On Friday night, Aug. 11, I ran a free hardbat clinic for players here at the Classic Table Tennis Nationals at the Austin TTC, Aug. 11-12. Twelve players participated. Cesar Serna assisted as my practice partner – he’s seeded #6 here in Open Hardbat with a 2201 hardbat rating. Special thanks to tournament director Steve Claflin for setting it up!

The purpose of the clinic wasn’t to teach just the basics of hardbat table tennis, but to focus on the differences between sponge and hardbat, so sponge players could make the transition. However, this meant going into various hardbat techniques.

We started with a discussion on equipment. In hardbat, you use pimpled rubber, no sponge, and the rubber must be short pips – no long or medium pips allowed. The racket must be all wood – no carbon. I brought in several hardbat racket samples, ranging from those used by all-out attackers, slightly large ones used by all-around players (who generally are attackers who chop when they get in trouble), and those used by choppers – generally larger and slower blades.

Next up was serves. During the hardbat years, serves were not developed as they didn’t think of the serve as a major weapon. Sponge players have developed serves to a much higher level – and those techniques can now be used in hardbat. You can’t get as much spin with hardbat as sponge, but you can get a surprising amount. More importantly, however, is you can have deceptive serves, even with hardbat, and that’s all it takes to allow you to take the initiative.

Next up was forehand, and then backhand. I showed them the cover of the book The Money Player by the great hardbat star Marty Reisman, showing his high follow through. Then I demonstrated it, first forehand, then backhand. Why is this important? Because you need to topspin the ball if you want a consistent attack, both forehand and backhand. On the forehand side, the stroke is like a salute, with a vigorous topspin contact. You don’t get as much spin as with sponge, but the key is that without that topspin pulling the ball down, you’ll never have a consistent attack, forehand or backhand.

I also demonstrated attacking against backspin, with Cesar chopping. There are two techniques. First I showed how to attack backspin with a classic forehand, which is how I do it, along with most of the hardbat stars of the past. Then I showed how you can also loop against backspin with a hardbat. It’s not as spinny as with sponge, but still gives a lot of topspin.

Next up was chopping. The key difference between chopping against sponge versus chopping against hardbat is the incoming topspin. Against a sponge player’s topspin loop, you can turn the topspin into backspin. But since a hardbat player has less topspin, even if he loops, and so you have to create your own backspin, or your chops won’t be that effective. Since there’s less incoming topspin, it’s easier to control, and so, with a little practice, you can really chop into the ball, creating a surprising amount of backspin.

Last up was playing hardbat against sponge players. The key there is dealing with their topspin loops. To do that you either have to stop it or handle it. And this means you have to focus on the “extremes.” This means either playing very aggressive, right from the start of the rally (whether serving or receiving) or playing defensively so you can consistently chop back the loop. You can go back and forth and vary this, but you need to be good at one of those extremes if you want play effectively against a looping inverted player.

And then it was out to the table to practice! I walked around, helping out. One small problem, of course – for regular hardbat players, you don’t want to change your technique the day before a tournament. But some experimented. And for those who don’t play hardbat regularly, this gave them the basis for making the transition.

So . . . getting interested in hardbat table tennis? There are more Hardbat Events coming up!