How to Handle the Die-Hard Pushers?
This is a brand-new, technique-focused column in a question-and-answer format. The mystery figures answering are two former national team members, both now veteran coaches. So the “Reaching the Summit” column was born.
I want to ask the experts: how should I practise defense?
Here I mainly cover defending loops. When defending loops, the key is your center of gravity, and the arm must be loose. First, defending the opponent’s drive-loop. Relatively, the body must be tight, the arm relaxed but not loose — meaning just not firing. When the ball comes, first meet it with the body’s center. When the ball is slightly higher than the net, or even with the net, brace with the center, bat angle about 60 degrees, slightly upright. If the incoming ball’s power is fairly great, do not move the arm — just let it auto-rebound. If power and spin are 50-50, the arm needs a slight slow-recovery pace-unloading motion when receiving. Second, defending the opponent’s high hang. If the incoming ball is very low, strongly spinny, with little power, your center should be slightly higher than for the drive-loop, the bat a bit higher than the ball, slightly pressed, 45 degrees, and the arm recovers and unloads a bit faster than for the drive-loop. If the opponent’s high hang is looped very high, then wait for the highest point and fire down.
How to handle the die-hard pushers?
The opponent dead-pushes without attacking, generally pushing very spinny. You cannot loop it well either, with no quality. Better to first push-touch one to the opponent’s backhand baseline; then the push back is not so spinny, and is a long ball — much easier to get on the offensive.
Why is Boll’s “low-arc dead-spin high hang” so rare?
The low-arc dead-spin high hang demands too much; even a 2300-point player easily errs. It requires: one, good distance control; two, footwork in place; three, a relaxed mindset; four, an arm relaxed enough; five, controlling the arc height; six, a thin-brushing stroke; seven, forearm and wrist recovery; eight, the center of gravity pressed down and braced forward.