An uncommonly discussed shot: The no-spin push

[TenPercentWinRate]

Who needs a flick if you can push no spin short?

I discovered this from Olav Kosolosky’s video on playing Timo Boll. I thought, isn’t this just a shot for variation?

Turns out I was completely wrong. From the Timo Boll vs Ma Long game in 2017 (the one Boll won), nearly half of his points all stem from his short and no spin pushes. Most of Ma Long’s returns were drives which were easy to take control of. His pushes? It popped up. His flicks? It went long.

It’s this simple shot that caused the GOAT many problems. Most of those weren’t deceptive, but it’s really hard to return with quality since it was so short and low.

For us short pips, we can use this to our advantage, since we love smacking high balls. It’s a way for us to effectively “attack” short backspin.

 

[Dr Evil]

 

[NextLevel]

Exactly what came to mind seeing the OP's post...

 

[TenPercentWinRate]

Exactly what came to mind seeing the OP's post...

Not really. It’s more of a shorter receive of the ball.

If you go to the point around 13 min in the full match 2017 World Cup Men’s semifinal, that’s what I mean.

 

[NextLevel]

Not really. It’s more of a shorter receive of the ball.

If you go to the point around 13 min in the full match 2017 World Cup Men’s semifinal, that’s what I mean.

It's probably not the shot you are referring to - it was just the video that came to mind.

 

[TenPercentWinRate]

Yeah, I’m just clarifying what I’m trying to articulate, that’s all.

 

[Der_Echte]

The no-spin push is a GREAT shot to do if...

- You can do it suddenly and disguise it well...

- You can have a very heavy underspin push... so that when you go to light or no spin, that there is a huge variation of spin

- that you can place it well... or it just doesn't matter so long as you can make it no spin with out them knowing it... (and you need deception and huge variation to make it all work)

Anyone can ask our TTD Admin @NextLevel ... many years ago he would tell forum members that I would do a No-Spin push "in your face" meaning i would make it obvious and you still could not do much to it... or that I was daring the opponent to attack it.

 

[Lula]

If it is the push Pistej and Karakasevic is great at i think it is very nasty but also very hard to read the correct amount of backspin and topspin. Personally i think it is easiest against short sidespin shorts. Feel like it is hard to the opponent to read whats in the ball. Often are a bit of a dead backspin ball which they misread.

 

[blahness]

I use a nastier version of this using the differences in finger action (with fake actions) to vary the spin which is way less perceptible to the opponent. If you use obvious stuff like using lots of wrist action to add spin vs just touching the ball forward for no spin, advanced players will read the variation and deal with it accurately. The way I do it is:

1) press on index finger tip to add spin, then do a slight pronation (for FH, supination for BH) after that to disguise the secretly added spin. This will be heavy underspin.

2) same as 1 but contact the ball during the pronation phase - this will essentially be no spin because the ball is hit rather than spun.

3) In fact, you can even create sidetopspin with the push if you push the wrist down relative to the hand (this makes the hand go up very slightly during contact) - a bit like a disguised sidetopspin reverse pendulum or hook serve.

This can drive a lot of players crazy because the spin can be wildly different to what they expect it to be, just from subtle differences in the contact.

Penholders often use these push variations to even greater effect, and they have advantages in disguising the outgoing spin of their pushes compared to shakehand due to better finger action. But a lot of them are very secretive and dont really want to share their knowledge lol.

But yeah, this is getting to more of the dark arts of TT...