Smashing the ball out of the court

Johan B Asked 9 years ago

Hi again!

Thought I'd make a second tap into your well of wisdom in quick succession!

In watching some table tennis videos on YouTube lately, I noticed that whenever the ball was smashed out of the court so far that the lobber couldn't reach it, there definitely seemed to be a fair bit of backspin on it (and most of the times this was executed off a ball that didn't land very deep on the table). Would you guys agree with this suspicion?

Thanks!

Alois Rosario Answered 9 years ago

Hi Johan,

Yes the chop smash does go the furthest as it tends to float and stay up in the air longer. If you put topspin on the smash the ball dips and won’t travel as far.

In the incredible rally that we saw recently between Par Gerell and Adrien Mattenet the last smash by Par Gerell has some backspin and sidespin on it and that is why it flies so far away. You can watch this smash on YouTube.

The issue is that this type of smash is more risky. In general it is not advisable to play a chop smash, you are much better off playing a normal smash that is flat or with a bit to topspin. You notice that Par Gerell does 44 normal smashes before he resorts to the chop smash to win the point.

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Gordon Hume Posted 9 years ago

Sorry, that link seems wrong. Try: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYKmvwGmBVY instead?

Great chop smash though!

Johan B Posted 9 years ago

Alois's link worked fine, Gordon Youtube has an extra domain youtu.be which is used for shortening links (useful for Twitter for example, I guess)

Thanks for confirming my suspicion Alois! This particular example had quite a lot of sidespin, though. Loved that game, by the way.