Should You Hit or Loop the Backhand?

This depends partly on your level. Beginners should learn to hit their backhands first. However, it’s also important for players should learn to loop early on, so as to develop good habits. So it might be a good idea for beginners to learn early on how to open with a backhand loop against backspin, followed by backhand hitting against the incoming block and the rest of the rally. A backhand loop against backspin, followed by a backhand hit against an incoming block, is a very strong combo.

I do recommend learning to backhand loop against backspin. It’s good to be able to hit against backspin, especially against a short ball, but a backhand loop is more consistent and takes control of the rally, as well as setting up your follow-up attack. And it's better than just pushing over and over, which gives the opponent the chance to attack and take the initiative.

At the intermediate level, backhand loops are mostly done against backspin. However, as players approach the higher levels, more and more players can backhand loop over and over during a rally.

Backhand looping over and over in a rally takes a lot of practice. On the forehand side, the ball is taken from the side, so you have a large hitting zone. (“Hitting” here means where you contact the ball, not a backhand hit itself.) On the backhand side, the body is in the way, so there’s a much smaller hitting zone. Contrary to what some believe, backhand loopers need great footwork to get their hitting zone to overlap with the incoming ball. The faster the ball is coming at you, the more difficult it is, which is why it’s generally easier to backhand loop against backspin than against an incoming topspin or block (which usually come at you faster).

At the highest levels, backhand looping dominates. USA Team Member Sean Lonergan wrote in his blog at the 2008 Worlds, “The Backhand Hit is Dead.” At the world-class level, nearly every player loops on the backhand side. (Even penholders backhand loop now, using reverse penhold backhands.) The extreme topspin in a loop gives the shot consistency, allows you to loop with great speed as well as spin, and puts your opponent in a difficult position. A backhand hit doesn’t have as much topspin and so there’s less margin for error.

So if you are aspiring to be a world-class player, then you would want to learn to backhand loop over and over. However, if you are aspiring to, say, win a senior event or reach a strong level that's somewhat lower than world-class, then you might want to focus on backhand hitting, while learning to backhand loop against backspin. (If you develop a good backhand loop against backspin, then later on you can learn to loop against topspin as well.) You might want to develop a good backhand loop against backspin and follow that with a backhand hit. (Here's a Tip of the Week on that - "The Backhand Loop and Hit One-Two Punch.")

So what is the answer to your question on whether you should hit or loop on the backhand? It’s your choice, based on your abilities, goals, and preferences. 

It’s a common mistake for beginning players to develop their attacks, but not their defense. You need both. The problem comes about because a beginning player usually starts out learning to hit forehands and backhands, and once developed, these are primarily offensive shots. These are important shots when attacking, but what about when the opponent attacks?

Against many attacks, you can counter-attack. However, this can lead to some rather wild, low percentage shots. A little defense would be the better option. So it's important to learn to defend, such as blocking.

It doesn't have to be passive blocking; you can block aggressively. Take the ball quick off the bounce and quick-hit the ball to the opponent's wide corners or middle (the transition point between forehand and backhand), and keep moving him around these three spots, and you'll often force a miss or weaker shot you can attack. The most common way to beat an attacker is to attack first, but if you can block, you take much of that advantage away, and turn your defense into a transition back to your own attack.

Many table tennis drills involve one player attacking, the other blocking. When you are the blocker in such a drill, take this just as seriously as you would when you are attacking. Many players treat drills as something where the two players take turns drilling. Never!!! A drill is a two-way thing, and whatever your opponent is doing, you are drilling against it. You learn to block by blocking, and the best time to do that is by focusing on your blocking in drills. Work on precision - if you learn to block the ball accurately and consistently in drills, this will show up in matches as well. You can also practice advanced variations, such as topspin blocks (i.e. mini-loops), dead blocks, and chop and sidespin blocks.

You can also learn other defensive shots, such as lobbing, fishing and chopping. Lobbing is a high defensive topspin shot, usually done off a smash. It's often a desperation tactic, but in the hands of an expert, it's a valuable way to win a few points that otherwise would be lost. Fishing is a lower defensive topspin shot, where you keep the ball roughly one to four feet high. Fishing defense is central to many players' games, especially loopers, who play off the table and need an off-table shot to defend with. Fishing and lobbing, done at the higher levels (where the ball goes deep with topspin and sometimes sidespin), are basically just defensive loops. They are a bit more advanced than blocking, but if you have mobility off the table, they are valuable shots to have. Fishing and lobbing tend to go together as most players who do one do the other as well.

Chopping is a more specialized defense, and while I don’t recommend most offensive players to back off the table and try to chop down an opponent, it’s valuable to be able to throw in a chop now and then, especially on the backhand when you are out of position. Plus, of course, many players play a chopping style, in which case chopping is central to their game.

Note that I don’t include pushing as a defensive shot. A defensive shot is done against an incoming offensive shot. A push is more a sparring backspin shot against an incoming non-offensive shot, such as a backspin or no-spin push or serve. If done poorly, it’s a defensive shot, but that’s because it’s done poorly. It should be more of a neutral shot.

Many years ago Cheng Yinghua (former Chinese team member, once the #1 player in the U.S. for a decade as he won Men's Singles at four Nationals and two Opens while making the 2000 Olympic team) said that the biggest weakness of most top U.S. players were their fundamentals, in particular their defense. When these players attacked against the best players in the U.S. at the time - Cheng, David Zhuang, Ilija Lupulesku - they faced great defense (blocking by the first two, fishing and lobbing by Lupulesku), and struggled to win a point. When these three attacked, opponent after opponent would crumble due to their lack of defensive skills This is true at all levels. So learn to play defense, and make your opponents be the ones who crumble when the other player attacks.  

You don't need to be a chopper to win with backspin, even in this modern age of topspin. Backspin will always have its place, when used properly. Of course, even attackers often serve backspin, hoping for a pushed return (backspin) that they can loop. However, when should an attacking player use backspin in a rally?

Backspin Against Topspin: Chopping (which is backspin against an incoming topspin) can be tricky, especially with a fast attacking racket, and so usually an attacker will use backspin only against an incoming backspin, i.e. a push. There is one main exception. If you are forced off the table, and attack from the wide forehand, an opponent may quick-block to your backhand. Ideally, you can attack this as well, either backhand hitting or looping. However, if you are out of position and have to reach for the ball, a better answer might be a backhand chop. This keeps you in the rally, gives you time to get back into the point, and it may throw off the opponent's timing.

Short Pushes: If you push short (so the ball would bounce twice on the opponent's side of the table if given the chance), then your opponent can't loop it. If you keep it low, it's very difficult to attack effectively, and will usually result in a pushed return that you can attack. Key to this is keeping the ball very low to the net. Don't just dink the ball back; brush it back lightly with backspin, which will make it easier to keep the ball low and short. Learn to change directions at the last second, dropping the ball short to the middle, left, or right. Short pushes are especially effective if you push both long and short, so the opponent never knows what's coming.

Long Pushes: There are many ways an attacker can win with long pushes. The key to long pushes is to push quick, low, heavy, deep, and at wide angles (or to the middle against some two-winged players). You should also often aim one way, and at the last second change directions. (So aim to the backhand and go quick to the forehand, or vice versa.) Here are some other ways to win with long pushes:

• A quick push rushes an opponent, forcing mistakes and weak shots.
• Heavy backspin gives many opponents trouble, forcing mistakes and weak shots.
• Against an opponent who doesn't attack backspin well and often pushes (such as many choppers or blockers), pushing allows you to pick and choose which shot you want to attack.
• They force an opponent to drop their racket and shoulder to lift the ball, throwing off their timing not only on that shot, but on the next shot.
• If an opponent attacks a push to the backhand with the forehand, you can quick-block to the often open wide forehand - and if they get to that, you can quick-block again to the wide backhand. Also, after looping from the backhand corner, many opponents anticipate a block to the wide forehand, so a quick block right back to the backhand catches them. The same tactics often work against a player who opens with a backhand loop from the backhand side.
• A quick push to the wide forehand can catch an opponent off guard, and if he does attack it, you can then quick-block to the wide backhand. If he moves quickly to cover that, a second quick-block to the wide forehand can catch him moving the wrong way.
• They slow down play, thereby throwing off an opponent's timing.

Happy Backspinning! 

Some of us remember the incredible topspins of U.S. Team Member Rick Seemiller (brother of Dan) back in the 1980s. He didn't have great speed on his forehand loops. What he did have was more topspin than anyone in the U.S., and probably in the world. Even world-class players commented on this. When faced with this very slow, arcing ball that exploded off your racket, invariably going off, many an opponent called it "unreturnable." Rick pulled off a huge upset over world #1 Mikael Appelgren, the best counterlooper in the world at the time, who over and over counterlooped off the end and then just stared at his racket in disbelief.   

The game has evolved since then, with super-looping sponges, and players tend to go for as much speed as spin. But there's nothing like a slow but spinny loop to mess up an opponent's block or counterloop. You can learn the shot at any age - I've seen players learn to do this in their sixties.

Another big advantage of the slow loop is it gives you time to get back into position after the shot. You can do a slow forehand loop from the backhand side, and move back into position before the opponent can quick-block to the wide forehand. Also, the slowness of the shot means that most block returns will tend to come back more slowly, since the opponent can't use your own speed against you. This gives you even more time for the next shot, as well as a softer ball to attack.

To do this shot you need a sheet of grippy inverted sponge, preferably one of the modern super-looping sponges. The shot is usually done against backspin, so you can use backspin in creating your own topspin. To execute the shot, it is important to let the ball drop farther down than usual, to below the table's surface, perhaps as low as your knees. Bend your knees more than usual, and drop your playing shoulder and playing racket very low, with the racket tip pointing to the ground. (If you have knee or other leg problems, you can execute the shot almost as well by just dropping the racket very low from the shoulder.) Then whip the racket upward and forward, with a big wrist snap just before contact.

Contact the ball by just barely skimming it. At first you might feel like you'll go off the end since much of your stroke is up, but if you barely graze the ball, it'll have little forward motion, and so the topspin and gravity will pull it down. Arc the ball a little higher than usual, making it go deep on the table.

You can also do the shot on the backhand. Again, let the ball drop down more than usual, stroke more upward, and just skim the ball.

Note that there's a world of difference between a spinny loop that lands short (easy to attack if the opponent doesn't hesitate) and one that lands deep (very tricky to do anything with). Depth is key!

Done properly, your opponent will face a very spinny ball, coming at him relatively slowly (so he can't use your own speed against you), and deep on the table. If he blocks, he has to punch the ball from deep on the court against a lot more topspin than he's used to. If he counterloops, he'll likely go off the end since he's not used to such a slow, spinny ball. It can be done, but it's not easy except perhaps at the highest levels.

Happy Topspinning! 

Suppose you have a tricky serve that gives your opponent all sorts of problems. But suppose it's also one of those serves that he can get used to, and only works by either surprise or by the opponent's not being used to it. Should you hold back on this serve for key points in the match?

To start with, you won't really know if the serve is effective unless you actually try it out against an opponent. Sometimes you may know from previous matches. Either way, you should use it early on to establish whether the serve is effective. If the serve is not effective, then you know not to use it later on. If it is effective, you get to use it early in a game, and then come back to it several more times, including near the end if necessary. If you do need to come back to it again near the end of a close game, imagine where you'd be if you hadn't used the serve early on, perhaps more than once?

The idea behind holding back on a serve is that 1) if you use it too often, the opponent will get used to it, and so 2) hold back on it until you reach a key point. The thinking is that if you use it early in a game, and that games ends up not being close, then you've "wasted" that serve.

There is logic behind the above, and yet many players way overdo this, holding back on their best serves - i.e. some of their best weapons - except when it's close. This is like a looper not looping until it's close, or a hitter waiting until it's close before hitting.

If you have a serve that really bothers an opponent, use it regularly in rotation with your other serves, and put yourself in a position where you use the serve at the end of games to win that game, not just when you are down (and where you might "waste" the serve anyway if your comeback falls short). If you are in a competitive match, and can win one "free" game on the strength of one serve, use it! And don't kid yourself into thinking that your opponent will magically become strong against this serve as long as you use it somewhat sparingly and with some variations. His returns may become more effective, but that's true of any shot you may throw at him.

If you do have one serve that really gives the opponent trouble, try to use variations of it to keep him guessing throughout. The more you vary it, the harder it will be for the opponent to get used to it, and so you can use the serve more often.

It's better to use your winning shots (and serves) and win then to hold back on them and hope to come back and win with them at the end.