At local league level players use a lot of long serves. These are serves which land very deep on your side of the table. These serves are usually topspin or sidespin, but can be backspin too. What’s the best way of returning these long serves? There are some common errors players make, but also some very simple adjustments. Follow the tips in this article and you’ll find it much easier. Keep reading
Here’s a simple tactic you can use when returning serves in doubles matches. Try to aim your receive very wide on the side the server has just served from… The width is important. You want the ball to come off the side of the table. This makes it very difficult for player B to get … Keep reading
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
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
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
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](https://www.tabletenniscoach.me.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Return-killer-serves-380x214.jpg)
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
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 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
All of the time I’ve been coaching, there has been one problem I’ve been asked about more than any other. The problem? How to return a sidespin serve. In this blog post I will explain what I think is the easiest way of returning a sidespin serve. I have also created a video which demonstrates what to do, and what not to do. Keep reading