Positioning Part 2 of 4: Upon receipt

Where to position yourself at the receiving end is one of those things that has evolved over the years, especially with the advent of the banana backhand flip. There was a time when many top players favored forehand receptions, even against short serves. (I was one.) But now many players are better at receiving backhand against short serves, but forehand against longer serves. What should you do? Good . . . it depends on your own strengths and weaknesses. There are four main cases.

1) You could simply receive where the ball is served, forehand or backhand. If you are weaker on one wing at some of these things, doing it regularly will improve. This is the easiest way to deal with this. But it’s not for everyone.

2) If you are stronger on the backhand against most serves, short or long, then of course you should prefer that. Except perhaps a deep serve on the wide forehand, you can receive almost anything with the backhand if you wish. In this case, you could position yourself well towards your forehand side and unleash your opponent with your backhand.

3) The same goes if you are stronger on the forehand against most serves, short or long (like I used to be). In this case, you’ll be standing as far to your backhand side as possible and still be able to cover deep serves to your forehand. Some players don’t have a good, fast, down-the-line serve (assuming they serve from their backhand, as most do), and if they don’t, you can favor the forehand reception even more. Against such a player I was sometimes practically outside my backhand corner!

4) The last case is that you prefer your backhand against short serves, but your forehand against deep serves. (I’ve evolved into that state.) This is true of most top players. What should you do? First, of course, many top players simply train hard to develop their backhand loop reception so that they can use it effectively against both short and long serves. This allows them to really set the table with their backhand reception, knowing that at the higher levels they will get more short serves than long serves. (They also get a lot of ‘half-long’ serves, where the second bounce is on or just outside the end line – but you can loop these services, so treat them as long services for our purposes. Note that even if the second bounce is right on the end line, that’s long enough to get into a loop – you’re just going slightly across the table.)

But if you prefer to receive with the backhand against short serves, and the forehand against deep serves, what then? If you are in more of a backhand position, you will be fine against short serves, but against deep serves you will be stuck with your backhand unless you have superhuman speed and reactions. Instead, in this case it might be better to favor the forehand, and try to cover as much of the table as possible against deep serves with the forehand. If you get a short serve, just step over and receive a backhand. It’s that simple. Short serves can’t come at you quickly, so you have more time than against an aggressive deep serve. There are very athletic players who can literally make a forehand loop against a deep serve to the backhand, and a backhand flip against a short serve to the forehand.

HOWEVER . . . All this said, it is probably best to simply vary your receiving position based on the server, and sometimes even vary it while he is serving so that he does not know which side you prefer. Trying to cover the entire table with your forehand on deep serves and the entire table with your backhand on short serves is extremely difficult and not really recommended. But if you vary your receiving position, both at the beginning and while the server is serving, he will never know what to do, and you will probably get the reception you want. Personally, I find that even at age 65, I can cover virtually the entire table with my forehand against deep serves (except sometimes against fast serves to the very wide backhand), while still covering 3/4 of the table with my backhand against short serves, while only receiving forehand against short serves to the wide forehand. Or I can cover the entire table with my backhand against short serves, and 3/4 of the table with my forehand against deep serves, receiving only backhand there against deep serves to the wide backhand.

Note the one option I haven’t covered: those who prefer to receive short serves with the forehand, and deep serves with the backhand. If this is true for you then you are a Martian or something because I once saw someone doing this!