Learning Amateur Table Tennis Strategies from Miki Ito: Using Backspin to Gain an Advantage in Matches
Generally, in table tennis, matches often start with backspin serves, especially in amateur competitions, where backspin serves are common. When playing against higher-level players, a topspin serve is often directly attacked. Therefore, backspin serves are crucial for winning points.
Pulling out a backspin serve can be achieved through a direct pull on the third ball after a serve, or by finding opportunities to pull on a push shot. Pulling out a backspin serve involves both risk and opportunity, so it's important to pay attention to it. If the pull is unsuccessful or of low quality, your subsequent tactics will be ineffective, so amateur players should position their pull shots based on their own level, with a focus on getting onto the table first, and then ensuring rotation or speed, rather than trying to pull out speed and rotation at the same time, which would lead to more mistakes and wasted points.
Let's look at how Miki Ito uses backspin serves to attack in a competition through the following diagrams. First, serves are mainly short balls, and long balls provide opportunities for direct pulls. The ball's landing point can be mid-court or along the body, which can encourage the opponent to push the ball, providing opportunities for pulls.
After the serve, the first thing to do is to watch the opponent's return, determine the landing point of the ball, and adjust to the best shooting position in time through side steps or small steps. When pulling the ball, spread your legs slightly, shift your center of gravity to one side of your hand, and lower your shoulder slightly while keeping your wrist relaxed, pulling the racquet down to the right rear bottom, and adjust the racquet head based on the rotation of the ball. If you don't have much strength, the racquet head should be tilted more. Miki Ito's pull shot racquet head is relatively tilted, which makes the pull shot stable and generates more rotation.
When hitting the ball, push the ground with your feet, turn your waist, and extend your arms forward, shifting your center of gravity with the rotation to the left side, transmitting force to the forearm, and simultaneously moving the forearm upwards quickly to create an arc by rubbing the ball. After hitting the ball, extend your racquet upwards and quickly restore your body's balance. For beginners, you can start with a pull-and-turn technique. As you become proficient, build a feeling of rubbing the ball and friction, and then add impact, which can further improve the quality of the shots.
Finally, pay attention to the differences between pulling backspin and topspin. When pulling backspin, the point of contact with the ball should be slightly to the right of your body, while pulling topspin is closer to the front. Pulling backspin requires a relatively fixed arm, directly pushing upwards with your legs, rather than pushing forwards. The direction of the pull – backspin pulls down to the right rear, while topspin pulls back with more pull action.
Table Tennis Net - Bottled Water
