half long soft / less spin pushes! Absolutely hate'em MF'ers!

[Gozo Aruna]

Wonderful netizens of TTD,

I struggle to return less spin pushes that are half long. If I push heavy, the balls pops up and gets killed by opponent or it goes out of the table whereas if I push soft, the ball does not clear the net. If I loop, it goes over the table. Please help. Half long means the ball is very close to the edge of the table and it is not-heavy spin. Thanks a million.

NB: Strangely I have no issues if it is heavy spin as I will let it drop a little and then spin it up and the ball will have tons of spin and is difficult for the other side. It is those half long less spin pushes that I struggle with.

NBB: This is where these dodgy aunties and uncles excel at, as they do not push heavy because of their poor technique ( I mean it is like they are not deliberately trying to push softly ) you get a lot of these half arse non committed pushes.

 

[K.K]

you can try to either take the ball at the highest point and go more through the ball, that is what i mostly do and this results in the most winning points, but can sometimes go into the net if you misjudge the spin or timing (dependend on the quality of your opponent). or play it safe and spin it the same as you do with letting the ball fall, but instead of going up you go more forward. if the ball goes out you need put more spin to get more drop or go even more forward.

*take your right leg to the ball, sometimes this can mean under the table

*if the ball is even more dead then you thought then you can try to just play a normal drive.

*if you second thought it and still push, then try to push it down. sometimes this means that your racket touch the table, the same as pushing a no spin serve

 

[KM1976]

If you can practice alone, then just do this for sometime -
1. Stay close to the baseline, and stay low.
2. Bounce the ball on the table, if you want you can also brush it slightly in a chop/push motion so that the ball has little backspin. Actually you can do both - dead ball and a little backspin ball.
3. Make no backswing, but just try to catch the ball early - preferably before it reaches it highest point and just push it forward to the other side. Don't use wrist, don't do anything extra but just push it with one motion using your forearm. Here in this step, you main goal is to push is back and try to keep the ball low and if it slow then it is a good advantage for you.
4. Once you are comfortable with step 3, then try to go a little bit on the side of the ball like to generate a little sidespin. Again try to keep the ball low that is the main objective. Don't try to exert force and keep doing it relaxed each time try to improve your timing and on keeping the ball low.
5. Once you have done step 4, you should now try to target the corners - meaning trying to get this ball low and slow but going out from the sides of the table. The setup here is that if the ball is slow and low with little side spin then your opponent needs to push it back which will be a high ball.
6. Now do the steps with couple of balls, one you push and other you purposefully bounce a little higher and try to tap or counter. Again, focus less on force and more on placement and accuracy.

Try these steps on your - forehand side, middle and backhand. You should be comfortable with no spin low push and also with adding a little side spin on the ball with little movement to disguise it from your opponent. This shot does not requires force or backswing, I am repeating this again since I found many players trying to go ballistic on these shots, which is not the objective.

 

[dingyibvs]

Wonderful netizens of TTD,

I struggle to return less spin pushes that are half long. If I push heavy, the balls pops up and gets killed by opponent or it goes out of the table whereas if I push soft, the ball does not clear the net. If I loop, it goes over the table. Please help. Half long means the ball is very close to the edge of the table and it is not-heavy spin. Thanks a million.

NB: Strangely I have no issues if it is heavy spin as I will let it drop a little and then spin it up and the ball will have tons of spin and is difficult for the other side. It is those half long less spin pushes that I struggle with.

NBB: This is where these dodgy aunties and uncles excel at, as they do not push heavy because of their poor technique ( I mean it is like they are not deliberately trying to push softly ) you get a lot of these half arse non committed pushes.

It's a difficult ball to attack strongly because there's neither speed nor spin for you to borrow. If it's not high, then hitting/driving is tough too because of the flatter trajectory. One way to deal with it is just let it fall a bit and then use a small motion to brush loop, then you can attack the subsequent block more strongly.

 

[Gozo Aruna]

It's a difficult ball to attack strongly because there's neither speed nor spin for you to borrow. If it's not high, then hitting/driving is tough too because of the flatter trajectory. One way to deal with it is just let it fall a bit and then use a small motion to brush loop, then you can attack the subsequent block more strongly.

this sound easy enough.... I'll try this.

 

[Yuomay]

If you do push, push deep onto the table to give you time to drop off the table and limit the angle to deal with the smash that's incoming. [this is not a pro solution]

 

[rpb23]

Wonderful netizens of TTD,

I struggle to return less spin pushes that are half long. If I push heavy, the balls pops up and gets killed by opponent or it goes out of the table whereas if I push soft, the ball does not clear the net. If I loop, it goes over the table. Please help. Half long means the ball is very close to the edge of the table and it is not-heavy spin. Thanks a million.

NB: Strangely I have no issues if it is heavy spin as I will let it drop a little and then spin it up and the ball will have tons of spin and is difficult for the other side. It is those half long less spin pushes that I struggle with.

NBB: This is where these dodgy aunties and uncles excel at, as they do not push heavy because of their poor technique ( I mean it is like they are not deliberately trying to push softly ) you get a lot of these half arse non committed pushes.

Believe it or not, for this type of push ( weak backspin at the middle of the table), smash works if you hit the ball at its peak aiming to the deep end of the table. Try to avoid using big back swing and hit with most forearm and wrist. Because you hit early and sudden with small motion, you very often score an immediate winner. I used to hit these shots so often in my earlier years that my opponents often claimed I could smash anything on the table.

However, the better approach is pros' way, that is, loop. For pros, anything is loop-able, heavy/weak backspin, floater, topspin etc. The key is reading the spin of the incoming and apply the proper brush technique. For weak spin, lower your stance, brush in forward motion and use the wrist snap to suppress the arc.

Another way to deal with this if you don't have a good loop shot is, you need to distribute the brush and direct hit properly when your hit the ball. For weak or no backspin, apply more direct hitting and less brush.

Yet, one more way to handle that shot and pros also use it very often is, using backhand flip or loop, a more economic and reliable shot at the expense of less power and more footwork.

 

[NextLevel]

Gozo,

My answer is a little different from what everyone else has written. But maybe it is because I play with a different mindset.

So when you loop a ball long, what adjustments do you need to make to loop that ball onto the table? When you loop a ball into the net, what adjustments do you need to make to help that ball get over the net?

I try to see my forehand as one stroke whose start point, contact point and follow through I adapt to various balls. So I need to figure out what adjustments I need to make to my stroke to change it from lifting a ball off the table to putting it on the table.

If you do this, you will see that there are lots of options for looping light pushes, you can treat them like backspin but finish lower (swing with a slightly smaller curve less upwards), or you can treat them like topspin and finish higher (swing through a slightly larger curve less forwards). Both options work for me, the backspin one tends to have more spin, and the topspin one tends to have more speed.

 

[WingTT]

Do it like the pros - if the ball is too low, control push it back the way it came in and see what comes back. Repeat until the ball is high enough for a flick backhand or forehand. If you decide not to play the push push game, push it long step back get ready to loop or counter or block. I you can't control the height of you ball, consider switching to harder more controllable rubbers and maybe your blade to a carbon blade with large head 159mm.

 

[pong99]

Get a rubber golf tee, like the ones used at driving ranges.

Put a ball on the tee at the back edge of the table. Take some swings and figure out what works best for you.

 

[banbekas]

Brush the ball slightly and drive or flick it.

 

[vvk1]

IMO, the key thing here is "half-long". Unless you move closer to the table, however little, you'll end up having to stretch the arm forward too much to get to the ball. Hence pop-up's when pushing and balls going off when looping.