Using the Diagonal Principle to Win More Points in Table Tennis
This is a brand-new, technique-focused column in a Q&A format. The mystery experts answering your questions are two former national team players who are now veteran coaches. They just want a quiet life and a good night’s sleep — no fame needed.
Sharing these technical insights with readers seems genuinely worthwhile, and a natural complement to the broader conversation about the game.
And so the “Climbing to the Peak” column was born.
How Do You Feel the “Dwell” When Looping?
Dwell time is when the rubber grips the ball and the contact is sustained for a relatively long moment. How do you achieve it? The key is using acceleration in your swing.
Focus on feeling the forearm snap and retract with acceleration. Acceleration means your swing goes from slow to fast — a variable-speed motion, not a constant one. It comes from the coordinated force of the forearm muscles together with the fingers and wrist.
Lin Yun-Ju’s Left-Hand Serve — Float Ball to Ma Long’s Forehand. How Should Ma Long Handle It?
Personally, I think you shouldn’t just keep pushing down the middle. Mix in some flick attacks occasionally. If you only push short or dig long the whole time, your opponent is preparing exclusively for your backspin return. A flick won’t necessarily win the point outright, but it disrupts their preparation and rhythm.
When pushing short and digging long stop working, try mixing in topspin balls (like a flick) and no-spin balls — the topspin pushes forward, the no-spin just sits there. Combine both. Now Lin Yun-Ju has to prepare for a lot more possibilities, and his single-ball quality drops. More variation from you means lower quality from him.
The Diagonal Principle — How Does It Work?
Say you attack your opponent’s backhand, then redirect to their forehand. As they move from backhand to forehand, they’re stretching diagonally with their body twisted. Their return quality at that moment is low. The same logic applies in reverse — attack forehand, redirect backhand; pull forehand, drive backhand; pull backhand, drive forehand. The goal in every case is to make your opponent’s weight shift out of position so their reply is weak.
Here’s a concrete example. Suppose nothing in your serve game is bothering your opponent. You can build a pattern around the diagonal principle. First, read where they’re standing.
If they’re positioned toward the backhand side, a bit away from the table, serve a short soft backspin ball to their forehand. They can’t borrow pace, can’t flick or hook it — they can only push short. After that push, you can touch or dig the ball to their backhand wide corner. They now need three full movement steps to get there. You’ve created your opportunity.
After a few of those short serves, they’ll adjust and stand more toward the middle. Now their attention is focused on the forehand short ball. That’s when you switch to a fast, long serve that tails out to their backhand. They need three steps again — and because your fast serve breaks away to the outside, they’ll most likely return it to your backhand. From there, you can choose to push fast down the line on the rising ball, or step around and loop hard at the peak.