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Serve return

Table tennis / Popular

Read the serve and choose push, flick or loop as the return.

What coaches agree on

  • Let the serve's depth guide your shot choice — push or flick short balls, loop or drive deep ones, and treat the awkward half-long ball as the one that needs the fastest read.
  • Counteract sidespin by angling your racket toward the direction the ball is curving — use the racket like a rudder to send it back onto the table.
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  • When the spin is heavy or hard to read, push with a more vertical racket angle and brush sideways across the ball to keep the return low and on the table.

Common mistakes

  • Watching the opponent's body instead of their racket, and waiting for the ball to bounce before you start moving — that is what gets a player jammed and rushed, not the spin itself.
  • Using a big swing or muscling the return with the whole arm instead of a small, compact motion — the result is returns that are weak, netted, or sail long.
  • Lifting the racket straight up on a flick or loop instead of driving forward through the ball — the result is returns that sail long or fly off the table.