Alright, today we're going to learn the push-flick. Why cover the push-flick? Because in modern games, you're facing more short balls to your forehand. In my opinion, you can push-flick a ball with any amount of spin. You might think it's impossible. Serve me your heaviest backspin. See? I just have to open my racket angle, and I can execute the flick. If you just push, an experienced player, even with unconventional technique, will hit you with a very heavy loop. Or, an opponent who is good at pushing will draw you into a rally where you'll be at a disadvantage. So how do you break the cycle of pushing rallies or facing a strong loop? You take the initiative and turn the ball into topspin. When you have this skill, your opponent will feel awkward no matter where you place the ball. It's heavy and has varied placements. This way, dealing with the spin coming back is much simpler. Even if you can't loop their backspin or out-push them, you can still compete in a fundamentals rally. Imagine you've trained fundamentals for two years and want to beat a scrappy player with five years of experience. Your best chance is to engage in topspin rallies, not backspin. First, only players with good fundamentals have consistency. A player with poor technique might make one or three shots, but by the fifth, their shot will float. That's why recreational players are often strong in spin, feel, and tactics, but their fundamentals are weak. By turning their backspin into topspin, they can no longer push it back—it'll pop up high. This forces them to attack, and the rally becomes a topspin exchange, a battle of fundamentals. This is the key to how two years of training can beat five. I'm deliberately not teaching the aggressive flick because it requires too much feel and space for amateurs. We're just going to learn the simplest push-flick. Use the push-flick for all types of spin, sidespin-topspin or sidespin-backspin. Focus on getting the ball on the table with good placement to build your confidence in attacking short balls. If you learn the aggressive flick and miss a couple, you'll just go back to pushing. Let's start with push-flicking against topspin. Get ready like it's a match. First point: your biggest problem is this unnecessary wrist movement before contact. It's too shaky. Your approach for both the push and the flick must start with the same racket angle. Don't change your racket angle midway through. Too much extra movement means when the opponent mixes up the speed and length, you won't get to the short ball in time and will hit it out. How do you push-flick a sidespin-topspin ball? This part is good: Bend your wrist back, open your racket face, and then push with the wrist. Let me show you in slow motion. Why do we teach pushing the wrist forward from start to finish on a sidespin-topspin? To keep the ball's trajectory low. You see, this keeps the ball low, so I don't have to change my blade angle to execute the shot. A sidespin-topspin ball will naturally kick upwards off your racket. By bend your wrist back, I can push forward directly. Second key point: for a sidespin-topspin flick, should you be close to the ball or far away? Close. If you leave too much space, you'll generate too much combined force and lose control. You can't generate power if you're cramped. That's why getting close to the ball makes the flick much easier to execute. Third, what is the best contact point for a sidespin-topspin flick to avoid errors? The rising point or the peak of the bounce? The rising point is best. "If you wait for the peak, your flick will be slow. At the rising point, you can use the ball's own momentum. Right after the serve bounces, your opponent is still recovering, but you've already made contact. They're still resetting while you've already placed the ball. The best timing is the rising point; the latest is the peak. If you try to hit any sidespin-topspin ball too hard, you'll likely hit it long. That's exactly what your opponent wants when they serve that ball. The rising point is the optimal moment to keep the trajectory low as the ball comes up. It's just like blocking. When the opponent's ball has an upward kick, you must contact it on the rise. When facing a heavy, dipping backspin ball, you must contact it as it's falling. For a flat ball with no spin, always contact it at the peak of the bounce. These are the ideal timings. Whether you can find them depends on the match situation. So, for sidespin-topspin: contact on the rise, get close to the ball, and keep your wrist pressed down. And bend your wrist back. Let's demonstrate a few with a penhold grip as well. Don't let your wrist wobble. Any wobble will slow the ball down. From backswing to follow-through, keep a fixed racket angle. The power comes from your forearm. But how are you doing it? You're snapping your wrist. The moment you try to add a little power, the ball flies off the table. At the point of contact, keep your wrist bent back while pushing forward. Don't push upwards. When push-flicking a topspin ball, the motion is forward. An aggressive flick requires wrist action, but it's far too inconsistent. In a match, if you misjudge the spin, a flick of the wrist is hard to control and will lead to an error. Professionals can do it because they've developed the feel through years of practice. That's why I believe the push-flick is the simplest and most consistent technique for amateurs. The key is to lock your wrist and use your forearm to drive forward. Now let's talk about sidespin-backspin, which is a bit more difficult. When a pro receives a short ball to the forehand, as long as it's not half-long, they will typically place their push here. This placement is very awkward, especially if the ball is half-long, but a push to this spot is not. Your opponent can just step around with their right foot and loop it. This is a very tricky spot to return to, unless they step around. If you have the ability and feel, I recommend practicing this placement. For the flick, there are two methods. The first uses the same motion, but instead of bending your wrist back, you open the racket angle slightly. Then, lift up with your forearm. Remember, for topspin, we pushed forward. Before, we bent our wrist back. Now, we keep the wrist straight. The disadvantage is that the ball's trajectory will be higher, and the speed will be slower. So, the racket angle should be slightly open. After you make contact, push forward. Let me demonstrate. When pushing a no-spin ball, you need to keep the wrist straight, but your racket face shouldn't be completely vertical it needs to be tilted back slightly. Your first goal is to lift the ball high enough to clear the net. Once it's over, immediately bend your wrist back while closing your racket angle slightly to push it forward. So, you first create a high arc to negate the spin, then you push forward to generate speed. It's that feeling. I start with this racket angle to lift the ball. Once it's lifted, I quickly use my forearm to push forward. A short forehand ball usually won't have extreme spin. If it's very heavy spin, just open your racket angle a little more. That will solve the problem. First, lift to create the arc. Once you feel the height is enough, press your wrist forward using your forearm, not just your wrist. Relying on your wrist will cause errors. You must control your wrist. So for this shot, what's our contact point? The peak, the rise, or just as it starts to fall? The peak of the bounce makes it easiest to lift the ball. Don't rush to hit it on the rise, or you'll hit the net, because the backspin will cause it to dip quickly after contact. Don't be afraid of heavy spin. Feel the ball on your racket. If it goes into the net, it means there was more spin, so you need to lift more. If there isn't much spin, you can just push forward more. You can feel this on your racket. If the ball is dipping heavily, use your forearm to lift a bit more. Okay, let's try it. Ready. Good. Be a bit more confident. It's not that difficult. The key is being willing to try something new. I'm not saying you have to do this for every ball. It's because when you always push, your opponent knows what to expect. They know exactly what spin is coming back. But if you mix in topspin, backspin, heavy balls, soft balls, shots to the forehand and backhand, long pushes and short pushes, then they will fear you. Because every ball they receive will feel like a serve return. If you can only push, their return becomes predictable. They'll just prepare to loop, and if they can't, they'll push back. It's too easy for them. A technique like Ma Long's is deceptive because it uses a fake motion. Our push-flick focuses purely on consistency, which is much simpler. A deceptive flick requires you to fake a push first, which is much more difficult. Once you can consistently lift the ball high enough, you can start adding quality, but keep your wrist firm. After you've lifted the ball to the right height, the next step is to use your forearm. Don't add wrist action after the lift. Let's review. To flick a topspin ball, you must learn to bent your wrist back. As I said, get close to the ball and push with your forearm, and you'll be able to create topspin. To add quality, lock your wrist and drive forward with your forearm. This makes the flick consistent. Now, how about sidespin-backspin? When flicking a backspin ball, start with a slightly open racket angle. After you've lifted the ball, immediately transition to that forward-pushing state we used for topspin. It's very easy to flick this way. You must start with a slightly open angle to lift the arc, then immediately push forward. In our provincial team, we place huge emphasis on in-the-table and half-long balls, both forehand and backhand. Here are a few highly effective placements for short forehand balls. First, the short push. Always aim for the spot I showed earlier. Don't push short to their forehand, because if it's even a little high, they'll flick it aggressively. So for a short forehand push, always aim for that middle spot. That's your first option. Where should you aim a long push? To the wide forehand. That means angling the ball off the sideline. The key to this shot is not spin, but speed. Third, the sidespin Push. Aim this shot long, to your opponent's middle. Always aim this shot to their middle. It's very awkward for them. Because the ball doesn't have much spin, their return push also won't have much spin, which sets you up to loop. If they try to loop it, they have to move their feet and shift their weight. Amateurs tend to take large steps and have big motions, lacking small, efficient adjustments, making them vulnerable to misreading the spin. These are all things I've learned from long-term observation. When you push-flick a sidespin-topspin serve, aim for their forehand. This puts immense pressure on their footwork. When push-flicking their sidespin-topspin serve to their forehand, focus on placement and speed, not power. The goal is to catch them off guard. If they start standing more in the middle, then you should consider changing your placement. When flicking a backspin ball, primarily aim for the middle. With the technique we just learned, the ball goes over heavy and low. Therefore, a shot to the middle is likely to cause an error into the net, whether they use their forehand or backhand. If you can't read the spin and can't execute a quality push, just aim long to their backhand. For example, if I'm late to the ball, thinking it's short when it's actually long, and I can't read the spin, I just send it deep to their backhand. This is because most amateurs have a weaker backhand attack. Even if they do attack, the ball will often come back high and without much spin, giving you an easier ball to counter-attack.