serve-and-after-the-serve-playing-defensive-or-all-round
Bobv asked 6 years ago
Hi guys,
Thanks for the defense videos once again. I play a mix of defense and attack and was wondering how to serve and either 1) determine that I can attack the return of service or 2) return serve and get back into my defensive zone. This might be the topic of an entire video, but thought I would get your view on it. I would really like to base my game on Satoshi Aida as he mixes both attack and defense so well. Thanks very much!
Tom Academy Coach answered 6 years ago
Hi Bobv,
No problem, we want to continue adding these type of videos for members as they are proving very popular. Firstly Satoshi Aida is a great player to base your game off, I actually played him this season in the British premier league and had a very good competitive game with him, he’s a high quality player. It can be a very effective style and also extremely enjoyable playing a mix of defence and attack which somebody like Satoshi does so well. For this style I would say you defend about 75% of the time roughly but are always looking to get a weak ball or create an opportunity for you to attack strongly.
On your points with serve it is quite tricky to serve a certain ball to get an attack or into a defensive zone because you can’t guarantee what the opponent will do with their returns of course. We’ll look at making a video on this topic for sure, but for now there are a coupe of things you can do. If your looking to get back into your defensive zone quickly then your best option is a short heavy backspin serve which limits their opportunities to attack strongly and means you are more likely to get a push back. If your looking to attack then a float/no spin serve or a heavy side spin serve would be your best option for getting a ball that sits up to attack with a topspin. Again you can’t guarantee that these scenarios will happen especially if the opponent is a strong returner but it gives you the best chance.
Hope those points will help, anything else on this topic just let me know!
BobvThanks so ,much, Tom. Yes, I saw your video analysis of you playing him and it took me a while to realize that it was him! How cool. I think he is relevant to me since he plays with inverted on both sides and so do I.
And you are right. He does it well. What is interesting to me is that the amount of defense he plays seems to depend upon who he is playing. Do you see it that way, as well?
For example, he played a lot of defense against you, yet when he played Joo Se Hyuk in 2007 he played almost all attack I cant ask him, of course, but I wonder how he makes the determination how much of either style to play and when.
Hes a pretty cool player for sure, and you did just great against him!
