You Have to Think Military: Offensive, Defensive

Alot of the game of ping pong is strategy.  That’s why it’s always so easy to beat newcomers.

 
Because basically they haven’t any strategy.  People these days are undisciplined and without vision.

They say defense is the best offense. But how does defense in ping pong look like?

Unless you know this you’ll be a dead duck in the game.

For sure you will never see man to man play like there is for basketball or any arms held up to cover the face like in boxing. And definitely, you can’t do a tailgating like you can do in races.

So how do you make an effective defense in ping pong? The only way is, to hit it back. And that is what I’ve been practicing for the last few days now.

The main purpose of the defensive shot is to successfully return an attacking ball and at the same time create opportunity for you to make your own attack or force your opponent to make a mistake.

Here are some of the defensive shots that you can also spend time practicing on.

Push – also known as slice, is a stroke coming from a high position going low and hitting the ball from underneath. This stroke will make the ball float or lob, but as a result, will hold a lot of backspin. This is usually seen when serving.

Chop – a heavier version of push. You make a big arm swing to hit the ball, like a push, to produce more backspin. This is a defensive stroke because you hit the ball so that it goes towards you.

Block – is simply putting the racket right in front of the coming ball. It is more like of a drop shot because you make the ball go slower because you don’t apply any force against it.

Lob – this stroke requires a lot of control and high level of accuracy. Most lob shots come from the back end and normally used against smashes. This is the very obvious shot among all strokes because of its very high trajectory.

Once you have mastered this language and these techniques the game can be yours.. as long as you are careful not to become too over-confident.  I have BTDT and can tell you, that is not advisable.