How to return a long serve

you have to improve your reflexes - which takes time.  when that happens you should be able to attack that serve with either a backhand or forehand loop. 

the key here is to use a extremely small stroke to loop the ball, since if you make it big, you wont have enough time to react and its far more inconsistent

what you can do to help you receive these types of serves is to roll a ball down the table and loop it off the surface.

you can push it, just wait a little and push harder.

I have the exact same problem against 3 of the girls in my club who serve this exact same long side bottom spin serve. I learned to just loop it with my backhand. Ask someone in your club to just keep doing it until u got it perfected. Once and a while i will to a chop at an angle to reverse the sidespin and so it doesnt pop up, but those are a lot harder and if to high they just SMASH it.

DeathAngel wrote: I have the exact same problem against 3 of the girls in my club who serve this exact same long side bottom spin serve. I learned to just loop it with my backhand. Ask someone in your club to just keep doing it until u got it perfected. Once and a while i will to a chop at an angle to reverse the sidespin and so it doesnt pop up, but those are a lot harder and if to high they just SMASH it.

I wouldn't recommend pushing it back, because even done successfully you'll give the opponent the chance for the opening loop. They'll have plenty of time to set up that loop if you push a long serve.

if its hight enought loop it at the higherst approx. to do that u have to train ur FH loop from the BH side really good every time u play TT.

Guys, this is a new player coming into the game, most likely he does not have a consistent BH loop yet.. so for now chopping it back, IMO, is the best option.. 

Look like you don't have good back hand and can not return a serve very well. Why don't you try using the long pip rubber on back hand?. It is easier to return a serve and kill a ball on forehand. I believe your rating around 1700 that why they try to win a game by serve. I have 2 option for you: First, if you are young like less than 25 then try using smooth rubber and learn your foot work combine the technic to update your game, looking for a coach. Second option is using the long pip on back hand if you are OLD....can't move like young. Using a weird rubber to return a serve, and weird game too.

ZingyDNA wrote: Well what I did before was to block or push softly, and the ball just bounces all over the place due to the speed and the spin.  I think I'll first try to push it harder when I go to the club next week.  They might loop my return but at this point I just wanna put the ball back on their side of the table. As long as they can't directly smash it, I'll live with that

remember to wait for it to drop just about table level or slightly lower then chop it down hard with all you might..

if you do push it, try to push it long as you can to their bh side.  See if they can perform the loop that you couldn't.  If they can, then they're just better than you anyway right?  And you'll give yourself lots of time to set up for a block.

Well I tried my new technique to return the long serve and it worked out pretty well.  What works best for me a just a simple push but harder, with a little chop motion. That way their spin has much less effect and the ball is more likely to go where I want it to.  A chop away from the table is much harder to control so I didn't try that.

Also it does make sense that they can't put a hell lot of under spin on those fast, long serves. And standing ~1 foot away from the edge of the table gives me just a bit enough time to react.

If it's backspin you can step back and chop or if it's side spin you can block or loop/drive it.

Cole and Dragon Kid makes some excellent suggestions for you. At this stage, the most important thing for you is to get the ball back, you can worry about developing a good back hand loop later on, as you will eventually need it.

Nothing wrong with trying to loop one back every now and then to get some practice at it. But remember , against strong opponents, a weak loop is an invite to attack so you better be prepared to block afterwards.

TTHOUSTON's suggestion about getting pips or anti is hopefully a silly joke. Both Pips and Anti are rubbers that takes skills to use but they are mainly used for defensive players and if you don't intend to be one, then stay away from them.

I had/have the same problems with these types of serves.  A lot of the advice here is good, but I'd like to add one caveat: if you push/chop it back (like a lot of people have suggested) just to stay in the point it will become hard habit to break down the line when you do develop a strong BH loop.  I spent months getting beat up at my club when I started, to try to staunch the bleeding I got in the habit of always pushing BH returns. Now that I've had time to develop a stronger BH I find that I still revert to my old pushing habit in tough situations.  Be careful of forming bad habits just to get the ball in play.