How to return a difficult serve

Chinese National Table Tennis Training Centre (cntttc.org)

Returning a serve is a key factor and it determines whether you win or not in a competition, also it’s a very important part to win in a table tennis game if you return a good serve. You can also tell a player’s level just by his or her serve.
It’s really an enjoyment to play table tennis with athlete with high level for me, what about you? To be active in a competition is a basic element for any sport , table tennis is no exception, especially for serve. Because it is the serve player who controls all the bounce, spin and rhythm of the competition, it is very important for both. Bellow I will say something about my feelings of returning a serve.
When the opponent serves, what we can do is to prevent him finding his own rhythm, in other words, to destroy his strategy of controlling all the game, it’s very important. Only when the opponent has no way to make an attack or the attack is not a good one, you may struggle your point. Then how to do this? My opinion is attacking aggressively, maybe someone is not agree . I would rather lose game than be locked in stalemate, but you will lose the game if you are rude, because you will be killed yourself by rude. If you want to return a good serve you should have some strategies. The straight ball needs to be pointed fast, to be selected, to be cast aside and to be pulled. The backhanded ball needs to be shot, to be cast aside, to be wiped, it would be better have sideways pulls or the straight board pulls horizontally. Pointing, Selecting, casting aside, bouncing, and wiping are all the pellet skills based on rubs, but to achieve these, you should have a good sense of ball and a solid foundation. Pulling and hitting are skills of the long ball and the stalemate ball. I think everybody will agree that you should attack aggressively when return a long ball, because the opponent serves a long ball, it should be out of the table, and a returned ball can be easily hit, the only way to prevent this is to make it a topspin ball and to play a stalemate ball, then you win the score. When you return a short ball you should figure the spin out beforehand and use you head to fight back. I prefer to hit it on the head, that is more aggressive but more mistakes will happen. The most important thing is that you select the tactic and the method of returning the serve according to the opponent’s play. The method of returning the cross-board is easier, except for all the skills I have mentioned above, I like Dials backhandedly, which is more stable, compared with other skills. The most important thing is that you should figure it out by yourself such as the first bounce, spin and speed.
Below it is how to make the decision of returning a difficult serve. How to return a difficult serve.
.First Bounce: What the first thing to do is concentrating on the first bounce on table. When the opponent serves a long ball it will land on, or near the base line, and when opponent serves short, it will be near the net.
Spin and speed: Both of the two should be considered together, you may notice that some serves are Spinning and fast, some serves are only spinning, and others are only fast. Basically, we mainly serve side-backspin and non-spin serve. So Someone may serve a spinning ball, or, a no-spin ball. The difference between the two lies in the different combinations of spin and speed.
The distance between you and the table tennis table. The opponent will make an attack by fast serve at body if you stand too close to the table, also it is not good that you stand too far from the table , half-meter is the best distance and you can make an attack there. Also, you always keep it in mind that attack is also very important. Receiving aggressively will create more chances for you. and continuous attack will make you earn high scores, You can avoid being locked in stalemate in this way.
Chinese national table tennis training center www.cntttc.org/