Do you practise returning serves? If not, why not?

Do you practise returning serves? If not, why not?

How important is it to practise returning serves? Well, look at it this way … 50% of points in a table tennis match begin with your opponent serving. You have to read your opponent’s serve, get the ball back on the table and hopefully put your opponent under pressure. In a game up to 11, if you miss 3, 4 or 5 of your opponent’s serves, you are at a massive disadvantage. From this perspective it would be crazy not to practise returning serves. Keep reading

DON’T PANIC! How to learn from your serve receive errors

DON’T PANIC! How to learn from your serve receive errors

Learning to read service spin is a vital skill in table tennis. 50% of points start with your opponent serving. If you can’t read your opponent’s serves, you are at a major disadvantage and will likely lose. Even though reading service spin is essential, it doesn’t make it easy to do. In this article I focus on one aspect of reading service spin which is often neglected… learning from your errors. Keep reading

How to return any table tennis serve

How to return any table tennis serve

Returning serves is the hardest part of table tennis for many players. For beginners it can feel like an impossible challenge. Even advanced players can lose a lot of points from missed returns of serve. But you only need four shots to return any serve. Don’t believe me? Let’s look at all the different types of service spin you will face and how you can return them… Keep reading

Tips on reading service spin

Tips on reading service spin

To return serves well, you need to read the spin. It sounds obvious, doesn’t it? But you’d be amazed how many players don’t really focus on reading the spin on the serve. If you have no idea what the spin is, then you have to guess. You might guess right. You might guess wrong. Either way it will be a guess, and guessing doesn’t usually end well. So, reading service spin is essential. In this article I explain a simple approach to reading service spin. Keep reading

[Video] How to return Craig Bryant’s 4 killer serves

[Video] How to return Craig Bryant’s 4 killer serves

Last month I posted a video “4 killer serves to destroy your opponents”, featuring service expert Craig Bryant.  I got several requests asking how you can return these serves. Luckily, I just about had enough footage of myself returning each serve (at least once!), so I have put together this new video explaining how to return Craig’s serves. Keep reading

When returning serves, DON’T PROD THE BALL

When returning serves, DON’T PROD THE BALL

Returning serves is hard. It’s the thing most players at the beginner and intermediate levels struggle with the most. But there are ways you can get better at returning serves, even if you have only just started playing table tennis. In this blog post, I give some simple advice about how you can return more serves, plus I share a BIG NO-NO, something you should never do… Keep reading

How to add more variety to your service returns

How do you return a backspin serve, which lands short, in the middle of the table? You actually you have far more options than you think. You can be very creative in how you return a short backspin serve. I picked up some great tips in a group coaching session I attended this week, which was run by Craig Bryant. In this blog post I share some of the things I learnt from Craig about how to improve the variation of your service returns. Keep reading