to learn a new shot? If I can't return his serves then it makes really hard to beat him.

Thanks

Hi Nathan,

The push can be effective.  It sounds like you are brushing the ball really well when you are pushing under the ball.  This will mean that you are generating your own spin on the ball.

You can also do this with topspin by brushing the ball finely.

When you are pushing you can take the ball later and make it into a chop.  You can chop the ball even if it has topspin.  It is difficult if you are close to the table and try to push a topspin serve.

We have a good series of tutorials in our Receiving Secrets section.  For Premium members you can access this and also download these to keep.