Everything about Receiving - Share your Tips and Tricks

[doppelmoral]

Hi Community,

today I want to talk about receiving. The topic came up because of the training matches I had recently. For context, my TTR is around 1600 right now, and my opponents are on a similar level.

Almost all of the matches I had in the past weeks have been decided by serve-receive. my opponents / training partners cant receive my serves, and I struggle heavily vs theirs.

I practise topspins, open ups, short game, footwork, serves.. but I definitely practise receiving way too little. It happens very often that I am tense or am "fearing" the opponents serve even before they executed it. and I know my opponents feel the same when they have to receive my serves

I want to start practising receiving more in the upcoming weeks, and feel confident from the start of the point.

What are some tips and tricks you have for receiving? More specifically, how did you practise and learn to get confident?

I know it is generally the advice to watch the opponents racket and ball at the moment of impact. But to be honest, the time to react is very short, and I find it hard to do this consistently.

What is your approach on receiving? Do you have a flowchart or strategy? Do you rely on soft hands or firm impact? Do you prefer early or late impact?

Thank you!

 

[Tyce]

When you relax and wait for the ball to drop (short serve mostly) you will find you have more time than you feel. There's no need to take the ball straight off the bounce, let the spin ride out a bit, step in, keep your elbow bent.
A stretched arm is hard to control.

Also, your ready position should have enough space to receive a fast long serve. You can always step in for a short receive, stepping out to receive an unexpected long serve is nearly impossible.

If my opponent serves from my BH side, I will stand a little more towards my FH, and vice versa, to cover the extreme angles.


Waiting for the ball to drop will also tell you more about the direction of spin on the ball. A more gliding trajectory indicates backspin, a faster drop indicates topspin.

Then, what do you do with the ball? Well if you can attack, attack. But placement is more important. A short ball in the corner where your opponent isn't standing, a long ball to the body, and if they're too close to the table long corners will also work most of the time. Half long, "safe" returns are usually just opportunities for the opponent to 3rd ball it.


I don't usually watch the contact point or the opponent's bat movements. I watch the ball trajectory, and for my level, I don't often get deceived successfully in terms of what direction the spin is going, but I do misjudge the amount of spin, usually overestimating.

 

[NextLevel]

Hi Community,

today I want to talk about receiving. The topic came up because of the training matches I had recently. For context, my TTR is around 1600 right now, and my opponents are on a similar level.

Almost all of the matches I had in the past weeks have been decided by serve-receive. my opponents / training partners cant receive my serves, and I struggle heavily vs theirs.

I practise topspins, open ups, short game, footwork, serves.. but I definitely practise receiving way too little. It happens very often that I am tense or am "fearing" the opponents serve even before they executed it. and I know my opponents feel the same when they have to receive my serves

I want to start practising receiving more in the upcoming weeks, and feel confident from the start of the point.

What are some tips and tricks you have for receiving? More specifically, how did you practise and learn to get confident?

I know it is generally the advice to watch the opponents racket and ball at the moment of impact. But to be honest, the time to react is very short, and I find it hard to do this consistently.

What is your approach on receiving? Do you have a flowchart or strategy? Do you rely on soft hands or firm impact? Do you prefer early or late impact?

Thank you!

Lots of half long serve practice. Lots of practice playing topspins on balls by not starting below the table and risking a racket breaker. And then some practice on balls just coming off the table. A lot of bad serve return is caused by people not recognizing a serve is really long and using a short service return approach to return it.

Also lots of banana practice. Good banana practice will leave you able to return a serve of almost any length on the backhand with a banana type stroke, even long serves.

Lots of short push followed by getting back into position to play a topspin on both forehand and backhand.

Those are the things that improved my approach to service return the most.

 

[Topspinslinger]

The goal is to
Long serve: attack
Short serve: push long and wait to block other corner. OR push short and wait for opponent to push it too high.

Untill you receive top country service, then you just survive 😆

 

[Yuomay]

I know two excersises with focus on receiving. It’s always complicated.
1st one
chose a service for example pendulum topspin half long.
Select 3 receives, for example, pivot; flick and strawberry push. You’re not allowed to use one more than twice in a row.

2nd one
Server selects a serve combo for example tomahawk short forehand and tomahawk long to the middle.
Receiver anticipates either one

The goal is for both to choose before playing the point if the receiver choses right he’s supposed to gain the upper hand. If he choses wrong he needs to recover and defend the point

 

[golden_son]

It's a bit of a cop-out answer, but what has worked for me is simply having a coach with a seemingly bottomless collection of serves, and making sure to include receive practice in every session. I imagine not all coaches have as wide of a repertoire, but mine can serve basically any style, any spin, anywhere on the table. With that much variety in practice, normal human serves rarely surprise or confuse me anymore. (Penhold is a little harder for me to read, still, but I'm starting to get it.) If I totally flub a receive, I can usually figure out why for the next one.

In short: exposure. Yuomay's suggestions are great for practicing against a variety of serves with different receive options, so long as you can find someone that can give those serves to you. I saw someone suggest once that if you encounter someone with serves that flummox you, offer them $20 to just serve to you for an hour so you can learn how to receive it -- not a bad piece of advice! I've managed to convince a few clubmates to do it for free. Every bit of repetition helps make receieve easier and more automatic.

 

[lightspin]

I think having some sort of system before the person serves is a good idea. If they serve this, I will do that. Your system depends on your own strengths and weaknesses.

A second tip is to wait until the ball drops down for short serves before you make contact. This will force you to wait for the ball. The ball will have less spin. You will have more time to judge the ball. You won't be rushing in towards the ball which can be problematic, especially if you make a mistake and they serve long and you think it will be short.
A final tip is to be deceptive in the way you react to a missed return. You do not want your opponent to think they have completely tricked you. If they know you cannot read their serve, they are going to do minor variations on that serve and abuse you. If you miss, just brush it off as if it were nothing.

 

[Lula]

- play against different opponents.
- practice service yourself. Best is at home at the floor and look how the ball moves. Really learn the small difference.
- watch the hit and movement: under ball or go down --> backspin and the opposite. Can also try to look at the elbow, if elbow is higher it is often less downspin.
- look at the ball and how it moves: i assume players did like this before with hidden service. Look at the naming. With nospin/backspin serve i think backspin often moves faster. With topsin the ball jumps a bit.
- try different sides: you can always go with or against the spin. This is somewhat preference but i think new players often try to think that they should do the same. The opponent hit their right side of the ball from my point of view, then i hit also the right side
- basically with difficult serves. If you can not read correctly you push long
- try a lot of different things. In the end you learn what works
- try to start a lot of exercises with service and return. You are completely correct that it always start with that.

Probably most important to serve a lot yourself. I think the best is on the floor. Then you will understand spin and will be able to return well. Be playful!

 

[blahness]

For me few things that were crucial:

1) bending down to have eye level lower to see the contact point and ball trajectory much clearer.

2) time split step at contact to react quickly because first step in receive is always to move to the ball no matter how close it is.

3) less arm, more body weight and use of fingers to control the ball. Less arm movement is better because it makes you faster and more sudden which can surprise opponents

4) when looping fast long serves best is to take it early with a very short topspin stroke and not allow the ball to jam you. Reserve harder loops for slower long serves.

5) in general, try to go with the sidespin when looping long serves, it makes your life a lot easier.

6) be more precise with ball contact points and type of contact for different serve spins. Also, much easier when eye levels is closer to the ball. You should always know why you missed and how to correct it. Lack of precision means that your serve receive performance is just random.

 

[Dr Evil]

Lots of good advice. My favorites: Eyes as close to net height as possible. Serve contact can be deceptive, but the trajectory never lies. If it's a tricky serve, wait and contact it on the way down. Learn to go with the spin, not just against it; this gives useful feedback (especially when you misread a serve) and helps to develop better touch.

 

[doppelmoral]

alot of great advice in this thread. I have taken notes, and will try to implement your tips into my practise routine

thank you!