Ma Lin's Touch Shot

Dan

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The shot Ma Lin achieves here is what's known as a touch shot. However, looking closely at this amazing footage from DiegoTTTube at youtube you can see how much backspin Ma Lin achieves on the ball! Awesome!


How to do this touch shot?

The aim of this touch shot (the short push) is to make sure you keep the ball short over your opponents side of the table. Keeping it short I mean at least two bounces. In doing so this stops your opponent attacking the ball. The key is, to keep your short push low over the net.

To do this shot, you need to have the racquet face open and contact the ball as early as possible. This enables you to get the ball short over the net quickly and doesn't give your opponent much time. Try to also contact the ball with a little bit of backspin to minimise the risk of your opponent coming in with a strong flick.

Its important however, to not attempt the short push to often as your opponent can get use to your style of play and will then start to flick your short balls. Vary your pushing with long aggressive digs to mix the pushing up for your opponent. This keeps him guessing on what your going to do.

Good luck!

Its this type of touch that seperates Ma Lin to the rest of the world, thus enabling him to become Olympic Champion in 2008.

ma_lin_16_04_11_Large.jpg

Photo by: tabletennisphotos.com
 
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wow, that is impressive.
looked like nothing special too.
can anyone do it that effortlessly and care to explain?
 

Dan

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wow, that is impressive.
looked like nothing special too.
can anyone do it that effortlessly and care to explain?

I attempted to explain in the post but tbh how he does that I don't know!

I think its a combination of how early he contacts the ball with very good tacky rubbers, also his hands will be very soft and the timing of the shot will cause the ball to spin back...

plus over 10.000 hours of practice :)
 
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I think a simple way to explain it is based on the speed he gives the ball. If the ball goes slow, it needs relatively less backspin in order to return. So if you hit the ball in such a way that it drops just over the net, it hasn't got enough speed on it to reach the end of the table before the backspin drags it backwards. The touch this requires is like Waldner's dropshots on far- or mid-distance returns.
 
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Such an amazing touch... An other universe...
But if you really look at it, you'll see that the ball hit a little little bit the let, that can explain a little bit the rotation no?
 
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Actually guys, the reason why he took the ball early is because, that split milliseconds after the ball bounces, there wasn't enough spin on the ball for him to control. That split second, the ball was not spinning, or just about to spin, so he may exert his backspin without having to put to much power..try it, you'll be surprise. And before I forget, it only works against back spin.
It's the same reason when you make a drop shot against a top spin ball. You take the ball early (just after bounce) with a soft wrist. You certainly don't take it at the highest point or on the way down, do you??...:)
 
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Actually guys, the reason why he took the ball early is because, that split milliseconds after the ball bounces, there wasn't enough spin on the ball for him to control. That split second, the ball was not spinning, or just about to spin, so he may exert his backspin without having to put to much power..try it, you'll be surprise. And before I forget, it only works against back spin.
It's the same reason when you make a drop shot against a top spin ball. You take the ball early (just after bounce) with a soft wrist. You certainly don't take it at the highest point or on the way down, do you??...:)

So thats why my coach asked me to take the ball early after the bounce.
Excellent explanation sir Azlan :) Now I understand !
 

Dan

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Dan

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Actually guys, the reason why he took the ball early is because, that split milliseconds after the ball bounces, there wasn't enough spin on the ball for him to control. That split second, the ball was not spinning, or just about to spin, so he may exert his backspin without having to put to much power..try it, you'll be surprise. And before I forget, it only works against back spin.
It's the same reason when you make a drop shot against a top spin ball. You take the ball early (just after bounce) with a soft wrist. You certainly don't take it at the highest point or on the way down, do you??...:)

Very true, I like this explanation a lot!
 
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