How to Receive Serve More Completely?
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.
How do I practice receiving serve more completely, so I can get on the offensive against short balls and cover long balls too?
The key is keeping the distance between bat and incoming ball. Try this when receiving: with half the bat over the table, have the opponent serve a fast long ball to ambush you. Keep a certain distance between bat and ball, about 40 to 50 centimeters; when a fast long underspin comes off the table, draw the bat down with the center of gravity, then move into the ball. The premise is a very loose arm, leading the bat with the body, joining the center of gravity with the incoming ball’s force, the thumb-index web pulling the bat back fast. If the incoming ball is topspin, do not draw the bat down — draw it straight back and press forward. If the ball does not come off the table, your bat, being over the table, can side-slice, short touch, or flick. Do not put the bat too low, or receiving short balls gets hard. Use the body, keeping a suitable bat-to-ball distance, to make up for the eyes’ judgment error. This way you can get on the offensive against half-long and not-off-the-table balls, while covering short and fast-long balls. The key is keeping the bat-to-ball distance. But because this distance is short, relatively, the striking power drops too — but you can make up with spin and placement. This operation is just to give your receive fewer holes.
The opponent serves a short side-underspin; I struggle to short-touch and easily get attacked, but I cannot loop it either. What do I do?
First, if your feel is good enough, you can directly flick. Second, lean the bat back a bit and push-flick down the line. Third, short-touch is not impossible, but at this point do not contact the ball head-on — slice the ball from the side, mainly unloading the opponent’s sidespin. Add friction with both wrist and fingers. This way the return is fast, stays on the table, and the ball going over is still sidespin — equal to handing the problem back to the opponent.