Number 1 reason intermediate players don’t improve

In amateur table tennis there is a flaw which I see again and again and this flaw is hitting the ball too flat. I'm going to highlight a few ways in which lack of spin is damaging your game and crucially how to overcome this. Let's dive in. This video is sponsored by Breibar, the best table tennis equipment company. Breibar sells bats, rubbers, blades, balls, clothing, tables. They have great offers and they ship worldwide. Go to breibartt.co.uk Let's start with your serve and ask yourself this question. How much am I really spinning the ball? Some players at lower levels serve by just putting the ball into play, just a plain flat serve. This type of serve is very easy to return and better players will simply punish the serve. Other players look like they have a decent service action but they're not really spinning the ball at all. The contact is too flat, again it's a weak floaty serve which better players will punish. So how do we fix this service flaw? Very simply, whatever service action you use, really focus on the type of contact you are making on the ball. And to generate spin you need two key ingredients. You must have racket speed and you need to brush the ball. And if you put those two things together, racket speed and brush, you will generate spin. And when you're playing your matches and it's your turn to serve, fully commit to generating plenty of spin with your serves. Whether backspin, sidespin or topspin, spin the heck out of the ball. You will give your opponent so many more problems and you'll win a load more cheap points. Now be honest, how many of you when you're pushing do a bit of a weedy passive push with a flatter contact and you don't generate much spin? Yeah, guilty as charged. This passive flat push, it's very common and there are two major problems with this. If your opponent gives you lots of backspin and you push the ball too flat, guess where the ball is going to go? Yes, straight in to the bottom of the net. Or if your opponent gives you light backspin and your push is too weak, the contact too flat, it's very likely that the ball is going to pop up and this gives your opponent an easy attacking opportunity. So how do we fix this rubbish push? Well, we've got to generate some spin and the principle is exactly the same as when we're serving. We need two key ingredients. We need racket speed and we need to brush the ball. If the incoming ball is heavier backspin, then you need to spin under the ball more. If the incoming spin is lighter backspin, then you need to spin down the back of the ball more. Then when you have a push with decent spin, I promise you things will change. You will make it much harder for your opponent to attack. You will force your opponent into attacking errors or you will get weaker balls back, all because you are spinning the ball more when you push. And let's look at one more area, our attacking shots. Again, ask yourself an honest question. Are you really spinning the ball or are you a bit of a flat hitter? I definitely don't flat hit the ball. Oh, hang on. Yeah, maybe, maybe I do. Now some players can make a success of flat hitting, but it's really hard to do consistently. Often shots which are too flat end up into the net or off the end of the table. Because there isn't that spin to bring the ball up and down, your margin for error is a bit smaller. So we have to get some top spin on these attacks. Now, how do we do this? Well, here's a surprise. We need racket speed and we need to brush the ball. If the incoming ball is top spin, you need to close your bat angle and brush more towards the top of the ball. If the incoming ball is backspin, you need to open your angle more and brush up the back of the ball more. When you attack with lots of top spin, you will have so much more consistency. The top spin makes the ball clear the net and bring the ball back down again. And as the ball lands on the table, it kind of jumps towards your opponent. If your opponent isn't ready for this or is unable to control the spin, you win the point. It's as simple as that. In summary, you need to commit to spinning the ball. Whether it's your serve, whether you're pushing, whether you're attacking, spin the ball. You have to spin to win. All right, I'm going to try and spin the ball. I've got to take these glasses off. I can't see a blinking thing. Oh, hang on. Wrong way. Spin to win.