Opponent smashes my serve

Serving

Tharindu Wickremasinghe
Tharindu Wickremasinghe Asked 11 years ago

Hi Pingskills team,

I've got an opponent who tried to smash my serve and finish the point just by returning the serve in the form of a smash all the time and he is successful 90% of his returns. Even if i do a short serve or a long serve, he smashes it off. What can i do?


Alois Rosario
Alois Rosario Answered 11 years ago

Hi Tharindu,

You need to concentrate on improving your serve during training.  Work on getting more spin and getting the ball lower.  This will make it mush more difficult for him to smash.  This will take a while to improve but it is a skill that is worth training.

Remember if he could smash any serve he would probably be a highly world ranked player.


Thoughts on this question


Gio Valmonte

Gio Valmonte Posted 11 years ago

wait a minute how did he smash your serve is your high? did'nt you try a backspin serve towards him


Arnab Ghosh

Arnab Ghosh Posted 11 years ago

Hi Tharindu,

I absolutely agree with Alois here, the man can't be perfect. I think as your opponent plays a lot of matches with you, he is somewhat trying to predict the ball before you serve. So mix your serves a little, try serving at different places of the table, at different amounts of spin. And at practice sessions, try to practice smash returns. Observe which serves he is finding difficult to smash (10% as you said) and exploit with those. And hopefully, next time you will be able to give him a run for the money.

Regards,
Arnab


Tharindu Wickremasinghe

Tharindu Wickremasinghe Posted 11 years ago

Hey Alois Valmonte and Ghosh, Thank you very much for all your advice. I have tried as per your response and improved a lot. he has failed in smashing most of the time and now he is using push instead of smash.. ohhh yeah!!!


Alois Rosario

Alois Rosario from PingSkills Posted 11 years ago

Good to hear.


Tharindu Wickremasinghe

Tharindu Wickremasinghe Posted 11 years ago

Thanks a lot


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