(by Larry Hodges)

There’s a simple reason players have so much trouble with no-spin or dead balls, whether in rallies or serves. The little plastic ball weighs very little and spins easily, and so even at the advanced beginning stage players are used to the ball having spin. Players learn to put spin on the ball almost from the beginning, with their serves, with topspin in their drives, or backspin in their pushes. And so you get used to reacting to these specific spins, especially topspin and backspin.

And then you play someone with dead rubber who gives you spinless balls. You are used to counter-hitting against topspin, and against backspin either pushing with an open racket or topspinning with an upward stroke. And so when you get that no-spin ball, all your trained reactions are off, and you find yourself struggling with someone who seemingly plays like a beginner who can’t put spin on the ball!

The answer? At some point in your table tennis playing days, as early as possible, find a way to do extensive practice against no-spin balls. Other than the fact that you haven’t trained to play them, they are easy to play against. Spins vary and so you have to adjust against these variations. But no-spin is just that – there is no spin variation, it’s always no spin. If you learn to, say, loop a winner against one no-spin ball, you can mentally close your eyes the rest of your life and do that same, exact shot, and you’ll never miss. (You do have to adjust to different depths and your own positioning.)

So, how do you play a no-spin ball? If you push, simply chop down on the ball so that it doesn’t pop up as it would if you push as if it were a backspin. Since there’s no backspin rebounding off your rubber as backspin, you’ll have to produce all of the backspin, so grace the ball and give it a good backspin. However, if the ball has no spin, why not attack it? It’s an easy shot; just play it like it’s halfway between a topspin and a backspin, and you’ll have it.

Against a slow incoming no-spin ball, players tend to lift like it’s a backspin and go off the end. Instead, loop more on top of the ball with very little lift. Practice, and you’ll find it easy to loop or drive away.

Against a dead ball in a faster rally players tend to fall back on their normal strokes and so go off the end. In this case you have to open your racket a little bit. See how easy that was? Since the ball won’t rebound off your racket as fast as if it had topspin, you might stroke a little harder, or you might put more of your own topspin on the ball. It may be hard at first since you aren’t used to it, but with some practice, and you’ll find it easy to counter-hit or loop against. And then you’ll turn that no-spin into a no-win situation for the opponent!