How to read the ball spin, speed, placement, depth, height

Dear Pingskills,

I have improved a lot thanks to your advice and YouTube videos after only 4 months of practicing. I am the only player in my 50 member club, who plays offensive style. All other 49 players are defense players of different styles. Specifically, I have improved significantly in the following areas:

1. reading service spin

2. to be able to relax on all of my strokes. I don't feel exhausted anymore.

3. my forehand loop/counter hit is correct. My start position, circular motion, end position are perfect. I also know when to brush the ball heavily (spiny loop) and when to hip loop (power loop) the ball. I use my full body: knees, waist, shoulder, upper arm, and elbow. To avoid injury, I don't snap my elbow as much as before. I don't use my wrist during the forehand loop at all.

4. my backhand stroke is the best in my club. I can flick (not banana) over the table. I can backhand loop on underspin, no spin, and topspin, long ball, short ball, backhand smash with high consistency. 4 months ago, I did not have backhand at all. I avoided using backhand if I could.

But now I use backhand a lot more than forehand.

5. I no longer care if I win the game, set, or even if the point. My primary concern is to improve myself and perform best in a given situation. As a result, my mental state is a lot better, particularly when I play to a better player.

However, I still have many hurdles to overcome:

1. I can read the service spin on the ball. That is not enough. I need amount of spin, speed, placement, depth, and height. Many times I get caught off guard because I don't know what is in the ball beside the spin. Most of the time, I can return the balls even if I don't know about amount spin, speed, placement, depth, and height. I can still win the point. I get away with my sloppy return. Even if it is a sloppy return, the 49 defense players don't attack my sloppy return.

How do I read the ball regarding amount of spin, speed, placement, depth, height?

2. During the rally, many times these defense players play trick on the ball. They pretend to attack, but they don't. They put a lot of spin (lobbing). They fast push into my body without any underspin at all. They play sidespin. I don't read their racket movement at all. I look at the ball trajectory to make assumption. I make many mistakes by reading the ball trajectory because it is already too late.

How do I read their racket movement to know ahead of time the spin, amount of spin, speed, placement, depth, height.

3. Many times, I attack very hard. somehow the defense player manages to return ball back to me. it is so fast that I cannot react to it. I lose many points this way. The ball comes back right back to the same place. I can attack it again without moving my feet. but it is fast my body cannot react to it. All of my strokes are based primarily on body motion not hand motion. Hand motion can really help in this situation. But I don't know how to perform a stroke using hand only without using any kind of body motion.

Is it possible to use hand only for forehand / backhand stroke?

4.  I don't know how to forehand backhand push. I avoid backhand push if I can. my backhand push is too high. my forehand push is low but has little underspin.

I have practiced push. during practice it works well with a lot of underspin. during game, my forehand push has no underspin.

5. I am not a good blocker. I am not prepared to block. As a result, I usually lose a point if a defense player suddenly attacks. In addition, my DHS hurricane rubbers (forehand and backhand) are not designed for block. They are great for attack but not block. The rubbers do not bounce at all. To block effectively, I have to punch/counter loop an attack. if I don't, the ball usually goes to the net as my rubbers do not bounce at all.

How do I practice blocking with my DHS Hurricane rubber?

6. Because my backhand is too strong, my opponents go after my forehand. They serve short to my forehand. they return short to my forehand. They attack on my forehand. I can forehand loop if a ball is long. but I will return a sloppy ball if the ball is short on the forehand.

I don't know backhand banana flick, forehand flick, backhand push, or forehand push.

How can remedy this problem?

Hi Linh,

Well done on making such big improvements in your game.

To read the amount of spin you still need to get the information from the contact and the flight of the ball. Exposing yourself to more types of serves is the best way to overcome this.  Watch the ball closely is the big key here.

Your strokes need your arm as well for more consistency.  Using your hand can work when you don't have time but there will also be a lot of inconsistency of your movement.  Your strokes are all dependent on the amount of time you have.  The more time, the more arm and body you can use and therefore more consistency.

For your pushing it sounds like it is just more practice and relaxing your wrist and hand during the game to allow yourself to generate the same spin you get in training.

Blocking with any rubber is a matter of training.  Utilise your training time when your training partner is doing a drill to practice your block.  This is valuable time.

For the extra strokes again, it is practice.  Once you didn't know any strokes but you have trained and learnt them. It is the same with these extra strokes now.