Your opponent serves backspin. It’s a decent backspin serve. It’s low. It’s short. It has enough backspin to make it hard to attack. In the split second you have to make a decision, you decide to push. This seems like a sensible option. It is the easiest way of returning the serve, which is your immediate concern.
So you push. Nothing fancy, just a bog standard push, which guides the ball on the table, with a moderate amount of backspin. Hooray, you have returned the serve!
But your push wasn’t strong enough. It was neither short nor long. It didn’t intimidate your opponent. It was average. Your opponent seizes on the opportunity and rips a forehand loop past you. Point over.
You succeeded in returning the serve, but failed in making a strong return.
What could you do differently next time?
You could flick. This is a much more positive way of returning the backspin serve. And if your flick is of good quality, then you have a decent chance of winning the point, or certainly putting your opponent on the backfoot. If you have a good technique for flicking, this is a viable option.
But what if you are not confident at flicking short and low backspin serves? What else could you do?
Well, you could still push. But not the bog-standard push in the above scenario. Instead you are going to do a very aggressive push. This is where you try to get much more speed and spin on your shot. Your aim is to get the push deep on the table, rushing your opponent and forcing an error or weak shot.
Essentially, you push in the same way as usual, but you do so with more speed. You really dig at the ball, trying to load up as much backspin as possible. This type of push is so positive, you could consider it an attacking shot.
This categorisation is crucial. Most of us consider a push to be a passive, safety shot. If we have more of an attacking playing style, we try to avoid pushing. If we push, rather than flick or loop, it’s a bit of a failure. “Stop pushing”, we tell ourselves.
But if we think of an aggressive push as an attacking stroke, we are much more likely to use the shot, and execute it with good quality. An aggressive push can fit very nicely with our attacking playing style. It’s just another attacking option to win a point or dominate an opponent.
So let’s play out our original scenario again…
Your opponent serves backspin. It’s a decent backspin serve. It’s low. It’s short. It has enough backspin to make it hard to attack. In the split second you have to make a decision, you decide to push aggressively. You return the serve with a fast push, which is loaded with backspin. It lands deep and your opponent is rushed. He tries to loop, but can’t set up his loop quickly enough and dumps the ball in the net. Point over.
Not only did you win a point with an aggressive push, but you also dented your opponent’s confidence and showed him that you have this weapon that you could use again. The entire dynamics of the match have changed, simply because you pushed more aggressively.
Here’s a couple of videos I have made on this topic. They show how to do an attacking push and how to use the shot effectively in matches…
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