SP Forehand: How can i receive short balls and Float ball serves?

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Good day everyone,

i just changed from Inverted to SP 2 weeks ago. I became more active.
i am currently having problems in receiving short heavy underspin serves and Long float balls.
For heavy underspin:
its hard for me to push since it pops up most of the time
What i did was twiddle to my inverted backhand and short push it but then they push long and im having a hard time following it up
I sometimes flick it but i cant flick low balls all the time

For Float balls(Long):
I twiddle to my inverted and Spin drive it (it works 8/10)
I try to smack it by opening my angle up a bit, Sometimes the net sometimes out.

I want to improve my technique further with SP

any advice?

Greatly appreciated TIA

Best Regards,

Ame-sama
 
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Funny because we're going in opposite directions. about a month or two ago, I switched to inverted from a long stint on SPs.

Few things I'd like to touch on.

  • Stop twiddling to play something with inverted and then back to SPs. IMO you're using your familiarity as a crutch (because it's what you know) and not really learning SPs if you're still playing certain shots with inverted. if that's the case, why'd you switch to begin with?
  • I remember when I switched to SPs also, for a while in the push game you will pop balls up. There's no other way around this than to say it takes time. You need to practice your SP short push game. After a while it'll be easy to keep it low.
  • I found in SP push game I never tried to spin the ball back to them. Rather, you're just touching the under side of the ball. Playing drop shots with SPs is so easy. After a couple of pushes with this technique, you will find the spin of the ball has drastically cooled off and you're free to hit away on that relatively spinless ball... Just like you should play with SPs. As an added bonus, if your opponent isn't familiar with this dynamic of short pips and they continue to push? You'll get a pop up and then you kill that ball.
  • Watch He Zhi Wen or Wang Zengyi. Just because you're playing short pips doesn't mean you have to drive everything. You still can and sometimes will have to play softer spin balls. You can still soft loop with SPs. It's just not as easy as it is with inverted. Try receiving that long ball as you normally would back in your inverted days and see what happens.
  • Do you have 802 2.0 on that 35 deg stock sponge? If so, tear that thing off and get rid of it right away. That sponge is dead and I never liked it. The topsheet is pretty good but that sponge... yuck. If you stick with 802 or 802-40, you should glue a custom sponge on it. Something a little springier. I use to have 802-40 on a 2.0 Air 30 deg super soft sponge. It was recommended to me by the supplier who said the soft sponge was popular with a slot of SP players. He was right.
  • Honestly if I was still playing SPs, I'd look something a little more modern in terms of performance. You cannot watch He Zhi Wen and not marvel at some of the speed & spin he hits with. 802 is too classic of a SP IMO and in today's age, I think you need something a little faster & spinnier to hang. I'm talking a tensor type of SP. Maybe have a look at TSP Spectol Red (so crazy fast but not spiny enough for my taste) or TSP Spinpips Red (same sponge but spinnier topsheet. IMO would be a real nice combination)... The speed difference you'll get from those to regular 802 will blow your mind.
 
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Wow.... this is really good.
Thanks
Yeah, i am looking for alternatives to my FH SP
and what you say about the Crutch thing is so true, ill try to avoid that in the future.

What i love about SP is the smacking part and how a lil pop up makes smacking things so consistent.
Ill try to soft loop more on the Floaty balls more

Thanks again mate
 
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