Advice on Push, Block and Counters

[KM1976]

Hi All,

I am left handed player and I need help in improving my push, blocks and counters. Currently, my situation is as follows:

1. Push - I can push the ball, but I do it mostly to play safe and to keep it on my opponents backhand. I don't have a aggressive push and I don't have confidence to try out variations or push the ball deep to my opponents forehand. To improve this, I try playing at least one match of push with different players however, I till hesitate or loose confidence on push after a few rallies. Also, I find it difficult to change from push to aggressive mode. I mostly miss on this part. For example, during a push rally, if opponent pushes deep on my forehand I normally make a mistake here in my opening topspin and I am locked in my backhand corner and I am lunging towards the deep cross court pushed ball.

2. Block - I can block the ball, but only when its a loop. I face tremendous difficultly when I see my opponent taking a bigger swing on a drive or when the ball has more speed and less spin to it I somehow freeze. I am not at all confident in blocking these kind of balls. Normally, all such blocks of mine travel to the net directly. So, I can block the opening topspin but I am poor in blocking subsequently in the rally. Also, I am not sure what should my distance with respect to the table be. When I consult better players they tell me to block on the bounce. However, against a follow up drive, I find that I am in better control if I move back a half step. Also, how do I play an active block and place the ball. I know it comes to practice but even if I practice this, I am not sure if I should do it in a match.

3. Counters - I have a strong opening topspin third ball attack. However, I find it difficult to hit the ball more with speed and less with spin. I keep on adding spin to the blocked ball which I get back from my opponent and this keeps on increasing my swing and effort. Where eventually, I make a mistake.

What I want is that during the 11 point set, I should be able to conserve my energy and play a more all round game on some points. I have realized that it is very difficult for amateur players like me to keep on blindly attacking each and every thing. My game should be more based on reading my opponent and building a counter-strategy around it, which is simple and easy to execute.

Please share your insights and experiences here so it benefits all of us.

Thank you,
KM1976

 

[NextLevel]

It's usually almost impossible to discuss these kinds of questions without videotape. I am not left-handed, but I could write the same post you did with reference to my level. In this sport, the descriptions are generally applicable - it's the level/quality of the technique that often separates.

1. There is likely a footwork and anticipation error here. Another issue is that a good push is not supposed to be a safe shot. A good push is like a good serve, either short and low or long,low and deep. Usually, you need to take a push off the bounce (definitely if it is short), and if it is long, you have the option of going for more speed or more spin. Go for speed only if the ball is relatively high or you have good technique, but not too much speed as backspin tends to make the ball float.

Moreover, you shouldn't be pushing too much as a habit unless you are a chopper or are playing one. Your push is supposed to be a shot used to gain an advantage in getting the first attack or something you throw at your opponent if he doesn't attack backspin well (which gets rarer as players get better). Use your push to move your opponent so that his first attack is played to where you are waiting. And if he pushes back, what you then need to do is read the push your opponent is giving you better so you can use it to anticipate when to attack. And remember that if you are playing a topspin player, you only need to spin the push once in every rally. So take your time to pick a push and attack that push properly, as in bend your knees, take your racket into position and spin the ball properly. If the push ball your opponent gave you had heavy backspin, your spin shot, even if slow, will be loaded with topspin as long as you take time to execute and brush the ball. So don't be concerned with making your opening attack too fast. Just get into position and do the full stroke properly. Backspin is slow so usually, you have time to set up.

2. Blocking balls that you can read the spin on is mostly about practice. The less spin on the ball, the more open your paddle has to be. The more pace, the softer your hands need to be as you can use the pace of the ball and just add a little to get good pace. But what you really should be doing is trying to evolve your game beyond just blocking the first shot to a position where your opponent can follow up with an attack. You can block the ball shorter or block the ball to a place where it takes more time for the opponent to attack. Or you can stop blocking and punch or counter topspin the ball. Maybe if you can practice with a partner how to find the touch and open racket angle to block smashes at the table, that would help, but no higher level player will seriously practice this for too long. They will spend more of their time on trying to avoid it and let the touch that they have built up practicing other things come into play here. What they will practice is maybe taking a step back to see the ball better and trying to counter it with the extra time to get themselves back in the rally.

While I understand the need to be a consistent blocker, if you have a looper playing a blocker at the same level of consistency, the looper will almost always beat the blocker because spin is unpredictable. The blocker needs to do more than just block (drive, hit, place the ball in uncomfortable places) to keep the looper/attacker off balance. It takes a really good blocker and spin reader, and rarely one using inverted, to handle all the spin variations a looper/attacker can throw at him. So it's easier to try to do things to make the looper have issues.

The key to doing anything in a match is to just try it and be willing to lose the point, especially if your opponent has outplayed you. If you can remember the situation where you need to make this shot, find a practice partner and play the sequence that leads up to it. If the sequence is not in the first 6 shots, use multiball, but note that if it is not in the first 6 shots, then the focus on it might be misplaced and focusing on something that occurs more often in the first 4 shots would reward your game far more (like attacking the serve return if it is a push to multiple locations on the table).


3. Most people who have problems with this are usually dropping the paddle after the 3rd ball topspin and keeping it too low for the 5th ball. Once you have topspinned the ball, you should anticipate topspin, either light with a block or punch or heavy with a counterloop coming back and you need to be ready to attack it. Don't step too far back as if the opponent blocks, the ball will be relatively short and you need to be ready to attack it immediately and hard. So keep the racket relatively high, look for the ball and attack it.

 

[Der_Echte]

Hi KM, if TT was easy, we would all be Div 1 players, but this is one difficult sport.

I will copy/paste the body of your post and make comments in BOLD.

1. Push - I can push the ball, but I do it mostly to play safe and to keep it on my opponents backhand. I don't have a aggressive push and I don't have confidence to try out variations or push the ball deep to my opponents forehand. To improve this, I try playing at least one match of push with different players however, I still hesitate or lose confidence on push after a few rallies. Also, I find it difficult to change from push to aggressive mode. I mostly miss on this part. For example, during a push rally, if opponent pushes deep on my forehand I normally make a mistake here in my opening topspin and I am locked in my backhand corner and I am lunging towards the deep cross court pushed ball.

A push as a safe stroke is a good idea. It is certainly better than making a poor shot selection and losing the point right away. On the other hand, if your push is not high quality, it will give away easy attacking chances to an opponent, so you have to use judgment. You also have to consider where along your offensive game has developed and will develop and ask yourself some questions. You will have to ask yourself if you are willing to lose practie games in order to develop a better step-around FH opening topspin or a BH tospin opener. When you try to grow this, you will fail... a LOT. That is the price for growing and if you are willing to fail, it will help you if you are improving in the shot you want. This is also connected to your tactics and strategy. generally, for an offensive player, it is better to train in practice matches to be the one who makes the first effective topspin, but practice games can be used for anything.

If your push is not good quality, there are ways to improve it. Maybe your balance and position were not good. Maybe you mis-read spin. Maybe you are indecisive or too timid. Maybe you are afraid to go for too mcuh. Maybe you just dont stay loose and accellerate the bat with touch. Either way, it would help a lot of you have a soft hand at impact and make your push right off the bounce for best control, possible angles, and time pressure. Try using your practice games to practice this. After some time, you will get better and your push will turn into a chance for you to go offensive much easier and high percentage.

2. Block - I can block the ball, but only when its a loop. I face tremendous difficultly when I see my opponent taking a bigger swing on a drive or when the ball has more speed and less spin to it I somehow freeze. I am not at all confident in blocking these kind of balls. Normally, all such blocks of mine travel to the net directly. So, I can block the opening topspin but I am poor in blocking subsequently in the rally. Also, I am not sure what should my distance with respect to the table be. When I consult better players they tell me to block on the bounce. However, against a follow up drive, I find that I am in better control if I move back a half step. Also, how do I play an active block and place the ball. I know it comes to practice but even if I practice this, I am not sure if I should do it in a match.

Of course the spin is less and you have ot open bat a little more, but you know this. Your problem is you gave away an easy ball not so deep to opponent who can hit it anywhere. That is hard to defend and predict exactly where opponent is trying to attack. You fight that by making better quality shots and it is not solved by me writing. Even if it is a push you give, if it is fast and at the crossover deep, you know opponent most of time is going cross-court, he cant step around enough to go down FH line with consistency. That is an example of a quality shot on your part making things a little more predictable.

If you can see where the flat shot is going, then can use a soft hand and a little more open bat and take it off the bounce. You can also let it bounce up to net height and have a firm grip at impact and go through it a bit (not even a swing, just a little trough the ball) to make a fast counter. I say you should be at the table blocking. You try blocking away from table, opponent has too mcuh time to continue attack and win the point. You block close to table on opponents' strong shots and you will see opponent struggle to keep up the attack if your block was of any quality. You also have the time pressure advange and all possibel angles available to you. Often, an opponent will mise more often if the ball doens't come to his comfort zone and he has to move to it, especially if it is real wide to his weak wing. Sometimes you give one to his strong wing and block it fast to his weak wing. There many ways to use this blocking to your advantage in a point.

My main point in all this is that you will NOT be able to do that blocking away from table.

Maybe you can learn to retrieve with side spin and deep placement, but blocking should be done at the table unless it is a dire emergency and that is the only way to stay in the point.

Personally, I use blocking as an offensive weapon in some points. YES, an offensive player like me wants to have opponent attack and I try blocking him off the table into making too aggressive a shot and miss. Some matches, i get more points that way and i am safer playing that style... but only as a variation and not let oppenent get used to it. It is good to develop blocking at the table, it will keep you in the point and LATER, when you have more touh and confidence, you can hit through and make your own counters.

3. Counters - I have a strong opening topspin third ball attack. However, I find it difficult to hit the ball more with speed and less with spin. I keep on adding spin to the blocked ball which I get back from my opponent and this keeps on increasing my swing and effort. Where eventually, I make a mistake.

This is a matter of taking a small step forward and making in more direct contact with a more forward swing. When you get used to trying a spinny first shot, remember to keep your bat UP at belly level and NOT drop your hitting shoulder again AND go forward into the ball. the rest will be very natural.

What I want is that during the 11 point set, I should be able to conserve my energy and play a more all round game on some points. I have realized that it is very difficult for amateur players like me to keep on blindly attacking each and every thing. My game should be more based on reading my opponent and building a counter-strategy around it, which is simple and easy to execute.

There are many ways the play the game and in my latest Kim Jung Hoon training vid I gisted, KJH himself stressed that there is no "Right" answer in TT. There are many effective ways to deal with situations and they all tie into your skills, confidence, tactics, and strategic growth. As I already said, I, as an attack first wannbe player, often will be content to allow opponent to attack (with the plan of making a quality push and reduce his options and make him more predictable) and I block, since I block well and am confident in it, I just need to make opponent attack to a zone I am ready and take it early to make opponent unconfortable and make errors or a weak shot that I will attack strongly and demoralize him. It never always works out the way you want all the time with similar level or higher level players, that is just how it is. However, you will decide what tools you have, which oens to grow, and how to connect them to suceed in a point and a match.