Trouble to react quickly to move to forehand

Christian , Asked 9 years ago

Hello Aloys and Jeff,

When I make a short backspin serve from my backhand side, if my opponent returns the ball deep to my forehand corner, I woud like to return the ball with a forehand topspin.

If I don't know that the service-return goes deep to my forehand corner, I arrive or move every time too late. Therefore, I am not transferring the weight to the right before the topspin and  the legs position is not good before the stroke.

In the reverse situation,if i serve from the middle of the table, if the service return comes back deep to my backhand, i don't have a real problem to react quickly and move to the backhand to do a backhand topsin.

I do not understand why I can not react quickly when the ball comes into my forehand corner.

Do you know if I can fix this problem and how? As I am 54, I wonder if this is a problem due to age (and I hope it isn't !)

Thank you in advance for your reply

Best wishes.

Christian

Alois Rosario Answered 9 years ago

Hi Christian,

It isn’t age at all...

It is probably that you are not moving quickly enough into a good ready position straight after you serve from the backhand corner. 

Just examine your balance as soon as you make the serve and see if you are in a good ready position to move and react to the ball no matter where it comes.  When you are serving from the middle you may be naturally moving into a more balanced position.