OOAK Table Tennis Forum

The single best way to know you are improving is to beat players who are better than you. There is little else that is so rewarding to a sportsperson. This is why I think this is something that needs some voice. I am going to share my experiences from both the losses and wins against better players.

Here I am referring to players a level above you. At intermediate level (under 2000 USATT), this would mean players around 150-200 rating points above you. At higher levels this gap in levels gets smaller to 100 till around 2500 and 50 beyond that.

Here are some key points I have learned (please add what you think). Please keep in mind that this might apply to lower level players too but I am talking purely about players better than the reader. Also, I assume you have a rough understanding of the opponent's play style - either seen or played him before.

Expect your weaknesses to be exploited (I can not stress this enough):

Unless I play junior players I always feel as if the better players quickly identify my weakness and exploit it much better. Its often that than their strength against my strength. For e.g. I have relative weakness in bh counterloops. While players at my level don't recognize it or exploit it, players above my level (I should be around 1750) repeatedly exploit it day in day out. So if I ever beat them, it is by quick soft blocking on their bh loops to avoid counterloops on that wing. Initially I had no idea why I was losing so badly but once i started expecting this tactic from him, I could do much better. This preparation for the onslaught on your weakness - mental and tactial is KEY.

Change the game:
In modern table tennis, the player who opens first, usually wins. I play a LOT of aggressive loopers who love short pushing and opening strongly. Often times while they are better than me at this, their counter-hitting game is as good as mine or only slightly better. So I really benefit from fast driving rallies (like the women's game). I am almost afraid to do it against players of my level because there are better ways for me to play them with lesser risk but against stronger players, this is a play style that's highly under-rated. Sometimes I even serve long which sounds stupid but works more than expected. Serve, spin, placement variations which might even be unorthodox should be tried.

See Koki Niwa's unorthodox hook-flip returns in doubles matches or Kenta Matsudaira's fading blocks against Zhang Jike in Austrian Open and against Ma Lin in his classic WTTC match. See his counterhitting game against Ma Long when he nearly beat him.

I refer Kenta here because he routinely troubles players way better than him. Here are some absolutely classic matches where you can see this.







Risk it:
Your A game isn't going to beat their A game. So bring hellfire. 100m sprinters often practice running downhill so that their body knows going beyond its limit. So get light footed and focussed. If you take it as just another game it will be just another loss. If you take it as something special, it might become special sometimes. Last thing you want to do is to expect to lose.
(Again, if you saw the matches I alluded to above, you can clearly see how by being super agile and willing, Kenta plays above his level when he out-blocks Ma Lin regularly)

Understand your game deeply (feeds into the first point above):
When I play the same players over and over again, my understanding of strengths and weaknesses becomes very skewed and relative to those players. This is why to understand one's true game, one has to play a multitude of players. This also includes your form - if your sidespin hooks are going off the table since last week, maybe you shouldn't plan to use them excessively and think of compensating by adding more placement. So if you have been playing the same bunch over the last year and are up against a better player, you have got yourself some thinking to do.

Concentrate on "nothing" balls:
Short pushing, the innocuous return, the simple block - all of these seemingly routine, low-risk shots now need high concentration. You can not beat a better player while making too many unforced errors.

Go beyond on "nothing" balls:
Maybe you dont need to wait for a 100mph opener - maybe that slightly risky but well directed block gives as much payout as that screamer your are not able to get your hands on. Maybe instead of pushing short everytime, you can push deep into the elbow.

Apart from all this there is one advice i read somewhere which has kept me in good stead - If you can't stop him from attacking, let him attack BUT on YOUR terms. Then, control the point.

What this means is - if he is loading up so much spin on his opening loops that you can't block, maybe you shouldn't be serving heavy underspin! If you serve nospin or slight topspin, he can not load the spin up even though he feels he is the one attacking! The converse holds true for controlling speed and depth.

Over the last year, these concepts have helped me beat several players 200+ points above me and a couple of even bigger wins including a 2100+ looper. In cases where I lost, I got closer than I would've had I played as I play other players.

I would love to hear more thoughts.

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Wow that is an excellent post Rahul_TT! I hope it leads to a lot more discussion!


I partcularly like this point... so very true, and I must admit it's often not something I consider... I can get carried away with trying to stop them from attacking, while allowing a weak attack may be a much better strategy!

I find the toughest thing is being able to think about this while you're playing. Some of us think much better on their feel than others.

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+100 for this post, Rahul. Great work. Plenty to think about just before another season takes hold.

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I've become expert in beating players a bit (lets say one division (I play division 2)) higher rated than myself!:) it's much easier for me than beating players rated my level most of the time because when I have nothing to lose I always go into those matches with all guns loaded on deck. When playing someone my level where I can lose points I always play like a muppet and very conservatively.

Sometimes if the high rated player is lacking offensive power I'll deliberately make him attack and have a relaxing day fishing until I can physically grind him down enough that he wont be able to do anything about my offensive game when it comes later in the match. Often do the old 5 players in one match technique and play one fishing, one blocking, one offensive one allround and finish the match with another offensive game. Something like that. Or just hit into their body for a game then hit a foot different the next game, just so it's different and they have no time to study my game too much. These high level non juniors get to that level because they are highly intelligent and practice technique a lot more than I do. It doesn't take them long to work things out. Changing things around takes that away from them, then you can play them on more even terms.

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It seems a natural inclination when playing better opponents is to get intimidated and, therefore, to play defensively. I think the idea of 'going for broke' is something to consider, especially when a defensive game usually means nerves and stiffness and confusion ... and another loss. The only thing to watch out is getting so frustrated that you give up the game with shots that are too wild and uncontrolled. But I think if your technique is fairly sound then those risks are minimised.

Bottom line for me: go in with confidence and play my natural aggressive game.

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Weapon 1: Andro Kinetic Supreme Hinoki/Zylon OFF-; Andro Hexer HDs (FH 2.1/BH 1.9)
Weapon 2: Ross Leidy 'Smokey'; Friendship 729-5s
Club1: Daylesford - since 2010
Club2: Ballarat - since 2011
Blog: A Naked Bear

my tactics (I recently had a player arrive at my club who is way better than me, so this is a very valid topic, and something I am currently thinking about!):

watch how other players play them, and win points against them. Sometimes a simple change in placement of service, or method of service return, changes how they can attack
expect them to play their big shots - if you are ready for where they are likely to place the attack, instead of thinking "woh, here it comes", often it is not as bad as it seems
Mix up the serves - against better players, deception and unexpected serves do much better than huge spin. A serve that is misread or causes hesitation is far better than your favourite spinny serve that they just put away
if the guy has a really spinny opening loop off the serve, think about serving long, with topspin - as per Rahul-TT's comment above, once it is a counter-driving game, things are generally all equal as against facing a massively spinny opening loop
trust your game - even if you miss one or two, the fact that you are prepared to mix it up is always a concern to better players...

You fibber PRW - you just try to blow em away with your big loops!

hey carbonman, you're right - the problem is when they don't give me a chance to try!
it's just not fair....

I tried to put this into action at practice yesterday... worked really well... I'll have to try to remember this and practice it more often. Thanks again for the great summary Rahul_TT

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This discussion will be very helpful to all levels of players as most of them are trying to beat players with higher ratings. To beat these better players, you must observe their playing styles and find out their strengths and weaknesses. Then you can prepare your tactics according to your findings. These tactics must be different according to the playing styles and the skills of the players concerned. So, you will fail if you have only one approach or one set of tactics for all of these better players. Furthermore, you will find that you must revise and modify your tactics as you might fail at your initial attempts. However, one day you will succeed, if you keep improving your skills while making effective tactics continuously.

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Amazing stuff, Sir Rahul!
I'll download this page to my TT archive for further study

Thank you so much!

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Become better than them.

It had to be said.

If you are able to change tactics via the methods that have already been mentioned in this thread, then you are better than them.

I often beat "better" players. But in this case "better" merely means flashier looking shots, or a very good serve and limited ability to play a certain sort of point. With my game I try not to play the opponent's game, but make him/her play my game. I know not to try to out hit or out loop most players. I attempt to make them play out of their comfort zone, and either their B game if they have one or if they don't then they go down to the bitter end attempting their (losing for them against me) A game.

If you beat a better player, then almost by definition you are better than them in some way for the duration of the match at least.

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Can't argue with that!

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Nice post Rahul and so many good inputs. If you beat better players, then you are better than them! . Table tennis is not really about who have the best shot but who can employ the better tactics!

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Enjoy the game. It is a never ending learning experience once you play and keep the ball on that 45 sq ft of space or should I say half of that space.

Arguably it is either about who can impose their game better or who can adapt better to the imposed game of the opponent.

In my opinion, both cases favor the more introspective player, to tie this to another recent thread here.

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