It sure does look impressive and although it might appear a little ridiculous and counter-intuitive to the untrained eye, lobbing is a great form of defence when you are forced away from the table. And it is much easier to learn than you would think!

I remember trying out lobs for the first time. I wasn’t great by any means, but I was surprised by the fact that most of my lobs were landing on the table.

For intermediate players and above, lobs are certainly performable. It just takes a bit of time and adjustment to find your range. I expect after 15 minutes most intermediate and above players should be able to perform lobs with a fair degree of success.

But then comes the difficult part, your pesky opponent. It’s no good just getting the ball on your opponent’s side of the table, you need to limit their attacking options. To lob “like a pro” there are four key components you need to get right.

Step 1: Find the Best Lobbing Height

The first condition is the height of your lob. You have a little wiggle room with this one but just recognise that (generally speaking) the higher the feed, the harder it is for your opponent to smash.

The high lob

Some players lob very high. As a general rule, I would recommend lobbing high enough so that the bounce of the ball exceeds one and a half times the height of your opponent. This means they have to wait for the ball to fall before smashing, or take it on the way up.

It’s not too difficult to lob this high and any lower would make smashing considerably easier for them.

In the photo above, it looks like the ball has peaked at roughly head height. This give Zhang Jike a much easier smash!

The low lob

Some players will actually lob very low: below head height. This is called “fishing” and is usually not recommended but fits in with some player’s style. You might see aggressive loopers lob low when they are far away from the table. These players will be advanced and have a good understanding of their opponent’s attacking options.

This kind of lob is usually performed when out of position during a looping rally. Lobbing so low limits your opponent’s smashing potential and promotes power loops. These players will seek to resume looping at the first opportunity they see.

With a bit of testing, you will find your optimal lobbing height. Just be aware of the point where the increase in height doesn’t see a return on investment.

Step 2: Lob Deep on Your Opponent’s Side

Undoubtedly the most important aspect of lobbing is the length. Get this wrong and you will pay the price.

The aim when lobbing is to always try and make the ball land as deep on your opponent’s side of the table
as you can. The closer the ball lands to the net, the closer they can stay to the table and the more of an angle they have to smash into.

Feeding the ball really deep into your opponent’s side is difficult and will take a fair bit of time to master. Whilst it is great if you can get lobs to land within a few inches of the edge of the table, it is not essential. And if you actively seek this depth you will probably have too many balls go over the end. We don’t want that!

Instead, imagine the depth of your opponent’s side of the table split in four. Just aim for the furthermost quarter. That should result in the most lobbing success.

Step 3: Topspin, Topspin, Topspin!

Spin is sometimes a neglected aspect of lobbing, but it’s crucial if you want to lob like a pro.

Nearly all lobs should have a bit of topspin. Topspin kicks the ball forward, off the table. This greatly pushes back the position where your opponent contacts the ball. And as we know, the further away from the table you are, the less of an angle you have to play a smash.

Ideally, you want to put as much topspin on your lobs as you can. One way to increase your spin is to lob higher. This is why many professionals lob so high. Just watch their strokes, they are imparting very heavy levels of topspin. Take this clip of Xu Xin lobbing, for example. Monstrous levels of topspin!

I would also highly recommend introducing a bit of sidespin into the mix when you become comfortable with standard topspin lobs. Sidespin adds an additional level of uncertainty, forces your opponent to move, and will unquestionably win you more points.

Step 4: Recognise Opportunities

Whilst lobbing is an inherently defensive shot it will often provide you with opportunities to counterattack.

If you perform a particularly tricky lob, your opponent may take their finger off the trigger and play a much safer, slower smash. You must recognize these attacking opportunities and act upon them immediately. After all, you might not get another chance to get back into the rally.

Patience is a necessity. Do not act on opportunities that are not there, you will lose out most of the time. The best way to encourage these opportunities to appear is to just lob well with consistency.

Always be on your toes in the ready position, poised to dart in at a moment’s notice. It’s easy to drift very far away from the table whilst lobbing as it gives you more reaction time. But generally speaking, the further away you are, the harder it is to act upon your opponent’s mistakes as these will often fall shorter.

Get Lobbing!

So, those are my four steps to lobbing like a pro. For those of us who don’t chop, lobbing is the best form of defence when you are away from the table. Anyone can learn it, and it will make you a much more complete player.

And I can’t lie, it’s a tonne of fun!

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Whilst having unorthodox serves certainly places you in a more advantageous position, it is often the bread and butter (the simple serves) that you revert to when things aren’t going your way. It is for this reason, today, I will be discussing three core table tennis serves every player should master.

3 Core Table Tennis Serves

1. The Chop Serve

Kicking things off we’ve got the chop serve. It is an easy serve to perform and often the safest. Given that the chop imparts solely backspin, it is the easiest serve to keep short. This prevents your opponent from opening up with loops. What’s more, if you’re able to produce good levels of backspin many players will be reluctant to play flick returns as well. This means you will be fed a push return.

A trait unique to the chop serve is the type of spin – its always backspin, no sidespin or topspin here folks! So in regards to spin variation, you’re strictly limited to the degree of spin you are creating. This is somewhat restrictive, but given that the chop is the best serve at preventing service return kill shots, it’s a worthy trade-off.

Half-long chop serves are another great option too. These are chop serves which appear as if they may bounce twice but instead bounce once on your opponent’s side of the table. In the heat of the moment, these can be difficult to read and many players will opt for a safe push over committing to the loop. By electing to push when the ball is so deep on their side of the table, they will have trouble keeping their push short. This gives you more time to react to the incoming push allowing you to prepare for an attacking shot such as a loop.

When playing aggressive loopers, chop serves are an ideal choice.

2. The Pendulum Serve

The next essential serve you need to be comfortable using is the pendulum. Perhaps the most popular serve today, it introduces sidespin into the equation. Much like the chop serve, it is very easy to perform and certainly can be tricky to return if performed effectively.

In my opinion, it’s the easiest serve to introduce spin variation and deception. Just a slight change in the wrist can turn backspin into topspin.

I would even consider most long topspin pendulums somewhat safe against many players. When performed crosscourt (as the pendulum often is) from your backhand side deep into your opponent’s backhand, the likelihood of a winner coming back at you is pretty slim. Only players with elite backhands, or great movement to initiate a forehand loop, really pose a risk of hitting consistent kill shots.

In my experience, more than 90% of the time opponents will play a manageable attacking backhand shot. As such, the pendulum can be a great option for players who want to force topspin rallies. If you know you’re stronger than your opponent in this regard, and they can’t hit a winner off of your topspin pendulum, you can’t go wrong with this strategy.

3. The Reverse Pendulum/Shovel Serve

Tip: If the reverse pendulum looks too challenging I would go with the shovel, it’s considerably easier to perform.

The reverse pendulum/shovel serve is certainly the hardest to perform out of the three table tennis serves. Nonetheless, it is just as important. Either of these serves account for what you are lacking in the chop and pendulum – sidespin which encourages the ball to your forehand. 

I cannot stress how important it is to be able to perform every kind of spin possible for your serves, and having these three does just that. Every opponent will have their own weakness when it comes to spin… it’s just a matter of finding it! 

I can pretty much say I’ve found specific weaknesses for players in every service combination: short heavy topspin shovels, long backspin pendulums, medium-long chops, and the list goes on.

If you opt not to learn the reverse pendulum/shovel serve I can guarantee you will be missing out on points somewhere down the line.   

Even if you don’t win points outright, the sidespin from these serves will ensure more balls land on your forehand side (especially at beginner to intermediate level). More forehands mean more forehand loop opportunities, which consequently results in more winners (generally speaking). 

My experience adopting the shovel serve

If you’ve read my blog post on my beloved tomahawk serve you’ll know that not only do I discuss how powerful this serve is, but I also mention how after around seven years of refining this serve in the never-ending pursuit of mastery, I’ve largely transferred my efforts over to the shovel serve. I can produce comparable levels of spin whilst maintaining high levels of deception, and I am ultimately left in a better position to play a follow-up shot. The shovel serve has quickly become one of my favourites! I highly recommend trying it.

Not to say that the reverse pendulum isn’t great in its own right, I like performing that serve too!

The Takeaway

So that’s it really. That’s all three table tennis serves. When it comes down to it, that’s all you really need. These three serves will give you all the weapons required to exploit your opponents’ service weaknesses.

The idea of this post is not to deter you from expanding your horizons and learning new serves – far from it. The takeaway should be that with just three core serves you have all the fundamental tools you need to be an effective server. Your serves now will be better than your serves a year ago. And your serves in five years will be leaps and bounds better than what they are now. You don’t need masses of table tennis serves to be an effective server. Remember that.

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Chopping isn’t as popular today as it was – the attacking style is largely dominant – but don’t neglect training against the chopping style. If you haven’t honed your game to face choppers, you may find yourself in a world of trouble when you finally face one. 

Here’s my no-nonsense, four-step guide to beating choppers.

Step 1: Identify your opponent

Before we get into the specifics, it is essential that you identify what kind of chopper you are playing. And there are many. In local leagues especially, expect to come up against the likes of short pimples, long pimples, and even anti-spin. Some will even chop with standard reverse pimple rubbers!

These unusual rubbers will make playing against the chopping style even more challenging. Some choppers will be able to generate crazy levels of backspin whilst others may rely on chopping spin variation to catch you out! 

You must gauge your opponents’ rubbers and style as soon as you begin knocking up with them. The last thing you want to be is gun shy when the match starts. 

Step 2: Vary your placement

Once you have assessed the kind of chopper you are playing, it’s time to think about ball placement. Some players become wrapped up with power and just try to blast balls past their opponents, disregarding placement. It’s predictable, and a lot of choppers will eat you up for breakfast. 

Instead, move your opponent around a bit. Play to the corners and get them moving.

I’ve found that most choppers favour chopping on their backhand, generally speaking, as it’s an easier shot to play. So, if their forehand is weaker, focus balls to that side.

Also, consider playing fastballs straight into your opponent’s crossover. It’s a very awkward shot to play. Where most of us would try to play a block, many choppers will force themselves to chop. The resulting chop is often ineffective and it may allow you to attack. 

Another key thing to note is the depth of your ball placement. Choppers are sometimes prone to drifting a little too far away from the table when you start attacking hard. Try to move them about, in and out, as much as possible. Play deep heavy loops and then switch it up with a short push or a short slow rollover loop. 

Step 3: Use spin effectively

Utilizing the full potential of spin is just as effective as good shot placement.

A strategy that any looper can employ is simply to vary the spin on their loops. Not enough players do this, and I am somewhat guilty of this myself. The intermittent use of heavy spin loops and light spin loops is very demanding for a chopper. It ruins their rhythm and can be very difficult to read.

To take it a step further, try to consciously exaggerate the spin on the ball. Often when I opt for a light spin loop I exaggerate my looping motion. This gives the illusion that there is more spin on the ball than there actually is. It is a tactic that has served me well over the years and if you are not doing it, you definitely should be.   

For spinny players such as myself, overwhelming choppers with heavy topspin is an equally good strategy. Most choppers are at home dealing with “standard” loops, the kind with somewhat average levels of topspin. However, in my experience, the vast majority of choppers struggle with very high levels of topspin.

When it comes to spin, this is my main strategy of choice as it suits my style. Heavy looping can force blocks out of choppers which grants you an easier follow-up. Alternatively, it frequently gives you high returns giving you the opportunity to power loop or smash.

Flat smashes should be another shot you use when facing choppers. Clearly, smashing well-executed chops is a bad idea. However, for those chops that fly just a little too high over the net, there is a small window to perform powerful smashes. The likelihood of these being returned are very slim as fast shots with virtually no spin are very difficult to chop.

Perhaps one of the lesser discussed shots to use are sidespin loops, also known as hooks and fades. Whilst I wouldn’t recommend using them regularly, they can certainly be useful in some circumstances. Chopping against balls with sidespin is fairly awkward, and some choppers may not be used to this. It will definitely give them something to think about, and at the very least it will help you to set up a big forehand follow up.

Step 4: Be patient!

The key to emerging victorious against a chopper is to play the waiting game. Many players lack the restraint to play the game they need to, even though they have all the tools they need to win.

Sure, most of us want to power loop or smash the ball past choppers, but it is not something you can do all the time. These kinds of shots are often the “winners” and they need to be set up by employing the strategies we have discussed.

Seize the opportunities as they come, but don’t pounce on opportunities that aren’t there. Choppers rely on you being impatient… Don’t give them what they want. Stick to the game plan, pick your shots, and give them hell.

Remember, practice makes perfect. Learn the matchup in your training sessions, not the matches. Choppers are indeed out there and they come in many different shapes and sizes. Be aware that even with heaps of practice they may take some figuring out on the day – it’s almost unavoidable. But hopefully, if you act on the knowledge in this post, you’ll feel far more prepared the next time you are standing across the table from a chopper!  

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What are Hooks and Fades?

Hooks and fades are attacking strokes which feature the addition of sidespin to your loops. Hooks produce sidespin when you brush around the outside of the ball. Conversely, fades occur when you brush around the inside of the ball.

Both hooks and fades are great strokes to call on when needed and can be effective at intermediate level and above. 

Hooks are the most common of the two strokes for two main reasons:

1. Hooks are FAR easier to perform. The hooking motion is not so dissimilar from the standard loop and, as such, virtually anyone can learn it.
2. Hooks impart sidespin from left to right, in a counter-clockwise motion for right-handed players (if viewing the ball from above). This encourages the returning ball towards your forehand.

Unfortunately, fades are rather rare. I’ve seldom come across fades throughout my table tennis journey and not a single player comes to mind as a “fade-heavy player”. They are rather hard to perform and can feel very awkward. But don’t be discouraged, fades can be just as useful as hooks, it all depends on the circumstances of play. 

Why Use Hooks and Fades?

One of the reasons hooks and fades are so useful is that they often encourage your opponent to start blocking. As everyone has their own favoured type of hooks and fades, the amount of spin and their sideways trajectory will differ. This can be particularly deceiving for the receiver. 

When faced with an attacking shot that you can’t react to in time to execute an effective counter-attack, what is your natural response? To resort to the safest shot you can perform… the block.

And as an attacker, chances are you would prefer to force your opponent to start blocking. I know 95% of the time I would.

To make circumstances even better, the sidespin from your hooks and fades will make the return ball easier to anticipate. Let’s say your hooking (because let’s face it, you’ve opted for the hook over the fade like everyone else), the likelihood is that upon your opponent desperately trying to just return the ball, they’ve neglected effective placement.

Congratulations, you’ve just been delivered a gift-wrapped forehand shot. Perfecto! 

How to Perform Hooks and Fades

Hooking

To perform the hook, you must first be able to perform the loop, you can see the breakdown of this here.

To modify your loop to a hook, the only real change is regarding the movement of your arm and elbow. Rather than striking the ball at a straight angle, try striking it with a slight angle – lowering the tip of your bat a little will help with this. 

As the ball will predominantly have topspin, the ball can still be driven forward with speed. The sidespin shouldn’t hinder the overall speed of the ball all that much. But that‘s where the beauty of the stroke comes in. You have complete control over how much sidespin you impart. The more sidespin you use, the more the ball will swerve, but the slower the stroke will be. 

As hooks come so naturally once you’ve learned how to loop you’ll soon discover the nuances of the shot. This will enable you to know how much sidespin you can produce without it drastically affecting speed. 

And as with all shots in table tennis, sweet variation will be your friend. It makes you more unpredictable, and therefore more formidable. 

Fading

To perform the fade, you want to follow the exact same steps as for the hook except when it comes to striking the ball. Instead diagonally strike the opposing inside edge of the ball. Raising the edge of your bat a little will assist with this.

This will produce the opposite type of spin: the clockwise kind (when viewing from above), that will encourage the ball to return on your backhand side.  

For a detailed breakdown of both strokes watch this great video by PingSkills.

When to Perform Hooks and Fades

Now that we’ve established exactly what it is hooks and fades are, it begs the question… When should I actually be using these shots? Well, I’m glad you asked! The answer is whenever a fitting opportunity presents itself. Probably not the answer you wanted… 

The fact of the matter is that hooks and fades are great shots to use at virtually any instance you opt for an attacking stroke. Would I advise they formulate the majority of your attacking shots? No, not really. But hooks in particular, should be a shot that you use every match as an attacking player. 

Speaking from experience, as a player that has somewhat neglected hooks in their game, they are just too effective not to use. Every time I’m knocking up with an opponent and he steps up to do his forehand loops and blasts hooks my way, I’m instantly a little intimidated. This is somewhat irrespective of his skill level (within reason). 

Hooks can be very tricky shots to return and on particularly bad days, I’ve nearly lost to players that I should be beating 3-0, mostly due to their dreaded hooks. Hooks are just scary shots to return, plain and simple.

Specific Opportunities

If we are talking about specific instances where hooks and fades should be used, I have a few recommendations.

The first, as I discussed earlier, is close to mid-distance from the table. To either force your opponent into blocking or when they are already blocking.

Another great time is when you are smashing. Anyone with a strong lob game will be comfortable away from the table and may be returning your smashes like clockwork. Wait for the ball to fall a little and then throw in a hook or fade into the corner. If they have drifted too far away from the table they will have too much distance to cover when the sidespin kicks in. This will probably give you an easy point and make them think twice about lobbing again as well! 

Another opportunity is as a loop opener off of backspin. For any players that like to strike the ball as it is falling, hooks can be very effective in this instance. Your arm motion will be mostly concealed beneath the table. Lulling your opponent into a false sense of security. Very few players use hooks off of backspin so this can catch your opponent’s off guard. But please note, it is more of a high-risk, high-reward shot.

Alex’s Top Tips

Having used the hook with relatively good success over the years, I have formulated a few top tips which will hopefully enhance your hook/fade game.

The first tip is to know your player. The moment you start knocking with a player you should be constantly analysing their game for any weakness that you can exploit. When it comes to hooks and fades, pay particular attention to their movement. Do they look stiff? Do they have a habit of not moving their legs and just moving their arms to play shots? These giveaways scream hooking/fading opportunity.

Leading on from this, how far is their reach? Lanky players will be hard to beat when just relying on heavy hooks and fades. They cover a greater horizontal plane than most players. This is one of the reasons hooks and fades work so well against younger players. With unfortunately short arms, it shouldn’t be too challenging to put hooks and fades past them.

*** For Very Advanced Players***

Perhaps the most useful yet difficult tip I can give you is wrist manipulation. I would consider this to be a very advanced stroke.

The best shots in table tennis are the ones you don’t see coming!

These types of hooks and fades are very difficult to read. You might notice that when anticipating where your opponents are going to hit the ball, you are really looking at the player rather than the ball.

What direction are they facing? What type of shot are they going for? All of these factors can give you a strong estimation of where the ball will land and with what type of spin. Generic hooks and fades whilst tricky, can be read much like any other shot. But I would argue that hooks and fades with an emphasis on wrist manipulation are a completely different ball game (no pun intended).

These hooks and fades have the same setup as loops right up until a brief instance before the moment of contact. This is the point where the wrist is manipulated significantly to produce either a hook or a fade. Where most hooks and fades are caused by the arm and elbow striking motion of the ball, these types of hooks and fades are almost solely created by manipulating the wrist.

This eliminates the ability to effectively read the stroke for the first 80% of the movement. Thereby creating a much smaller window to make a read.

Whilst competing for the University of Reading I came across such a player who used this technique consistently to great effect. Nearly all of his setup and initial arm movement suggested an ordinary loop into my crossover. But as previously described, right before contacting the ball he would manipulate his wrist to produce either a heavy hook or fade to the corner of my backhand or forehand. My entire team was in awe, we’d never seen such a masterclass in the art of deceit.

Needless to say, he destroyed me. But I learnt a valuable lesson about how to enhance my loops, and now that I’ve passed on this knowledge, hopefully, you can too!

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The chop block is a slick, potent shot that is very difficult to perform consistently. It’s the epitome of ‘high risk, high reward’. But remember, fortune favours the bold. Chop blocks can wreak havoc on your opponent’s timing and given how rare they are, they work effectively against most players.

What is the Purpose of the Chop Block?

The chop block is used to upset the timing of your opponents. Many new players are rather one-dimensional these days. Often, you will find yourself faced against a hungry attacker who is keen to drift away from the table.

Whilst blocking and counter-looping are the natural responses to this style of play, the chop block creates a whole new dynamic for your opponent to deal with.

The shot is best performed against incoming loops. It causes the ball to propel off the bat in an irregular fashion. The ball will kick upward off the bat leading to a relatively high return, but this will usually be quite short, sometimes even bouncing twice on the opponent’s side!

Upon seeing this high return, the attacker’s instincts will kick in. High ball = attack. But if your chop block has heavy backspin, the ball will fall earlier than predicted. Having already committed, most players will follow through regardless, resulting in a loop or smash that ends up in the net.

The introduction of sidespin makes a chop block even more difficult to return. There is often a fair amount of “swerve” on the ball, which adds complexity to the returning shot.

How to Perform the Chop Block

As most of you reading this will be playing with inverted rubbers, I am only going to discuss how to perform the shot with inverted rubbers in this post. It is far harder to perform it with these kinds of rubbers compared to the likes of long pips anyway as they are far faster.

Despite its name, the chop block almost always has sidespin to accompany the backspin. This is because it is far easier to perform and makes it that little bit more difficult to return.

The chop block can be performed on both backhand and forehand. But as most players are far stronger attacking on their forehand, they will rarely choose to forehand chop block over forehand looping. The backhand side also has better control – certainly when it comes to blocking. As a consequence, the chop block is far more commonly performed on the backhand side.

Here is a great breakdown on Tom Lodziak’s YouTube channel:

Three Chop Block Techniques

There are three main ways you can perform the stroke – one on the forehand side, and two on the backhand:

• The forehand chop block is largely performed the same way as the tomahawk serve.
• The first backhand chop block is performed the exact opposite to the forehand version. Much like a backhand tomahawk serve.
•  The second backhand chop block is performed by moving the bat in the opposite direction. A bit like a backhand fade but going under the ball.

The setup for the shot is pretty much the same as for a standard block – except your bat might be a little bit higher and more upright. You should be standing relatively close to the table in the ready position.

When the opportunity presents itself, read the incoming spin on the ball and close your bat angle accordingly to counter the incoming topspin. Then brush diagonally downwards on the ball imparting both sidespin and backspin. Ensure you have a loose grip when executing as this shot is all about your feeling over the ball.

The ball will naturally want to kick upwards from the bat; your job is to battle this effect. It doesn’t matter too much if the ball is a little high when returning. If it is relatively short and interrupts the rhythm of play, your opponent will not have time to execute an effective attacking stroke.

The motion of the chop block will probably feel very unnatural at first but, with time, you’ll start to feel comfortable performing it and reap the rewards.

I wouldn’t recommend performing it competitively until you can consistently perform it in training. The stroke is very advanced and requires superb touch.

Chop Blocks at the Professional Level

Chop blocks are such a rarity that they are seldom seen even at the professional level. One of the main occasions I see it used is as somewhat of a “hail mary” shot when a player is faced with insurmountable odds. Yet there are a select few players who have cemented themselves as chop block masters.

1. Ma Lin

Ma Lin (a now-retired member of the Chinese national team) was well known for his chop blocking. He was one of the most offensive players in table tennis who had a killer forehand. He used the shot to offset his very offensive style – which must have been very jarring for his opponents.

What made Ma Lin’s use of the shot unique was that he performed it with the traditional penhold grip, which means he used his forehand rubber on his backhand side to perform the shot. This made the already difficult shot even more challenging to perform!

2. Koki Niwa

How could we ignore Koki Niwa? Undoubtedly the most prominent chop blocker. He performs every variation of the shot with unparalleled wizardry. He regularly uses it multiple times per match and he has a very high success rate.

Even though players are aware of his fondness for the shot, they still fall victim to his impressive chop blocks. His spin can be very challenging to read!

When is the Chop-Block Best Performed?

The chop-block is best performed against loops, any time you want to interrupt your opponent’s rhythm. It is the perfect shot to learn in table tennis today as attacking styles have never been so prevalent.

For players who like to stay close to the table, it is a lethal tool you should absolutely learn. As a blocker/pusher it is hard to be unpredictable and the chop block does just that for your game: it offers unpredictability.

One of the most effective times to use a chop block is in response to a slow rollover loop off of backspin. As this stroke will have very heavy topspin, it will be harder to counter the spin. But if you are able to, the resulting shot will have killer backspin and pose some serious trouble for your opponent.

Finally, here are a few further tips I recommend for this stroke:

• It can help a lot if you are out of position.
• Try and use it when your opponent starts to drift away from the table.
• Always follow up with an attacking shot.
• Don’t use it multiple times per rally.
• Don’t use it more than a few times per match.

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