How do you get the courage to loop a serve?

Originally Posted by Michael Zhuang

When I play games, I often get serves that I think I can loop. Maybe its long and not very spinny.

But if I miss the loop, then its automatically a lost point. If I get the loop in, there is no guarantee that I win the point. So I often default to just pushing the serve back. Its not the highest quality shot, but at least I'm not losing the point outright. I get comfortable just pushing the return back.

How do you get courage to go ahead and loop?

Practice.

Make someone serve 400-500 balls with reasonable spin long.

Also with tackies, you can just open the blade angle and the ball will get to the other side of the table. It won't kill the guy, but based on videos you posted that is good enough.

How do you get courage to go ahead and loop?

Find one of those who wear lipstick and are attractive... have her watch you play game/match vs those who serve long. She will call you a weak azz loser if you fail to loop the long serve and she will cheer if you loop and it lands.

This will not take as many reps as some other ways.

Another idea is to have coach watch you play game/match... every time you fail to loop a long serve, he will cuss you out like you in Marine Corps Boot Camp plus you have to pay a fine each missed loop opportunity of the cost of a full chicken and 2 beers.

That method will get you looping long serves REAL DAMN SOON.

Sometimes you just have to decide that you don't care if you win to work on that skill in real game situations.

If you start out with that state of mind that you are playing to do the right thing and play well, and you don't care if you win the point, it will take a very short time for you to be looping long serves. Your FH Loop is fairly decent. As a result, it really won't take long for you to do that.

But more importantly, you should also start trying to loop short and long balls with your BH to open. Your BH will get good enough for that quickly as well. I have a feeling that will be much more an issue of practice and confidence than an issue of technique for you. I have a feeling your BH would already be good enough to loop serves and backspin if you had the confidence and you can't get the confidence unless you work on it.

With the BH you could work on it with drills first and then start doing it in games where you decide you don't care what happens. It is actually very good for improving your game skills to play as though you don't care if you win some of the time. That is hard to explain. But it gets you to make better choices and read things better.

But you should also probably be practicing some serve and receive drills like this:

1) server serves short backspin anywhere
2) receiver pushes long anywhere
3) serve has to loop third ball no matter where it is

You should spend some time doing both sides of that drill, where you are the server, but also where you are the receiver. Being the receiver improves your pushing skills and lets you develop the skill to counterloop an opponent's opening loop.

Originally Posted by Michael Zhuang

Well I think there are several issues that create a perfect storm of hesitancy.

1) I'm never sure how much spin is on the ball. Generally I expect a good push to have decent backspin, but if its lighter than I expect, my loop will go long.

2) I'm not sure if the ball is going to come long enough to loop. I'm afraid of hitting my hand on the table if I misjudge the distance, so it seems safer to just push.

3) I'm conscious that the math isn't in my favor, so being safer is often times better.

Answer to #1: You will never be sure until you do it enough times that you start learning to see read and see the spin on the ball. There are ways to tell. As you practice and keep trying to do this, you start seeing more. By not trying, you are holding yourself back from acquiring new skillz. By trying and failing, you actually make it possible to get better faster even if the short term results are not great.

Answer to #2: Pretty much the same as answer to number 1 but with a few different details: By trying you get better at reading the length. There are techniques to looping handbreaker (half long) balls that get you to make the plane of your stroke low trajectory to pass forward and just over the table so that, even if the ball ends up short you still can loop it while it is over the end of the table near the edge. So, again the key is practice. Perhaps practice with someone who knows how to do these skills so they can help you if you need information you are missing.

Answer to #3: it depends on what math you are doing. Perhaps the people you are playing don't punish you when you push back a long push. But anyone who is at a decent level, can crush those pushes you showed from the game footage you recently posted. Against a player who is even half decent, those pushes would get blasted back just the way Brs described above. So, perhaps the numbers are on your side for not taking the risk and pushing against the people you are playing now. But as you play people who have those skills and are using them against you, you will find that pushing a long backspin ball that has little spin which causes you to push high and long, with little of your own spin, will end the point more quickly than trying to loop because, at least the loop has the potential to keep you in the point.
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My guess is, if you are playing 2000 level players who are not crushing those long, loose pushes, they are being nice to you. Because, even the most eccentric, defensive, 2000 level players I know, they can smack those kinds of pushes into next week if they feel like it.
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But, regardless of this, if you want to win the current game against a player who is not going to punish you for pushing those long, weak pushes, then you don't really understand what will help your level increase. If you want to improve your skills and get better at the game, those are skills you probably should be working on; and working on them any time you play someone who won't punish you for pushing long.
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And there is no reason to think of a game where you know, if you push, your opponent will push back, as a game you must win. It would be better for you to think of those kinds of games as opportunities to practice skills and improve on things you don't do as well.
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Therefore, when you play the guy in that video you recently posted, you should be practicing attacking every backspin ball that comes to your side regardless of whether it is to your FH or BH. You also should be able to footwork yourself into position to take a FH loop on a long push to your BH side. Steparound footwork is a skill that can be developed.

Originally Posted by Michael Zhuang

When I play games, I often get serves that I think I can loop. Maybe its long and not very spinny.

But if I miss the loop, then its automatically a lost point. If I get the loop in, there is no guarantee that I win the point. So I often default to just pushing the serve back. Its not the highest quality shot, but at least I'm not losing the point outright. I get comfortable just pushing the return back.

How do you get courage to go ahead and loop?

Its not call courage,
its called confidence.

Obviously, you lack the technical execution due to your abilities.
So work on that.
When your technical execution is there - where you can loop 50 or 100 balls in a row. And when someone serves long to you, you can loop 90% of them back with high quality, then you will have the confidence to do what your mind tells you to do.

Games is about winning point and is not the best way to learn the sport and develop good technical abilities.
If you want to learn the sport and develop good technical abilities, then practice, practice, practice.

If you loose point by someone serving long to you, then.... maybe stop games, and practice even more.

The problem is, you can't deliver those shots, and it is not becoming a mental thing (since you named courage).
Its like riding a bicycle, if you keep falling, it is not about courage.