Spin

Hootsmon

Your opponent hits you a table tennis ball with lots of topspin on....how'd you all deal with this,more top spin on the return or bottom spin....how do you deal with spin,wots the proper shot return choice

I used tae be pretty hot at table tennis without thinking much about the technical issues such as spin but I could serve a good spin shot myself but there was this guy I just just never beat, not because he was a shit hot player, but because of his bloody serve.

He worked as a fireman and played TT all bloody day long

I'd be lucky to get to 21:10 I just could not return that serve!

munckee

I thought I was reasonable at table tennis when I was a teenager I could beat all my friends. We went on Holiday to a campsite in France when I was 15. I entered a tournament. in the first round I was against a 3 foot 6 14 year old French kid who was number 4 in France at under 16s.  I didn’t score a point or return a serve in.  

He beat his adult coach in the final. 

Paul_C

That sort of thing is always amusing.

I used to play in a squash league and one time we had one of the top group players starting at the bottom after some time away.

I barely saw the ball and to be honest it was a huge waste of time for both of us.

TeleMaster

The only kind of ping pong I like is the one that comes out of a delay pedal. 

Kittyfrisk

TeleMaster said:

The only kind of ping pong I like is the one that comes out of a delay pedal. 

I prefer the Commons v Lords Rwanda bill type...

Timcito

My brother and I were spoilt bastards in actually having a full-sized table at home, and we played many times every day from when I was 9 to about 13 or 14. We got to playing so fast that instinct took over, and I, at least, got a kind of trance-like high out of it. Topspin was returned with topspin as far as I remember.

BillDL

Victoria María Aragüés Gadea used to serve ping pong balls in the most outrageous way.  I'm not sure of she could put any bottom spin on them though.

munckee

BillDL said:

Victoria María Aragüés Gadea used to serve ping pong balls in the most outrageous way.  I'm not sure of she could put any bottom spin on them though.

We went to a club in Amsterdam where a young lady served like this. She then wrote us a postcard using a black marker and no hands. 

She refused my marriage proposal.  

steveledzep

I played to a high standard when in my teens (N.Wales championship runner-up).  I had an attacking style and where possible I'd belt a topspin shot back with further topspin.  I'd only use backspin when it was impossible to get in a position to topspin.

AK99

Hootsmon said:

Your opponent hits you a table tennis ball with lots of topspin on....how'd you all deal with this,more top spin on the return or bottom spin....how do you deal with spin,wots the proper shot return choice

The younger brother used to play a lot as a kid - he was at a boarding school and had lots of time at it. Junior county-level player. Used to run me ragged round the table for fun. Humiliating

Not sure there is a definitive technique - probably depends on where your opponent is in relation to the table. If he/she were a long way back, a short chopping shot with back or left/right spin to kill it just over the net or steer it away from them might be the ideal option - or alternatively if the opponent was a long way back and positioned way right or left of centre then a fast top-spin shot to the opposite quarter to send it over like a rocket well out of range to score or pull them out of position might be the job.

Worth looking at some of the Olympic standard player vids on YouTube - see what their preferred return is perhaps ?

HAL9000

munckee said:

I thought I was reasonable at table tennis when I was a teenager I could beat all my friends. We went on Holiday to a campsite in France when I was 15. I entered a tournament. in the first round I was against a 3 foot 6 14 year old French kid who was number 4 in France at under 16s.  I didn’t score a point or return a serve in.  

He beat his adult coach in the final. 

Similar experience here. We moved house while Mrs9000 was pregnant. At ante-natal classes she met someone whose husband ‘used to play a bit of squash’ and set it up for him and myself to have a game. I hardly even saw the ball, let alone managed to return it. Turned out the guy had been a Scottish junior champion for something like two years running.

Kurtis

I wouldn't have thought it would matter. You're surely putting new spin on it when you hit it?

Their top spin is your back spin. Not like it's spinning faster and faster every time it's hit. 

RaymondLin

Top spin back, hard and fast.  Try to overpower it with more force, is what I would do.  But the hardest part is predicting its trajectory after it bounce on the table.

(I used to play a lot as a teenager, in a county league at one point and won 1 trophy in doubles.)

sinbaadi

Thought this was one of the weirdest text adventure games ever, for a minute.

Open_G

I remember playing a Boys Brigade national competition as a teenager a couple of times. The first year we narrowly lost in the 2nd or third round to a local group with me winning all my games. The next year we drew the same group. They had somehow ended up getting involved with a local coach and had developed spins and power that meant I just couldn’t get a ball back onto the table despite having a bit of topspin and slice in my arsenal. As their balls hit my bat it would just grip and bounce off in a seemingly random direction. 

It was an early sign of the value of some decent sports coaching.