PHOTO OF THE WEEK
| Scenes from the TMS International Semester Smash League Photos by Kingston Gee ©2005
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| Michael Hyatt | Piotr Zajac | Barney J. Reed |
TIP OF THE WEEK
Service Returns 101: Stroke, Depth and Placement
By Carl Danner
To continue our review of the basics, we turn to how and where to return serves.Beginners typically learn to return serves with a simple push; it offers good control for handling many kinds of spin. The problem is that at a medium to high level (e.g., starting around 1800, and certainly at 2200 and above), this return becomes terribly weak as your opponents will loop it to death. Particularly bad is the pushed return deep to the middle of the table, which is just asking to be spanked. A spinny, low well-placed deep push can be used even at high levels, but is trickier than you think to get right.
Therefore, any player who aspires to higher-level play must practice two kinds of service returns: Either a short push that bounces twice; or a topspin, loop or flip aimed deep on the table or at an angle. Ideally, all short serves are either dropped back short or flipped, and all long serves are looped. While there are special cases and exceptions (e.g., returns against a player who will not, or cannot attack a push), as a general rule you will do very well limiting yourself only to these plays. Against top players, it can be suicide to do anything else.
Where to aim is more complicated, and depends in part on your opponent's strengths. Generally, topspin returns should be deep on the table; in fact, deep and less spinny is usually better than shorter and more spinny. Most players are stronger either on the wings, or to their middle; go for the weaker of the two if you figure this out about an opponent. Someone who crowds the table can be vulnerable to the middle -- aim a flip at their playing elbow. Someone who retreats and spins will have more ground to cover to reach the corners. A short, low return is good against almost anyone.
Finally, always remember that you have to get it back. Nothing is worse than missing service returns. Worse comes to worse, just get it back somehow and brace yourself for the attack. That way, at least you make your opponent hit the winner to earn the point.