How to defend

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I am a Tennis coach and played for Ireland as a junior in Table Tennis 35 years ago. I recently played a hard bat tournament and discovered just by chance that I was really good at it, only defending though. I really enjoyed defending and have made a comeback in Table Tennis and have tried short and long pimples, neither really seems to work at a good level in matches though. My training is good but in a match I'm never sure where to recover to and the good players stay patient and are able to pick me off. My long term goal is to defend and block and attack my F/H which is still strong. My thinking so far is that I should use inverted rubbers both sides and mix going back and coming forwards, but I would love some advice from experts on the art of defence. Please help as I tried just attacking last week and won my matches but didnt enjoy the style. Defence seems like so much more fun!! Please help!

Robbo
 
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We will need a video of yourself playing in order for us to make any meaningful comments.



I have friends who play more tennis than ping pong, and they also seem to like to defend, so I understand your favoritism. (They just like to hit the ball late, at least, that what I observe.)


If you want to learn how to defend well, you are going to have to find a training partner that attacks well. There's not much more I can say without seeing, and I don't want to assume.


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If I do assume:

You probably back off the table a lot.

If you do that, you won't really be able to block and will have to start lobbing. So, I'll suggest learning how to stand your ground and block. Block to the corners, learn how to block softly, and block hard. You have to learn how to absorb the impact, and learn to redirect it.

You are probably decent at lobbing. Good lobs are high and deep on to the table. Adding topspin to the lob is great. You can do this by simply lobbing when the ball drops to about your waist and hitting it high up. A little wrist action is optional, and great for adding sidespin.

Good pushes are essential. Low, deep, and fast ones are ideal.

Service return is crucial. Make sure you learn to handle every serve in a least 4 different ways. Either by drop shot, pushing, looping, and flipping.

Make sure you can handle openers: such as flips and loops.

You say you have a strong forehand. Modern defenders nowadays must have strong forehand counterattacks. Practice counterattacking. A very big advantage about being a defender is that the opponent doesn't know when the defender will attack.


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If you ever feel that you are somehow trapped in a corner while playing, you aren't being a good defender. Being a good defender is about having many options to deal a shot, in order to mix up the opponent. If you have no options left, or if you start getting repetitive, it's about time you learn a few.


It is very difficult being a defender because there is much more you need to learn. You need to have a larger skillset than most players. So, don't give up.
 
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says Spin and more spin.
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I've got a friend who is a tennis player who also plays TT. He mixes between looping, lobbing and chopping. He just uses T05fx on a Stiga Rosewood. Because of his skills as a Tennis player, he has no problem mixing between those however he wants. And because he has amazing tracking skills from the fact that he was a pro tennis player and has actually done some TT training, he can stand toe to toe with anyone 2000 USATT or lower in open rallies. His rating wouldn't be that high because his serve and receive skills are low since he just doesn't work on the over the table stuff. But once he gets past the short game it is hard to get points from him.

Also, with T05fx, when he is chopping he is very good at varying spin from heavy to light.

So, because of his preexistent skills from tennis, he doesn't need special equipment for playing defense or switching back and forth from defense to offense.

So, from a theoretical standpoint, you may be best off with any old setup.

However, David's point about video footage may be useful in helping you.

My comments simply reflect that, if you are a tennis player coming back to TT and want the kind of style you are talking about because it makes playing fun for you, you may not need defensive equipment in order to play how you want.


Sent from Inside The Chamber of Secrets by Patronus
 
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Songdavid98 wrote most of crucial informations except chopping. Probably when you said defender you mean chopper. At first inverted rubber will be good, even better than pips, because you can learn about spin more than with longpips or classical shortpips. But if you really want to be a chopper, you will need a pimples put rubber. You can do it without, but with will be easier. If you want to counterattack from both sides, you have 2 options. First, you can use long pips on BH and twiddle. It makes things even harder, but it can be very deceptive. Second, you can use short pips on BH, which is capable of counterattacking with some spin.
Until you can post a video there, you should wrote some details about what do do you want to reach? You want block/chopblock close the table and occasionally attack and chop? Or do you want to play far away the table with chops varying the backspin/no-spin balls and do some surprise-attack and block?
 
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Robbo i have played tennis for 15yrs and have only been playing table tennis for 3 yrs and im playing in div 2 now .I know a lot of tennis players who also play tt including my son.In my opinion when you play better players you need to be able to control there attacks until you can get in the game and make your attack.Its taken me 3 long years of trying out various blades and rubbers.i would suggest using an all round blade like the butterfly grubba all plus matched with gambler reflectoid in 1.5mm.the gambler rubber makes you commit and play full strokes like you do in tennis.i think that its the opposite to what is taught by coaches now as they favour small movements and powerfull rubbers.the gambler is also good for blocking.
i defend but attack when i can but thats just my style.
i use yasaka anti power(anti spin)on b/h and gambler reflectoid on f/h)
i can serve with either rubber and often twiddle to mix up the game.
 
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Thanks a lot guys for all your advice. I'm just back from training for 3 hours with some of Ulsters top players and really enjoyed it. I had Dr Neubauer Domination on the B/H and it felt great. I found it really easy to accelerate the racquet and keep the ball low consistently. Most of the exercises were based on my B/H side so I know it can be misleading as I can struggle when attackers go side to side. Its a step forward though and I think I'm going to stick with inverted for now as I was able to block and spin a few B/Hs without twiddling. Songdavid98 said some excellent points on return of serve and I will definitely practice the 4 different returns as I realise these are crucial. I actually practised counter looping for 45 minutes which as David said is essential. What are your views on the F/H side as i have a question. I feel when i chop on the F/H then I just keep chopping and miss the opportunity to attack! I have watched the Greek star Gionis and he doesn't chop at all now and he didn't learn to loop until he was 20 or something! Do you think in general it is best to lob and counter loop on the F/H? I reckon you will improve quicker perhaps?

I will post a video in the next few days. Thanks again for some great advice!
 
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