You know the ball has heavy backspin. You know you have to either open your racket, hit upward, or both. And yet, players still often attack heavy backspin balls into the net far more often than off the end. In theory, since you are compensating for the heavy backspin, you should go off the end just as often as into the net. Ideally, of course, you’d return it on the table – but you’d do that a lot more if you weren’t going into the net so much. It means that you need to increase your average net clearance (relying on topspin to pull the ball down) – and end up with fewer in the net and more off the end – but overall, more on the table. With more net clearance, your balls will also go deeper on the table, which are more effective than topspins that land shorter, which are easier to counter-attack. (To get this higher net clearance on topspin shots, some find it easier to simply aim deeper on the table, which gets the same effect since you have to arc the ball more to do so.)

If you often attack heavy backspin balls into the net, perhaps video a match where you do this. See what percentage of your misses are into the net and what percentage off the end – as well as what percentage hit the table. Then work on decreasing the into-net percentage while increasing – yes, increasing – the off-the-end shots because of your higher net clearance and increased depth. By doing so, you’ll likely end up with far more balls on the table and a better feel for what you need to do to attack those backspin balls with the right clearance and arc so they consistently hit the table.