distance-from-table
lem496 asked 5 years ago
Hi guys
My short game is lacking at best. I find myself serving a lot of topspin to try to get my opponents into rallies quickly to allow me to play away from the table. I know this isn’t a good strategy but it’s been the most successful for me so far, but as I move up the ranks it is becoming less and less effective . Are there any drills to help play closer to the table? Id love to be able to play a quick short game. I really need to learn to hold my ground.
Tom Academy Coach answered 5 years ago
Hi Lem496,
Ok I know exactly what you mean and there are a few things that can help you in this area and get you more comfortable close to the table and work on improving your short game. Firstly I would say the best and most simple drill that is effective at working on random ball placements and staying close is getting a partner to block anywhere on the table and you have to topspin into their backhand block. We have a video on this exercise and it’s great for improving recovery and anticipation.
You also mentioned your short game was weak, if that’s the case you need to do a lot of serve and return drills and practice touching short to stop your opponents attacking first. A good and effective fun exercise you can do is short touch to touch with your partner and if the ball goes long or high you can topspin or flick and play the point out. This really helps you practice the short touch but also look to attack when your opponents shot is too high or weak.
I think with focus and time you can really improve the short game and it will have a big impact on improvement, of course feel free to send us in any videos of you playing and we’ll be happy to analyse and give you feedback to help you improve.
lem496Thanks, I will. I wish I had taken video of yesterday’s tournament. The higher level players weren’t having any of my topspin serve nonsense. They ate me up!
No worries, yeah that’s the problem when you come up against stronger players they attack easily the topspin serves. Yeah you can learn a lot from watching videos, maybe you can take a video in training or at your next tournament ?
