Which of These Two Makes the Provincial Team?
This is a brand-new, technique-focused column in question-and-answer form. The mystery figures answering are two former national team members, both now veteran coaches. So the “Reaching the Summit” column was born.
(Heima PLC, a Mizutani Jun with more bottom power)
My opponent’s short control clearly beats mine. How do I crack it? My sidespin-up fast serve gets pushed wide; my short serve gets controlled and I cannot open up.
Combine two things: a fast straight long serve (with sidespin-down) to the opponent’s backhand end line, plus a forehand sidespin-down short serve (more sidespin, less backspin).
Good controllers usually stand relatively close on the backhand side. Serve a fast straight long ball (with sidespin-down) and the opponent must back off. Then mix in a forehand sidespin-down short serve, and he struggles to control it — the effect comes. Because covering forehand from the backhand, most amateurs reach across flat, rarely cutting diagonally to the forehand. When he reaches in, at most he brings one ball, and after serving you back off and prepare to drive hard. Add a fast long ball to his backhand corner and he dares not stay close. These two serves untie all the knots.
When you have time, watch more of Ma Lin’s play, especially late career — do not just watch the strokes, focus on his psychology. Think about why he handles a ball the way he does: many balls are easy to attack, yet he deliberately does not. His thinking differs from normal ball-pattern thinking — you cannot guess his next stroke at all, and you end up passively following his lead.
Does Ma Long have any technical holes?
Ma Long has a touch of Ma Lin in him. His traits: good consecutive play, good control, strong opening ability. His shortcomings: he demands very good footwork, and lacks power.
His holes are almost none. But as he ages, holes begin to show — like Ma Lin, he fears being “pressed to the backhand then sent to the forehand.”
(Heima’s aside: the key to “press backhand, send forehand” is to move the opponent’s center of gravity, press it to one side, then suddenly change direction.)
That stroke is most lethal, because Ma Long’s backhand power is relatively weak, so he frequently pivots — a penhold flavor. When Fan Zhendong plays him, he often presses Ma Long’s backhand and hammers the forehand.
My backhand loop against backspin makes many errors — I can only lightly brush then flick-hit.
Use the body’s center of gravity to eat the ball. Apply force with the body’s center, brace against the ball, and the arm stays very loose. After bracing the ball, the wrist then applies force, flinging hard toward the right-front-up. Your many errors must be because you always brace the ball with arm force. After the arm applies force, you cannot build speed, so you cannot cancel the incoming spin, and you always go into the net.
If a loop sounds like it has a striking sound, that is correct. If a loop makes no sound, you are thin-brushing — that ball goes over with only spin, no speed or power, a high loop. It is easy for the opponent to smash, and easy for you to whiff.
Two people, pick one for the provincial team: one thin-brushes the ball over the table; one relies on striking, landing it sometimes and not others. The provincial team will surely pick the striker. Because the thin-brusher, though he gets the ball on the table and very spinny, has no power. If you make him change to “strike first, then brush,” he immediately cannot play — too much to change. First, psychologically he must overcome it: knowing the incoming backspin is very spinny, yet forcing himself to strike up into it — that mental hurdle is hard. Second, technically, the more spin and less power, the slower the ball; now even an all-out drive can be counter-looped, let alone your little high loop. A slow topspin ball — amateurs fear it, but pros love it: brace it with the center, apply full-body force, and the return quality is higher.
On technique, note: lifting backspin on the backhand must be done in the late rising phase. First, you can borrow force; second, the spin has not fully come out, so a slightly faster speed is no problem.