Ask The Experts: Nan Li, No. 68
Butterfly Table Tennis Question and Answer

Blade: Yinhe T-8 Arylate Carbon
Forehand Rubber: Hurricane 3-50 2.1mm 37 black
Backhand Rubber: Butterfly Tenergy 80 2.1mm red

Question: I play table tennis regularly at my club. Most players are 1400-1900. I don’t have a rating. I play comfortably with most players. However, there are two types of players I don’t know how to play with:

• those with Chinese rubbers (hurricane 3 3 years old or older or dead rubber) on both sides. they can block my forehand loops easily. the return ball does not bounce back at all. As a result, I am off balance because the return ball is too slow. I have no trouble with Japanese rubbers (Tenergy 5, 80,64, 25, Amultart or other fast blades).
• those play very close to the table. they can block my spinny loops. In fact, they can punch my loops. As a result, I am off balance when the ball comes back to me. I have no trouble with players who block normally. I can kill after the 2 or 3 loops easily.

I wonder if you can suggest a good strategy to deal with these two types of players? One type the return ball is too slow and does not travel as far as expected. The other type instead of blocking my loops, they punch my loops as they play very close to the table. Thanks, Linh

Answer: Hi Linh,

Thanks for your question.

I suggest to practice in and out movements to and from the table. It seems to me that you may be too far away from the ball and by the time you contact the ball there is no more pace to take advantage from on the ball. Therefore your contact is too late and you can’t add quality to your shots.

Lastly I suggest to use more wrist against dead balls in order to compensate for the lost energy.

A good exercise is to play 2 balls close to the table and 2 balls away to the table and so on.

Hope you find this helpful.

Best,
Nan Li
Coach @ WCTTA
www.tt-champions.com