Tomahawk return

Hi

I sometimes play against players who use the 'tomahawk' serve giving the ball a lot of top and often side spin. My natural reaction is to attack this but often find that due to the varying spin it is sometimes difficult to judge the position of the ball accurately and some returns are poor. After doing a series of blocking exercises against slow spiny loops (similar to the balls produced from tomahawk serves) with friends who all get coached together, it occurred to me that one of these, the 'punch block' might be a good aggressive answer to such serves. I have not had the opportunity to try this but was wondering what you thought?

Steve Fuller

Hi Steve,

It could be like a flat flick or the punch block if the ball is fast and long.  This is legitimate especially if the ball is going on the table.  It is a stroke with a small margin for error so if you start missing a lot you should add a little topspin to the stroke.