Counter-Drivers: Strengths & How to Beat

Last Updated on April 24, 2024 by Alex Horscroft

Counter-drivers are players who play close to the table and redirect incoming speed and spin using backhand drives and forehand drives. They are consistent and pre-dominantly rely on their opponents to make errors, although sometimes they will seek to kill the ball with a smash.

An exclusively counter-driving style is not particularly common, especially at the higher level. This is because it doesn’t make use of the most devastating attacking shot in the game — the forehand loop.

However, this is not to say that counter-driving is not widely used professionally, because it is. Female players, in particular, counter-drive far more so than men. And many choose to counter-drive more than they loop on their backhand.

Banner image — credit: XIAYO TANG | CC BY SA 2.0 | unedited

The Counter-Driver in Action

This is the best video I could find of a textbook counter-driver. Pay attention to the gentleman in the light blue shirt. While his technique is far from perfect, he has an excellent reaction time and uses his backhand drive to great effect.

Strengths of the Counter-Driver

1. Very Consistent

Counter-driver’s bread and butter is attacking consistency. They are not the most skilled offensive players but they are the toughest to outlast. This is because, fundamentally, the counter-drive is an easy shot to execute. It doesn’t require a great touch, and there’s not a tonne of footwork involved.

Therefore counter-drivers are more than capable of beating controlled loopers, for example, as loops are much harder shots to execute.

2. Strong on the Backhand Side

While counter-drivers are great on both the backhand and forehand side, most of the time they feel more at home on the backhand. This goes against the forehand favoritism of the majority of other styles, so make a mental note!

The reason most players prefer the forehand side is due to two main strokes: the forehand smash and the forehand loop. Given that counter-drivers seldom use these strokes, it only makes sense for them to instead prefer the control and precision that the backhand delivers.

3. Precise

As driving lacks the pace of more offensive shots such as the smash and loop, counter-drivers have to instead rely a little more on placement rather than power. This means they are constantly thinking about your positioning and reading your body language — ready to punish any false move.

Expect to be moved around if you have weak movement, or pinned on the backhand side where it favors them.

How to Beat the Counter-Driver

1. Heavy Topspin

If you’re able to produce heavy topspin loops this is a great means of giving counter-drivers trouble. You put them under pressure by giving them a ball that is difficult to effectively attack. If they hit the ball too hard or don’t have their angle just right, it will ping over the end of the table.

Therefore many will choose to use a block instead. This gives you ample time to execute a more powerful shot such as a loop or smash to win the point.

2. Make Use of Pushes

Counter-drivers are not very good at opening up from backspin — in fact, some lack the ability altogether. Therefore employing a pushing game can completely shut down their style. If you’re comfortable, you can keep to pushing rallies, but for attackers, this can get pretty boring.

So instead focus on strong openers from backspin. The idea here is to win a point outright from your shot, if not on the next ball. Otherwise, you might end up stuck in a counter-driving rally. Therefore you should bide your time and perform a loop kill (to win the point outright), or a slow spinny rollover loop (to win the point outright/on the next ball).

3. Kill-Shots

Leading on from this, kill shots are your friends against counter-drivers. These players are comfortable re-directing your own pace and spin right back at you, but there is a limit to what they can handle.

You really want to focus on heavy loops and smashes as much as possible, as these are the attacking shots that will give them the most trouble

4. Chop the Ball

While this is more of a niche strategy, it’s certainly one you can experiment with even if you’re an attacker. As discussed earlier, most counter-drivers can’t attack heavy backspin. Therefore chops are an effective way of keeping yourself safe in unfavorable topspin rallies.

Say, for instance, you have a super spinny forehand loop. You’ve just played it, and it didn’t help win you the point, and now you’re stuck in a tricky counter-driving exchange. Then why not throw out a chop? It branches away from the counter-driver’s game and gets you in a pushing rally — then it’s simply a matter of waiting for the right moment to try your forehand loop again.

Closing Thoughts

Counter-drivers are highly effective at using your own spin and speed against you, but they’ll succumb to excessive speed or spin if you can muster it. Backspin is also a great tool, and one you should make use of even if you are a hardcore attacker.

In my experience, I’ve found counter-drivers are a fun and straightforward style to play against. And there is no shortage of them at the lower level. With a half-decent match IQ, you should be able to take most of them down if you’re at a similar skill level.

Next Lessons

Some of the counter drivers you come up against may well be using short pips, therefore, I recommend checking out my guide for beating short pips players.

Another fairly similar type of player is the flat smasher. Click here to see my guide on taking flat smashers down.