Spinny Lobs
Strokes
Christian Habis Asked 9 years ago
Hi Alois and Jeff!
Today, i encountered lobs which seemed to be spinny. When the ball made contact with my side of the table , it dipped forward or a little to the side. Seems like it had topspin, or topspin sidespin ... When the ball dipped forward, it was very hard for me to make another smash, and it costed me the rally.
Any thoughts?
Alois Rosario Answered 9 years ago
Hi Christian,
The time the ball is in the air with the lob is really important. Use that time to move your feet into position. I see that mainly players end up making errors on the smash because they don't move while the ball is in the air and then end up being too square to the table to make the smash.
Take a look at the lesson on the Forehand Smash for some more explanation on this.
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Ji-Soo Woo Posted 9 years ago
There are some players who can put very heavy topspin on their lobs. I rarely face such players and this is both good and bad. Good because I can't handle these shots. Bad because I don't get much practice facing them.
Alois, can you explain the technique of hitting very heavy topspin lobs? This would be a good shot to add to my repertoire. Unfortunately I have very little chance to practice lobbing technique because (as Jeff can attest) the ceiling at the ACT table tennis club is so low.
Hi Ji-Soo,
Yes I can also attest to the height of the roof there.
If you take a look at the lesson on the Lob you will see the basic technique. Then if you think about making it more like a forehand topspin that goes really high you will start to generate more spin. Really brush fast on the contact and have a big swing at the ball.
When we re-film the lob we will pay more attention to this.
Christian Habis Posted 9 years ago
Thanks Alois :)