Smashing high return from long pimples

So I have this friend that I play with very often, who recently bought a long pimple rubber (Yasaka Phantom 0011) and when we play our games everything starts in my favour. I am able to return his serve no problem, and start getting the attack while he is defending. And then when I am almost at the finish line when he has returned the ball high using his pimples rubber I am having trouble smashing it. He returns the ball deep on the table and if I just try and smash it, it goes into the net. If I try to use some topspin (which feels very uncomfortable since the ball is really high) I get it out of the table. It's not like I miss by a lot I usually am off by around 3-4 centimeters but that is enough for me to lose a point which I worked hard for. Any advice?

Hi Kristian,

This is a difficult ball for a lot of players.  The ball that is high with backspin still needs to be treated with a lot of respect.  Doing a topspin is the best way to go, even if it feels a bot awkward.  Since the ball is so high you have to come more forward on the topspin.  Perhaps you are lifting the ball too much with a vertical action.  Think about brushing forward with topspin.

I hope this helps.

For our Premium members we have a couple of Ask the Coach videos responses. High backspin close to net and Smash/Topspin High Chopped Ball.