Do you find you can play your shots well in training sessions, but when it comes to a match your technique breaks down?
If so, you are not alone.
It is very common for players at the beginner and intermediate levels to make lots of technical errors when playing matches.
There are usually multiple reasons for this – lack of confidence, match pressure, opponents with awkward playing style. But one overlooked factor is that players don’t practice nearly enough against variations of spin intensity.
Heavy spin
In general there are three spin intensities with most table tennis shots…
- Light spin
- Medium spin
- Heavy spin
In our training sessions we often end up practising against ‘medium spin’. A training partner usually tries to be helpful and give balls which are a little challenging, but not too challenging.
For example, if two players are doing a drill of practising topspin vs backspin, the feeder will usually push with medium backspin. This gives the attacking player an ideal ball to loop with good quality and good consistency. The attacking player is pleased with his progress and the feeder is pleased that he was able to help his training partner.
But when it comes to a match, the loop against backspin seems to stop working. Why? In a match, your opponent tends not to give a ‘medium’ backspin ball. The push will often be more aggressive. There will be more backspin and more speed too.
That’s when the technique breaks down. The looping technique which works against medium backspin, usually fails against heavy backspin. There needs to be a slight change of swing trajectory (more vertical), bat angle (more open) and timing (slightly later).
If you haven’t practised looping against heavy backspin, it’s not a surprise you can’t execute the shot in an actual match.
The solution? In training sessions you should practise looping against medium backspin (to get the fundamentals right and build confidence) and practice looping against heavy backspin. You will then learn how to recognise heavy backspin and how to adapt your stroke against heavy backspin. Then in a match, if you face an opponent who pushes and chops with heavy backspin, you will know how to attack consistently.
Light spin
What about light spin? Is it worth practising against balls which only have a little amount of spin? We tend to avoid this in training sessions too, as it’s too ‘easy’.
Let’s return to our looping against backspin example. How often do you say to your training partner to give you a floaty push with only a little amount of backspin? It rarely happens. It just seems too easy to attack.
But in a match we can often mess up a loop against a floaty push. Why? The lack of spin and speed makes the ball sit up on the table. It doesn’t carry through as much. This can cause us to mistime the loop and overhit.
Again there needs to be a slight change to the swing trajectory (more horizontal), bat angle (more closed) and timing (slightly earlier).
If you haven’t practised looping against light backspin, it’s not a surprise you can’t execute the shot in an actual match.
The solution? Practice your loop against medium backspin, heavy backspin and light backspin. You will then be able to attack backspin balls with different spin intensities and your technique will be far more robust and consistent.
The ideal way to practice
Practising against medium spin – whether backspin or topspin – is still very useful when you are developing your technique. It will still challenge you, but it’s not impossibly difficult. You have an opportunity to build confidence in your fundamental technique.
But once you have achieved a decent level of consistency against medium spin, you should also practise against both heavy spin and light spin.
I recommend doing a drill where you combine all three spin intensities together. For example, if practising topspin vs backspin, try the following…
- You serve backspin
- Your partner returns with a push which has either light, medium or heavy backspin
- You loop, adapting your stroke to the amount of backspin
This drill will help you read the amount of backspin from your partner’s push and make those slight technical adjustments to your looping action. The randomness of the spin intensity more accurately reflects what happens in an actual match. Since you are practising in a more match-realistic way, you will find your technique becomes much more consistent in your real competitive matches.
To finish, here’s a coaching video I published a few years ago, where I helped a player called Tim with exactly this issue…
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