OOAK Table Tennis Forum

and a strategy devised on whether my opponent hits or misses his forehand and thus is entirely dependant on his performance, is not a good strategy.

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Blade: Barna Original Triumph Forehand Yasaka Razka Po Backhand Der-Materialspezialist Störkraft 0.8
http://www.instagram.com/dragontattooguy

Thanks again for your comment AA. I don't want to start a conflict, so I guess for that match we'll just have to agree to disagree (given what I knew of his tendencies beforehand). However, going into the future I'll aim to use strategies that put the fate of the match more in my own hands by attacking more, varying ball location etc. for the sake of my personal development.

All comments and suggestions are welcome,
- Chumbucket

And why is this a bad strategy?? This is exactly what you're supposed to do - know your opponent and take advantage of his weaknesses. Doing the opposite (playing to his strenths) is definitely not recommended no matter what game you're playing.

Iskandar

because you are making the outcome depend on how he performs. at a certain level you will only win if you manage to stop him landing his active shots and are able to be more dominant yourself.

you will rarely find ittf videos of players chopping long to their opponents forehand

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Blade: Barna Original Triumph Forehand Yasaka Razka Po Backhand Der-Materialspezialist Störkraft 0.8
http://www.instagram.com/dragontattooguy

I watched the video possibly a week ago and was surprised that you managed to pull off a win - so well done !
Kind of agree with AA that to base your game on your opponent missing is a risky strategy.
Noticed that you were able to hit some winners so as mentioned previously why not be more aggressive ?
If you were playing someone with more consistency they would certainly have won.
I would describe myself as an all round player and a criticism of my game is that I can be passive and end up defending. I'm good at defending but with an offensive setup playing against a stronger player isn't going to result in a win since they will be consistent.
Aim at being able to beat a stronger player and not just someone that would be around your own level.
That involves in being able to hit winners where you are the aggressor.

If you can't get someone to formally coach you try and see if you can get a strong player to mentor you giving you some decent knocks.

Hi all,

Thank you again for your responses. I guess the optimal strategy would combine playing to my opponent's weaknesses and being more aggressive / creating more opportunities for me to control the point. I'd say that in this match, I did a better job of exploiting my opponent's weak points, but I certainly have room to grow in terms of my own attacking.

I also went through each point of my match and found the source of each point-ending play. The results are as follows:

a) My Earned Points (23): FH Smash: 9 // FH Block: 5 // Ace: 4 // FH Drive: 3 // FH Loop: 1 // BH Drive: 1
b) Source of His Misses (20): My BH Push: 18 // His Missed Serve: 1 // My Backspin Serve: 1
c) Source of His Winners (13): My BH Push: 7 // My FH Topspin Serve: 3 // My FH Push: 2 // My FH Drive: 1
d) My Errors / Misses (32): FH Block: 7 // BH Block: 7 // S. Return: 6 (These were all in the first two games) // FH Loop: 4 // FH Push: 3 // FH Drive: 2 // FH Smash: 1 // BH Push: 1 // BH Loop: 1

Since these are a lot of numbers, I was hoping to get a collective sense of what I should emphasize in my play, and/or what I should work on in the future. Among these, it's clear that:
1) My FH Smash is my most consistent attack (it'd better be), having created a +8 differential.
2) My FH Block won me 5 points but lost me 7 (likely because my block off the opponent's loop went out of bounds).
3) Conversely, my BH Block won me 0 points while also losing me 7.
4) For this game, my BH Push served as both a positive and negative aspect - I won 18 points off it, largely because of the opponent's misses, while losing 8, mostly from the opponent's makes (perhaps my preceding block was too high).
5) My FH and BH Drive seems to help me stay alive in rallies but I don't get winners off them, at least not in this game.

So now, I'm wondering how to improve on a few things, especially on the skills that apply most to my close-to-table style:
1) How can I create opportunities for FH Smashes?
2) How can I improve my BH Block - it seems like all of them went out of bounds when countering loops?
3) How can I increase my FH and BH Drive efficiency - I believe location could be the best contributor, e.g. down the line, at the body?

Thanks, and looking forward to your contributions,
- Chumbucket

Had a quick look again at the opening shots of your match.
Personally I would recommend that instead of spending your time analysing where you won or lost points is to spend that time getting your strokes right where you can loop. Passively returning a long ball with a chop when the best option is to return / attack with topspin.
On question 2 BH Block - Blocking is a skill and an active block where the bat moves a little bit allows one to counter and gives for better control.
I'll leave to those who have coaching expertise to advise on the other points.
No substitute for having proper coaching / mentoring although some of the pingskills on line training is good.

I made my account to reply to this.

Awesome on uploading your video and showing it to us.

So first off, if this was an important match (to you) and you won using tactics with what you had in your tool box, bravo. Not many people do that at your level from my experience. Just recently I beat a player in a match I really wanted to win by really bringing my game down and playing mistake free, so I totally understand.

Many here are simply saying that at a higher level you will need more tools. A loop, a block, shorter serves, more variation of serves. All of these are tools to win points. It all depends on how far you want to go.

It looks like you have a lot of basics going. For your progress I'd really focus on getting the pushing better. Get that so it's a weapon and close to mistake free.

I'll tell you your first 'set play' - get a good short serve to the forehand and then when they push it back - push it deep to their backhand. This play works so well it happens at the highest level of table tennis. (don't believe me? watch Ma Long use it at least 3-4 times a match in the WTTC2015)

Also while you are practicing, or doing practice games, work on looping backspin and top spin. This will take a long time to get right. The key is to have a lot of bat speed to brush against the ball. Prepare to make some mistakes! However soon you will be looping the higher backspin balls for winners.

The key is to practice a new skill and then use it in your practice games. You have to be willing to lose those practice games. I mean it. Be okay with losing.

Today I lost a match 1-3, but I had this wonderful forehand counter-hit that normally I'd probably block. It was taken early, fast, safe and to a great spot. This is all I remember about that match!

Hi Multispoke and Wilkinru (welcome to the forums by the way!)

Thank you both for your comments. Multispoke, thanks for the tip on active blocking - moving my paddle while blocking definitely adds control. Wilkinru, thank you for your compliments and your "set play" advice - I didn't know that combo was so effective! I compiled my list of point-ending plays to get a better objective sense of my strengths and weaknesses - such as proving that my attacking shots were definitely underutilized during the match. I also agree with both of you that I could work on strengthening my pushes by varying spin and placement, and that I may wish to consider being more aggressive with my shot selection - adding tools is definitely important!

Since the match featured in the video took place,
1) I've worked on attacking the ball from a lower angle than before - it seems to be more effective especially against backspin
2) I've practiced using a forehand tomahawk serve (with sidespin, topspin, or backspin) to get pop-up returns to my forehand

Any thoughts on the above two methods or others are always welcome,
- Chumbucket