Serve and Return Shots Better to Win at Table Tennis
Serving the same way every time is how most beginning ping pong players play. Therefore, when you decide to take the sport seriously and up your game, you need to serve with variety. You need to keep your opponent challenged no matter whether you're playing on a professional table tennis table or an ordinary one. When you watch intermediate and pro players, you'll see a range of different services. Everyone needs at least two: one with a heavy backspin on the ball and another that is fast. Serving forehand or backhand is your choice, and some players use both. Your serves should win you points.
Most players work on their fast serve first. You drop the ball very close to table height and hit it as close as possible to the end line on your side of the table. You need to do both to fire off a serve that is a real challenge for your opponent to return. As you begin playing table tennis matches, improving your serve is crucial in improving your game. If you're watching intermediate and pro players, keep an eye out for the many different kinds of serves. They include backhand, forehand, high toss, forehand pendulum, forehand reverse pendulum, forehand and backhand tomahawk. You can look for them all.
As you improve your table tennis game, learning to return challenging serves from tough opponents is required. The point is to be ready for nearly anything because there are infinite combinations of speed, spin, and placement. It's common to have difficulty returning serves at first. To gain proficiency, you need to decide which serve your opponent will make, adjust your position, and be ready to make a successful return. The game moves quickly, and all of these occur within a split second, so learning to think fast is vital. You need to practice playing against worthy opponents to develop your return skills.
Playing successfully against your opponent often involves figuring out what kind of spin he puts on the ball coming at you. You need to be ready with a drive shot if you're facing topspin. A push shot is a preferable way to deal with backspin. As you improve, one of the skills you need to develop is reading your opponent's shots. When returning serves, you also need to keep an eye out for sidespin, which is also possible. More advanced opponents will put different kinds of spin on their serves, and you need to adjust your strokes to deal with each one. Practicing and training will help you improve your skills.
