Picking Up Short Serves

Swapnil Unknown Asked 16 years ago

Hello,

I recently played against an opponent who serves very short on the table and his serve has a great deal of backspin and I am unable to pick it most of the times.Even when I mange to pick it somehow he plays this shot which has a very low height and is very short on the table and once again has a great deal of spin. So how do I pick such short,low and high spin shots?What kind of shot should I use? The shot seems to be impossible to pick from under or behind the table.

Alois Rosario Answered 16 years ago

Hi Swapnil,

What is required here is a short push. To do this you need to have very soft hands. It is a push but you don't give it any forward momentum and just try to drop it over close to the net.

Sounds like your opponent does this quite well.

Try to learn from him and copy what he is doing. If you can match him with the short pushing he may have no answers after that.

Take a look at the Lesson on Pushing. It includes a little on short pushing. Take alook and see if you can master it.

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Judging the Length of a Serve

A really important skill in table tennis is to be able to judge if a serve will be short or long. If it's short you won't be able to take a full swing at the ball and hence will need to use either a push or a flick to return the ball. However, if it is coming long then you can make a topspin attack. In this video we give you some tips to help you judge the length of the serve and hopefully this makes you a better returner.

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Jeff Plumb from PingSkills Posted 16 years ago
Hi Swapnil,

Start with attempting the short push as suggested by Alois and see how this goes. There is another tactic you can try which is a more aggressive shot called the flick.

I've included our video lesson on the flick below for you to watch. This is a great shot (but difficult to master so practice lots) to play off a short serve.

Swapnil Unknown Posted 16 years ago

Thank you so much guys for being my saving grace!! Your suggestions worked top notch.I completely shattered my opposition.I can now play both the short push and the flick,what lacks is the consistency,but I will remedy that soon enough.I am a complete TT fanatic,I dont even have access to a TT table..........I sneak into a sports center reserved for military personnel only (while I am a civilian) in order to play TT.I really appreciate what you guys do.Hopefully I will leran to play TT with reasonable proficiency someday.Thank you for your support and I hope you will continue to respond to my queries.