Positioning Part 1 of 4: After your service

Where should you position yourself after serving? It depends on your playing style, foot speed and the opponent.

For example, if you prefer your forehand, you can position yourself on the side of your backhand so that you cover as much of the table as possible with the forehand. There are two things you need to take into account here.

The first is obvious: how fast are you? If you are quite fast, you can favor the forehand even more.

Second, how big is the threat to the recipient of returning a favor? aggressive to your broad forehand? If he can do that, you have to be able to cover that shot, so you can’t favor the forehand very well. However, if he only pushes the serve back passively, you can position yourself even more towards the backhand side. If you are in good shape, you should be able to serve and attack any passively pushed reception with your forehand.

Note that I referred to passive pushes. Stronger players can push quickly and aggressively, so you have less time to get to them – and against them you have to stay in position more, otherwise they risk getting you into a wide corner with a quick push. (They might also be able to go short, but that’s another problem.)

The example above uses the example of a player who prefers his forehand (like me). However, all this also applies to a player who prefers the backhand. I’ve seen and played players with dominant backhands – and some of them even make a backhand loop from the forehand side!

One last thing to remember: if you move out of position to favor your stronger side, recover back into position quickly! (See Positioning Part 4: Recovery, which will be discussed in three weeks.)