Should blocks be? - Flat - so that the opponent has lttle time to recover from smash or -Looped up - so that the opponent has to travel a greater distance towards the net I'm not sure which is better Thanks for help
It depends on the situation. Hard flat block can work against opponents who have trouble with those shots. A block just over the net is good if smasher hangs back and doe not follow smash in. If smasher move too close to the net, a clear to the back line behind him is good, especially if his partner doe not move back to cover the space left open. I want to develop several choices for smash returns so I can keep opponents guessing wht I am going to do.
Also depends what game ur playing. Doubles u would want to drive it flat as when ur partner smashes u normally would go into the net looking for loose reply, so hitting it flat and harder would be the way to go. In singles normally u see returns of smashes being slightly angled and slower, just going over the net, this is so opponent has to travel a longer distance and also use more energy in doing so..... smash-recover-get to front of net-back to base in a very short period. Obviously good idea to vary these shots so ur game wont be read very easily, but they are the standard ways of doing it....i think
make sure you vary your blocks in a singles match. so the oppenent wouldn't know what you are doing all the time, this is one of the things i have to work on.