How to make people pass the ball to my forehand?

Tomasz Pawlikowski Unknown Asked 16 years ago

I've been playing as an amateur for about 2 years regularly now. So my friends with whom I play. By amateur I mean good intuition but no knowledge on the names of my technical skils whatsoever.

I've got a problem: people are afraid of my forehand. So they stand deep in their backhand corner in order not to pass the ball on my forehand side.

I know it makes their forehand corner vulnerable, I know it makes them lose points much much easier, but yet, they prefer to lose the ball by hitting it in the net than letting me do some forehand.

I know that by such behaviour of theirs I win games more easily and so on and so forth but I'm also losing the FUN from the game. Doing 97.5% the time backhand is NOT FUN. And I want to do some forehand shots...

Are there any table tennnis techniques/mind game to make them pass the ball on my forehand side or at least on the middle of the table?

Thanks in advance for the replies.

Alois Rosario Answered 16 years ago

Hi Tomasz,

The simplest way is by trying to get the game played on your forehand diagonal.  Do this by starting the angle to their forehand side so their natural shot is to go across to your forehand.  They also can't hit the ball as wide to your backhand from that angle.  So serve short or wide to their forehand and try to return there as well.

Try this and see how it works.