Learn to defend when receiving

Many coaches, including myself, encouraged emerging players to serve back aggressively, even against short serves. So they learned to aggressively turn over short serves, which helped them control the point. This often worked. But then I noticed that in the long run, these types of players 1) rarely develop a good feel for the ball when pushing (short or long), and 2) rarely develop good defense when the other player attacks.

What does this mean? Players who are willing to push long against short serves develop two things.

First, they develop the backspin ball control that allows them to push effectively, both long and (later) short. Especially at higher levels, when all you can do is return long (whether you push or flip), opponents simply step back and walk everything back to you. That’s why top players all have to learn to go short – and you can’t do that by waiting until you’re relatively advanced and then starting all over again. You are years behind in developing the backspin touch that others have learned by pushing the serve back, developing the long push first and then, if you have good backspin control, pushing short as well.

Second, they don’t learn how to play effectively when the opponent attacks first. We can all live in a dream world where when the opponent attacks, we counterattack effortlessly as if we were Ma Long. But realistically, you should be able to handle many or most of these attacks by blocking, especially on the backhand.

Conclusion? Even if you can turn short serves, you’ll limit your development if you do this all the time. Instead, learn to flip as well as push (both long and short) and learn to deal with the opponent’s attacks. (Learn to push long effectively before you learn to push short.) And this is the part you may need to hear most. If you generally have trouble with the opponent’s loop when you push long, guess what to do? In practice matches, regularly push long until both of you have an effective deep push and are comfortable with the opponent’s loops. When that happens, you become a better player.