Appreciate the reply, but I can assure you that the reason I'm afraid to return that girl's serve has nothing to do with equipment.
It's more mental, and I don't have the right concept for how to return serve.
I want everything to be black and white. If its backspin, let it be backspin so I can push it or loop it. If its topspin, let it be clean topspin so I can drive it. But if its slightly backspin with sidespin and a weird bounce, then I kinda freeze up and I don't know what to do.
I think I'm doing a little better lately, but mentally I still feel nervous receiving serve.
Alright then, lets leave the equipment part out of it, and then focus on the mental part.
I need a little more info though. You say you freeze on sidespin serves. What happens next?
It is normal though to be unsure about the opponents serve, it can sometimes take more then 2 games to figure it out, leaving you trailing 0-2, just because you had trouble with the serve.
The key is to try and see what works, and if something doesnt work, try something else. Of course its easier said then done when in the middle of a game. Try to remember what you did, and what went wrong.
“Oh I pushed it, but it went really high over the net, maybe I should flick next time”. Now you flick that same serve, the ball goes into the net. So next time, maybe try to push again, with an almost vertical angle. If you dont do this, its just like you are recieving every serve, like its your first time seeing it.
And sometimes the best recieve is nor black or white.
Story time:
I had this 1 opponent in a league match that had this short topspin serve I couldn’t properly attack (it was also illegal as hell because he was literally throwing the ball onto his bat to generate more spin). If I tried to flick it, it would go out. If I tried to topspin over the table it would go into the net. The serve dipped really fast after the bounce, so it was hard to get over the ball. The only way I would return his serve was to put my bat against it and gently play it back. It felt like if I did anything more then that, the ball would fly out as well. But this return was so weak that the opponent would just whip the ball right past me.
So 0-2 down now, and even though I could at least return his annoying illegal serve, the return was exactly what he wanted. What do you do then? I tried a different approach. Instead of just putting my bat against it, I waited a little longer and started it to slice it a little bit with side and backspin, similar to a chopblock actually. And what do you know? He tried to whip the ball past me like before, but he missed. The ball didn’t have the pace nor the spin he wanted to come back. So I started to sidespin chop all his topspin serves, and he didn’t know what to do with it. I turned his own serve against him and I won 3-2.
Of course this wasn’t the whole story of that match, but the reason I bring it up is because returning a serve shouldn’t always be black or white. You have to figure out what you opponent wants you to return.
When you serve, you serve to your own strengths. But when you recieve, you should try to prevent playing into your opponents strength. And the usual response to a short topspin serve, is to flick it. And even if you have the best flicks in the world, if your opponent wants you to do so you are playing into his strength. But if you give them some dodgy side-backspin ball, you might dismantle their entire game plan.
So next time you get one of these dodgy sidespin serves, dont feel obligated having to push, flick or topspin accordingly to the spin thats on it.
I hope that helps.
