says
Spin and more spin.
says
Spin and more spin.
Well-Known Member
Super Moderator
I have a friend, he was a Pro tennis player and now he is a college tennis coach. He and I are about the same level overall. But he is way way better than me once we are in a rally. Makes sense. He was a decent level pro tennis player. He can get to everything. And he is pretty good at TT. When he rallies with guys who are semi-pro level TT players, if you take away serve and receive, he can rally pretty close to even with the semi pro players.
Anyway, he is bad at receiving short serves. He is bad at reading the spin. But I have another friend who is a semi pro level TT player. He likes to serve fast and long. He likes to have his opponent rip his serves back and he uses their attack on his serve to counter attack and that is a strategy this guy likes to use.
So he (fast serve semi pro) was serving to us for serve receive. I had no problem handling his short serves and putting them back on the table, doing something that limited how he could hurt me with the third ball. His long serves, I had a lot of trouble with them. They were really too good for me.
With my friend the tennis player, when he received, he had a lot of trouble with the short serves. He could not read the spin. But once the serves were fast and long, he had no trouble. Not only did he read the spin, react to where the serve was, and respond to the serve with really good returns, he was doing things like going around the net on the wide angle serves. His returns on the fast serves either won the point outright or gave the semi-pro player a challenging ball. Against the tennis player, the fast serves did not give this guy an advantage for his third ball.
Because of his skill of receiving fast serves from tennis, he actually could read the spin on the fast serves and could do whatever he wanted with them.
What is the point. Serving is a great skill to work on. But so is receiving serve. The guys who are really a notch better than everyone else are just better at everything. And I think it is nice that TT is an all-around game.
Anyway, he is bad at receiving short serves. He is bad at reading the spin. But I have another friend who is a semi pro level TT player. He likes to serve fast and long. He likes to have his opponent rip his serves back and he uses their attack on his serve to counter attack and that is a strategy this guy likes to use.
So he (fast serve semi pro) was serving to us for serve receive. I had no problem handling his short serves and putting them back on the table, doing something that limited how he could hurt me with the third ball. His long serves, I had a lot of trouble with them. They were really too good for me.
With my friend the tennis player, when he received, he had a lot of trouble with the short serves. He could not read the spin. But once the serves were fast and long, he had no trouble. Not only did he read the spin, react to where the serve was, and respond to the serve with really good returns, he was doing things like going around the net on the wide angle serves. His returns on the fast serves either won the point outright or gave the semi-pro player a challenging ball. Against the tennis player, the fast serves did not give this guy an advantage for his third ball.
Because of his skill of receiving fast serves from tennis, he actually could read the spin on the fast serves and could do whatever he wanted with them.
What is the point. Serving is a great skill to work on. But so is receiving serve. The guys who are really a notch better than everyone else are just better at everything. And I think it is nice that TT is an all-around game.
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