OOAK Table Tennis Forum

Your Russian-Polish ex-teammate was very detrimental to your team. I don't know how you lasted as long as you did with him. What happened to him? He quit now?

Your new team must seem like a harmonious dream in comparison. Your other ex-teammate is a very nice guy though What grade is he playing? B1?

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I'm always in the dark, but the Dark sheds lights upon everything!! Beauty is only pimple deep! Beauty is in the eye of the pipholder!
S/U 1: Blade: Bty Gergely . FH Black Andro Rasant 2.1 . BH Red Tibhar Grass Dtecs
S/U 2: Blade: Bty Gergely . FH Black Hexer+ 2.1 . BH Red GD Talon
S/U 3: Blade: Bty Gergely . No rubbers...thinking of adding Red Dtecs and Black Rasant
Aussie Table Tennis Shop / Aussie Table Tennis Facebook Page / Equipment Review Index / Read my Reb Report Blog: click here.

So far as I know, the Russian-born Polish player annoyed the younger Chinese player in his team with his complaints and remarks. The Chinese player told him that they did not need him in future. The older Chinese player has got back another Chinese player who used to fill in for him (when I was in that team). They are now in B1. I don't know much about the youngest Chinese player, but I can certainly say that the other two are real gentlemen.

The Polish player hasn't got a regular team. He might fill in for the other teams in A5.

Joola MC 1, FH Gewo Stratos Sound,BH Roxon 450
Joola Kool- FH Gewo Stratos Sound, BH Roxon 450
Juic Air Titan, FH Joola Green Power, BH Roxon 450

_________________
S/U 1:Primorac Carbon Offensive- BH Joola Maxxx 40 Max, FH Andro Rasant Powersponge Max
S/U 2:Primorac Carbon Offensive- BH Joola Maxxx 40 Max, FH Andro Rasant Beat Max
S/U 3:TSP Hino-Carbon-BH Stiga Boost TX Max, FH Joola rhyzm 375 Max

I haven't seen him at all yet. I wonder if he's been going on Tuesdays.

_________________
I'm always in the dark, but the Dark sheds lights upon everything!! Beauty is only pimple deep! Beauty is in the eye of the pipholder!
S/U 1: Blade: Bty Gergely . FH Black Andro Rasant 2.1 . BH Red Tibhar Grass Dtecs
S/U 2: Blade: Bty Gergely . FH Black Hexer+ 2.1 . BH Red GD Talon
S/U 3: Blade: Bty Gergely . No rubbers...thinking of adding Red Dtecs and Black Rasant
Aussie Table Tennis Shop / Aussie Table Tennis Facebook Page / Equipment Review Index / Read my Reb Report Blog: click here.

Coping with Various Playing Styles

Last Monday we met the team team consisting two trainees coached by the young coaches here. The third player(German or Austrian in origin) who had been coached by the number 1 player at the club,did not turn up. This was not the first time when he acted in this way. It seemed to me that he expected a higher grade and when he did not get it, he decided not to come. Anyway, another experienced player came to fill in.

The two young players, one Vietnamese and the other Chinese in origin, had the same playing style. Both were very good loopers, especially the one who had very tacky Chinese rubbers on both sides of his blade. As far as these two players were concerned, our major tactic was to prevent them from looping many balls and attacking us using their forehand.We knew that their backhand was relatively weak. Therefore, we decided to serve short to their backhand with backspin and sidespin and mix it up with long spinny serves in order to corner them on their left side.We further agreed that we must try to keep our returns short and spinny as much as we could. Our idea was to get weak returns and attack them at difficult angles.

The older experienced player was very consistent in playing his strokes, especially playing his backhand strokes. His placement was very good and effective and he was capable of upsetting even a player of higher standard by doing this.He was able to push the ball with variety of spin for any length of time in order to force the opponent to make errors. However, his forehand was relatively weak. So, the major tactic against this player was to serve mainly long to his forehand with heavy backspin and get weak returns and attack at difficult angles. Secondly, we decided to play slow loops to his backhand and force him to make errors.

Team-mate D played the Chinese looper who was quicker and faster than the other looper in his stroke playing. As we expected, he tried to loop almost every return of our player, and in consequence, he made a lot of mistakes.He was cornered on the left side of the table by the strokes played by our team-mate mainly using his backhand. The young guy was unable to run around and attack the ball which came to his extreme left side. So, we won the game 3-0.

Team-mate K played the next game against the Vietnamese guy who used very tacky rubbers. I had seen him playing before and I knew how much topspin he could create using these rubbers. So, I warned my team-mate that he must be prepared to handle heavy topspin shots from both his forehand and backhand. My prediction came true and the young guy played some very good and effective topspin shots from both wings. Our team-mate showed some difficulty in handling the spin. However, the backhand of this player was relatively weak and he tended to make many errors on the left side of the table. Even though he was winning many points by looping the ball, his backhand let him down at the end. Our team-mate gradually improved his ability to deal with heavy topspin and finally won the match 3-1.

I played the experienced player next. I had worked out my plan against him well before the match.According to this plan, I served long mainly to the right side of the table with backspin and sidespin mixing up it with some short spinny serves. The idea was to get weak returns from his relatively weak forehand and attack at difficult angles. Secondly, I tried to play slow loops to his stronger backhand and make him unbalanced and force him to make errors. Thirdly, I decided to push the ball back with spin variation and good placement until I could get right returns to attack. These all tactics worked quite well against him and he seemed to have been surprised at some of my strokes played to the right,the left and to his body/playing elbow. To my great delight, some of my shots curved away from him and my improved backhand strokes looked faster and spinnier than before.

I found out that my decision to change my forehand rubber from Roxon 450 to Gewo Stratos Sound was wise and sound. Roxon 450, as my backhand rubber also performed extremely well. Both rubbers were giving me speed, control, feel and sound. So, I won the first two sets quite convincingly. In the third set, I slowed down a little bit since I believed that I had already conquered the enemy. It was a bad decision and my opponent kept on hitting the ball while pushing it with variety of spin. I understood, at a later stage of the set, that I had to attack him again, but it was too late. My opponent won the third set in a close encounter.

My team-mate K had also undertood that I lost the set since I slowed myself down. He insisted that I must play my natural fast game while being careful about the spinny pushes of the opponent. So, I became fast again and my strokes were all over the table again and I won the final set quite easily. The final result was
3-1.

My team-mates played the first double against the looping combo. Again the young guys showed their looping abilty, but failed to handle the shots that played to their backhand and spinny pushes mainly came from team-mate K. The backhand attacks of team-mate D were also very effective and the looping combo were unable to run around and loop them. So, it was a relatively an easy win. Overall result now was 3-0.

Team-mate D played the experineced player next. He also had played against this player and he knew the major aspects of his game. I reminded our team-mate that the forehand of the opponent was relatively weak and he could make a lot of errors in handling slow loops to his backhand. Team-mate D seemed to have understood the weaknesses of the oppponent, and as a result, he played a pretty attacking and effective game winning the match 3-0.

I played next against the looper who used very tacky Chinese rubbers. Since I had worked on our plan against this guy and I already found his weaknesses, it was relatively easy match for me. I played very speedy strokes with some topspin and sidespin and managed to place them effectively making the opponent move from side to side. In most cases, he was cornered on the left side of the table forcing him to make so many errors. Using my ability to block topspin shots, most of his shots were returned mainly to the corners of the table. The looper could put very high degree of spin on the ball, but he was not consistent. He could hit the ball second or the third time, but could not go beyond that limit. So, it was relatively easy win for me(3-0).

Team-mate K played the quicker looper next. This player showed his potential as a strong player in future. Even though we had a plan and tactics against him according to what we saw in his first match against team-mate D, he all of a sudden showed some improvement. According to our plan, team-mate K mainly served and played his shots to his backhand. However, the opponent started running around and loop them quite well. He won lot of points by doing it and this change made team-mate K quite surprised. All sets were fought very hard and both won two sets before the decider. My advice to team-mate K was to serve shorter and shorter to the extreme corner of his backhand and get weak and high balls to attack. I emphasized the fact that team-mate K must be able to block his looped shots and place them effectively. He was unable to do that, so the opponent won the final set and the match.

Team-mate K and I played the next double against the experienced guy and the quicker looper. The older guy kept on pushing the ball with variety of spin and when we returned it quite low with some spin, the looper managed to loop it continuously. This pattern continued in the first and the second sets despite our attempts to change the situation by serving short with variety of spin and playing strokes to the backhand of the looper. These tactics did not work and the opposition won the first two sets. In next two sets, we tried harder and harder and were able to break the pattern to some extent. Therefore, we won these two sets. In the final set, the looper played some excellent shots at very difficult angles and we failed to return them. Finally, the opposition won the match 3-2. At this stage, the overall score was 6-2 in our favour and we had already won the night. However, we knew that we must win the other three matches in order to enhance our chances to go to the final.

Team-mate K had to play the experienced player next. Our team-mate had played before against this player who had beaten him in many encounters.So, I tried to give him some ideas he could use this time and raise his confidence accordingly.I explained that most of his serves must go to his forehand with heavy spin in order to get weak returns to attack.I insisted that his strokes must be directed at the right, the left and the body of the opponent. Furthermore, we agreed that when the opponent pushed the ball with spin, he must kept returning them with variety of spin until he could get weak returns to attack. His placement should also be very good in finding difficult angles on both the right and the left side of the table.

Team-mate K was, as usual, willing to follow these tactics. As a result, he won the first two sets quite convincingly. Then the opponent sat on the back bence to think about his strategy. We had talked about this approach of our opponent before the match. So, team-mate K knew that he would come back with new tactics. As a matter of fact, the pushes of the opponent became more difficult since they were shorter and spinnier. His strokes were played at more difficult angles. In these circumstances, the opponent started winning more points, but our team-mate managed to maintain a two to three points lead in the next two games and won the match 3-0 accordingly.

It was my turn to play the quicker and more difficult looper now. I knew that he was able to beat team-mate K being quick, aggressive and consistent. He had proved to me that he could even handle the shots to his backhand now by running around and moving further away from the left side of the table. He also had proved to me that he could also play very good backhand strokes. So, my major idea was to play my shots at difficult angles and force him to move to the right and to the left. Furthermore, I decided to play, whenever I could, more strokes to his backhand corner in a quick succession since he would expect me to play from right to the left all the time. Thirdly, I decided to keep the ball short and spinny as much as possible in order to force him to make errors and get weak returns to attack. This plan worked extremely well. My strokes were fluent, accurate, fast and spinny. My opponent did not have many opportunities to loop the ball. When he managed to loop the ball, I was able to block it with some speed and spin. So, I won the match 3-0 and it was a great win.

The final match was between team-mate D and the looper who used very tacky Chinese rubbers. The opponent showed that he was more careful now in looping, but it did not help him much. His loops were slower now and they could be attacked without much difficulty. So, our team-mate won the match 3-0. The overall result was 9-2.

This was a great win. We will be in the second place now. As far as I was concerned, this win was very important since I found out the right combination of rubbers for my blade through my matches.

Joola MC 1-FH Gewo Stratos Sound Max, BH Roxon 450 Max
Joola Kool- FH Gewo Stratos Max, BH Roxon 450 Max
Juic Air Titan- FH Joola Green Power Max, BH Roxon 450 Max

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S/U 1:Primorac Carbon Offensive- BH Joola Maxxx 40 Max, FH Andro Rasant Powersponge Max
S/U 2:Primorac Carbon Offensive- BH Joola Maxxx 40 Max, FH Andro Rasant Beat Max
S/U 3:TSP Hino-Carbon-BH Stiga Boost TX Max, FH Joola rhyzm 375 Max

Nice analysis and reporting there Najay. I thought your 9-2 win might put you in first place, but 2nd is fine as long as you build a gap to third. Then as long as we maintain our A4 position we might meet you again next season (A4 is much tougher this season than last).

I haven't played or even seen the "experienced player" since I beat him in the B1 final over a year ago. One thing that I think you overlooked in your report on playing different styles is his style. Given he is a modified seemiller grip player, which we don't see much of around our club, his style is quite interesting. Well worth commenting on I would say.

_________________
I'm always in the dark, but the Dark sheds lights upon everything!! Beauty is only pimple deep! Beauty is in the eye of the pipholder!
S/U 1: Blade: Bty Gergely . FH Black Andro Rasant 2.1 . BH Red Tibhar Grass Dtecs
S/U 2: Blade: Bty Gergely . FH Black Hexer+ 2.1 . BH Red GD Talon
S/U 3: Blade: Bty Gergely . No rubbers...thinking of adding Red Dtecs and Black Rasant
Aussie Table Tennis Shop / Aussie Table Tennis Facebook Page / Equipment Review Index / Read my Reb Report Blog: click here.

Thanks, Reb. Yes, as I said we will get the second place since the team that came back from A4 has won more games than us. However, this situation will change during next two or three weeks.

What you have said about the playing style of the experienced player is interesting. I didn't take any notice of that particular style. I will find out more about it soon if he turns up again for filling in.


Joola MC 1- FH Gewo Stratos Sound Max, BH Roxon 450 Max
Joola Kool-FH Gewo Stratos Sound Max, BH Roxon 450 Max
Juic Air Titan- FH Joola Green Power Max, BH Roxon 450 Max

_________________
S/U 1:Primorac Carbon Offensive- BH Joola Maxxx 40 Max, FH Andro Rasant Powersponge Max
S/U 2:Primorac Carbon Offensive- BH Joola Maxxx 40 Max, FH Andro Rasant Beat Max
S/U 3:TSP Hino-Carbon-BH Stiga Boost TX Max, FH Joola rhyzm 375 Max

Interesting, if I wish to get someones BH when rallying I'll usually serve to their FH.

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Equipment Review Index
Joola Turbo: FH: Joola Peking (2mm) , BH: Joola Peking (2mm)
Another one bites the dust.

Antipip, you have a very different idea here, may be beacuse you are a defender(according to your blade and rubbers). If I play against an attacker whose backhand is relatively weak, I serve mostly to his/her backhand in order to get weak returns to attack. If my opponent moves further to the left and use his/her forehand to return my serves, I will also move my serves further and further to the left of the table causing the opponent to use his/her backhand. If this happens, you can get weak returns mostly to the right and the middle of the table. Then you can attack them with your forehand. If these returns come to your backhand, you can still attack them with your backhand because they are still relatively weak ( if you have a good attacking backhand). If I serve to the forehand of my opponent, I will make sure that my serves are very short and spinny while waiting to use either my backhand or forehand to return. The disadvantage here is that you must be ready to move quickly from the left to the right to return probably more stronger and spinnier shots coming from the forehand of the opponent.

Joola MC 1- FH Gewo Stratos Sound Max, BH Roxon 450 Max
Joola Kool- FH Gewo Stratos Sound Max, BH Roxon 450 Max
Juic Air Titan- FH Gewo Stratos Sound Max, BH Joola Green Power Max

_________________
S/U 1:Primorac Carbon Offensive- BH Joola Maxxx 40 Max, FH Andro Rasant Powersponge Max
S/U 2:Primorac Carbon Offensive- BH Joola Maxxx 40 Max, FH Andro Rasant Beat Max
S/U 3:TSP Hino-Carbon-BH Stiga Boost TX Max, FH Joola rhyzm 375 Max

Najay, I have copied your setups into your signature area, so you no longer need to include them in your post.

_________________
I'm always in the dark, but the Dark sheds lights upon everything!! Beauty is only pimple deep! Beauty is in the eye of the pipholder!
S/U 1: Blade: Bty Gergely . FH Black Andro Rasant 2.1 . BH Red Tibhar Grass Dtecs
S/U 2: Blade: Bty Gergely . FH Black Hexer+ 2.1 . BH Red GD Talon
S/U 3: Blade: Bty Gergely . No rubbers...thinking of adding Red Dtecs and Black Rasant
Aussie Table Tennis Shop / Aussie Table Tennis Facebook Page / Equipment Review Index / Read my Reb Report Blog: click here.

I just think it should be relatively simple to keep a serve tight enough to give you the advantage on the next ball and if you go to the FH wherever they play it you can get to the BH (if you can play off both wings), whereas if you go to the BH (on serve) they can play down the line and with decent footwork get their FH in next shot. I also think the Fh is easier to read and that a strong looper on their FH may not neccesarily have such good touch around the net on that wing Vs their BH.

You assumed correctly I am a defender and as you say it may be different for attackers. Do you get to use more long serves to the Bh when they have this weakness?

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Equipment Review Index
Joola Turbo: FH: Joola Peking (2mm) , BH: Joola Peking (2mm)
Another one bites the dust.

I agree with you on this point,antipip. As you said, the important thing is to serve tightly in order to get the next ball to attack. That is why I usually go to the weaker side of my opponents. In most cases, this weaker side is their backhand. However, this weaker side can be their forehand. In this case, you can try to get the next ball for your attack by serving mostly to their forehand. I must say that your decision will be based on two factors-the playing style of your opponents and their skills and your own playing style and skills . I am quite aware that some players are able to attack your serves to their backhand (across the table or straight down) using their forehand. In this case, you must think about their forehand and their body/playing elbow for your serves.

Yes, from time to time, I serve long to the backhand of my opponents. If I do this, I will make sure that my serves have enough backspin or sidespin and the ball bounces in the edge area of the table. This type of serves will prevent the opponents from launching serious attacks and, in some cases, force them to make errors.

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S/U 1:Primorac Carbon Offensive- BH Joola Maxxx 40 Max, FH Andro Rasant Powersponge Max
S/U 2:Primorac Carbon Offensive- BH Joola Maxxx 40 Max, FH Andro Rasant Beat Max
S/U 3:TSP Hino-Carbon-BH Stiga Boost TX Max, FH Joola rhyzm 375 Max

Coping with Various Playing Styles
(Comments and more tactics welcome)

We met the toughest team in the competition last Monday. This team took the second position and went to the final by beating us(6-5) in the second round of the last season. They look tougher now. It is led by an experienced short pimple attacker(German or Austrian in origin) who has played more than 3200 matches at the club. The other two are looping attackers(Vietnamese in origin)who seem to improve day by day.

The SP player always plays close to the table since he tries to hit the ball quite early. His major stroke is quick and fast backhand drive and it is always across the table or down the line. He can also play the forehand driving shot and it always across the table or down the line. In dealing with short serves and short pushes, he pushes them with some backspin or float. He serves mainly with float or a bit of backspin.

I prepared set of tactics against this player before the game started.Since his forehand strokes were easier to return, I decided to serve short and long with backspin and sidespin to the forehand corner and keep attacking mainly his forehand. If I had to go to his backhand or SP side, I wanted to serve and push very short with heavy backspin since I knew that SP players find backspin somewhat difficult to deal with. Furthermore, I decided to loop(both fast and slow pace)to his SP side in order to make him unbalanced. I knew that SP rubbers wouldn't generate much spin and that they would come back without much spin if the opponent was able to return them.

Coming close to the table to return his SP strokes was another tactic since SP strokes wouldn't bounce far. In this case, I knew that I had to lift the ball a bit more as the ball would not bounce much. However, I knew that I had to move away from the table to get his forehand shots coming with some topspin.

Since this player would play his driving stroke over and over again, I decided to place the ball better mainly aiming for the extreme right, extreme left and his body/playing elbow. No spin short serves were another idea I wanted to use to break his timing and rhythm.

The other two players were looping attackers who mainly depended on their forehand strokes. They would deal with any weak serve or return to their forehand very severely with heavy topspin. The youngest guy was able to attack with his backhand too, but the other player had relatively weak backhand. My first tactic was to serve very short mainly to the backhand corner with heavy backspin and sidespin mixed up with occasional long and edge serve with variety of spin. If I wanted to go to their forehand side, my serves must be very short and spiny and they should land on the extreme right corner of the table in order to prevent heavy looping.

Another major idea was to keep the ball as short and spinny as possible in order to prevent them from attacking. So, I decided to push the ball back to the left and the body/playing elbow until I could get a right ball to attack. Slow loops to the extreme left side of the table was another tactic to make them unbalanced and force them to make errors. Blocking their looped strokes and placing them out of their comfort zone were very important. This was essential to frustrate these guys and force them to make mistakes.

I explained these tactics to my team-mates whenever the limited time allowed me to do so. Did these tactics work on this occasion?. I would say that they worked very well as far as I was concerned. In first two sets against the SP guy, I was able to use some of them, but failed to loop to his backhand side at different pace. Furthermore, I could not force him to play his forehand in these two sets. So, my opponent kept on playing his backhand driving strokes while I won most of my points attacking to the right side of the table with my forehand. My opponent won the both sets, but only by margin of two or three points.

In the third and forth sets, I executed my plan much better. I was able to play my slow and medium fast loops to the SP side of the opponent and he made many errors. I also started serving short and spinny to his forehand side and got many weaker returns that I attacked with speed and some spin. I also put more and more backspin to my pushes to his SP side and prevented him from playing his bread and butter stroke-quick and flat drive. So, I won the both sets quite comfortably.

In the decider, I happened to use most of my tactics, but for some reason I forgot to loop to his SP side. Furthermore, when he served short to my forehand with float or no spin, I tried twice to play a mixed shot(flick and push) and netted on both occasions.This failure gave the opponent two points buffer from the beginning, even though I managed to reduced the margin to 1, he played the final winning point. So I lost the set 9-11 and the match accordingly(2-3).

I executed my game plan extremely well against the looping pair. I beat the older looper quite convincingly. I knew that if I returned his spinny serves high he would attack me severely. So, I tried to read his spin correctly and push his serves back with heavy back and side spin. I won many pushing battles against him on this occasion. Furthermore, I tried to serve short with heavy and variety of spin mainly to his backhand. From time to time, I served very short with back and side spin to the extreme right side of the table too. In both cases, idea was to get weak returns which I could attack form both wings. This happened as I planned, and I played my forehand and backhand strokes with high speed and spin. So, this time I beat the guy quite comfortably(3-1).

I fought very hard against the other looping attacker. I used most of my tactics on this occasion. However, this guy was very difficult opponent. He had a very spinny serve which was very hard to read. His backhand was as good as his forehand and he could loop with his backhand too.He won the first two sets in a very close encounter. I won the next two sets by adjusting my plan according to his style of playing. The decider was a very close one and it was fought very hard by both of us. My opponent was not willing to give me even an inch. He played two pretty risky backhand shots at the end and won the set by 11-9.

Our team-mate D beat the SP player in a very close encounter mainly using variety of serves and his backhand strokes. He beat the older looping attacker playing mainly to his backhand. Whenever, there was a long rally, our team-mate tended to hit the last winning stroke. Team-mate D and team-mate K also won the first double against the SP player and the older attacker. However, team-mate D and I could not beat the SP player and the younger attacker in our second double. The younger guy proved again to us that he was a very tough player.

Team-mate K lost to the SP player and the younger attacker, but managed to beat the other attacker. Team-mate K seemed to have been using some of our tactics against these two opponents. However, they appeared quite capable of finding counter tactics against his ideas. So, it was a tough battle. We ended up with loosing the night 5-6. This loss would place us in the third position again. I hope we will be able to change this situation next week.

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S/U 1:Primorac Carbon Offensive- BH Joola Maxxx 40 Max, FH Andro Rasant Powersponge Max
S/U 2:Primorac Carbon Offensive- BH Joola Maxxx 40 Max, FH Andro Rasant Beat Max
S/U 3:TSP Hino-Carbon-BH Stiga Boost TX Max, FH Joola rhyzm 375 Max

Shame you didn't win this round. The old German player is indeed tough. I always felt a sense of achievement when I beat him. Not an easy task. Only once in many meetings did I beat all 3 of these guys and I was on fire that night. The guy you beat, my ex-teammate, I think is by far the easiest of the 3. Not to be under-estimated as he does use his serve well to get FH attack opportunities. As you said, he has a dangerous FH and a relatively weak BH, but you can use this against him as keeping him on his BH and then sending a quick one to his wide FH usually leaves him stranded. He also misses his FH smash quite a bit. I only lost a couple of times to this guy in quite a few seasons. The younger player is on and off/hot and cold. Generally speaking you need to play low to him and be patient, he will eventually get bored and attack a low percentage shot. Trouble is when he is on, he even gets a lot of those back. Funny thing is these guys were lucky not to be relegated back to B1 the season we went up as they finished last, but due to some club bungle they kept their spot. You guys need to work on getting back to 2nd spot.

_________________
I'm always in the dark, but the Dark sheds lights upon everything!! Beauty is only pimple deep! Beauty is in the eye of the pipholder!
S/U 1: Blade: Bty Gergely . FH Black Andro Rasant 2.1 . BH Red Tibhar Grass Dtecs
S/U 2: Blade: Bty Gergely . FH Black Hexer+ 2.1 . BH Red GD Talon
S/U 3: Blade: Bty Gergely . No rubbers...thinking of adding Red Dtecs and Black Rasant
Aussie Table Tennis Shop / Aussie Table Tennis Facebook Page / Equipment Review Index / Read my Reb Report Blog: click here.

I have beaten the oldest guy before playing patiently and using some effective tactics. Even on this occasion, I felt that I was winning until this guy got few free points(nets and edges). I felt that he was very lucky. I did not want to mention these free points in my report since this occurrence was something which my opponent or I could not control. Yes, the youngest guy was on at this night and every shot he played was in. The older guy appeared to have improved his game and did not make errors on his forehand side. If you let him play his game, he will finish you off quickly.

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S/U 1:Primorac Carbon Offensive- BH Joola Maxxx 40 Max, FH Andro Rasant Powersponge Max
S/U 2:Primorac Carbon Offensive- BH Joola Maxxx 40 Max, FH Andro Rasant Beat Max
S/U 3:TSP Hino-Carbon-BH Stiga Boost TX Max, FH Joola rhyzm 375 Max

Coping with Various Playing Styles

This was the forth night of A5 competition. We met the top team this time. This team had one of very experienced anti-spin player who had won almost all of his previous matches. The other two were inverted attackers-a flat hitter and a forehand looper.

I knew that we must win this night in order to keep our chance to go to the final. So, I worked on a plan to beat the tough anti-spin player and the two tough attackers. Do you think that we were able to beat the team No. 1 after loosing to the team No.2 last weak by very narrow margin?

Anti-spin player's major stroke is backhand anti-spin drive. To execute this stroke, he moves his arm from down to up with a noticeable forward motion. This is like playing a topspin stroke, but there is not much spin on the ball as anti-spin rubbers will not produce much spin.The ball stays low just over the net and it is very difficult to attack with your backhand. The way he plays his strokes, he will reverse your spin. So, the type of spin and degree of spin you might get depends on what you will put on the ball.

This guy always plays very close to the table since he likes to hit the ball early before its highest bounce. He uses his forehand from time to time to attack you and his attacking strokes are quite flat. As most of the close to the table players, he is very consistent and he tries to win most of his points by your mistakes.

Tactics

1.Play no spin flat strokes to his anti side to force him to pop up the ball or return weak balls. So, there is no spin for him to reverse.
2.Return the ball many times to anti side with variety of spin and at different pace to force him to make errors.
3.Loop long/short at changing pace to his anti side to break his timing and rhythm and attack at difficult angles.
4.Run around and attack his anti strokes to your backhand with your forehand mainly across the table and down the line.
5.Serve long and short serves with variety of spin to his forehand and attack his returns with a good placement.
6.Push with heavy spin to the left, the right and the body/playing elbow with occasional float balls.
7.Serve to the anti side with variety of spin since his anti-spin rubber has less ability to vary the spin.

You can see that there were many tactics I could use against this guy.Yes, to his surprise, I was able to use them and break his timing and rhythm. All of his anti strokes were returned with variety of spin and at fast and slow pace. He was forced to move to the left and the right from his comfort zone- the middle of the table. When he moved to one side, I was able to attack to the other side with my forehand and backhand. Long backspin serves to his forehand was very effective since his returns were high enough to attack with very high speed. When I looped the ball to his anti side, he managed to return the ball. However, the ball came high with a little bit of spin enabling me to attack with spin and speed. So, I beat the guy quite easily(3-0) . Our team-mate K was also using some of these tactics and finally managed to beat this guy in a close encounter. However, team-mate D appeared to play in a different way. He believed that he could beat this guy again by attacking his returns which looked flat and long. Our team-mate made so many errors and failed to change his game using some new tactics. Eventually, he lost the match quite badly.

The older inverted pusher/attacker serves half long with heavy backspin and attack with both backhand and forehand. He plays topspin style backhand and forehand strokes, but not much topspin is generated.He plays close to the table to hit the ball before its highest bounce and his strokes are mainly played down the line or across the table.

My major tactic against this guy was to loop his half long spinny serves to force him to make errors since he could not hit the looped ball early and quickly. Secondly, I decided to push short and long with backspin to the left, the right and the body in order to force him to move from his comfort zone- the middle of the table. Thirdly, I wanted to serve very short to both extreme corners and attack the third ball breaking his timing and rhythm. Finally, I wanted to play a liitle bit away from the table to counterhit his shots while coming back close to the table to push whenever necessary.

My pushes were quite long and he attacked them quite easily. When I served short, he pushed them back until I made an error. When I looped his serves few times, he managed to attack the ball proving to me that he had learnt some new skills. Even though I had beaten this guy before using different tactics, he outsmarted me this time . However, my team-mates played differently against him and they beat him eventually . I found out that the long serves with backspin to his body were more effective than short ones to the corners. Furthermore, I learnt that I had to keep pushing with heavy spin to every corner of the table until he would make errors.

The other inverted pusher/attacker loops the ball with heavy spin when he plays his forehand. Backhand attacks are flatter and he mainly pushes with his backhand with variety of spin. He plays close to the table mainly on the backhand side and moves quickly to get to the ball that might go to the right side of the table. He plays with some tacky chinese rubbers with low trajectory and low bounce.

I mainly tried to exploit his weaker backhand by serving short with backspin and side spin and attacking to the same side. Secondly, I decided to loop fast and slow to his backhand to force him to make errors. Thirdly, I wanted to serve very short with heavy backspin to the extreme right to force him to make looping errors. Forthly, I tried to push short and deep long with backspin to prevent him from accurate looping. Finally, I tried to block his shots with a good placements. These tactics seemed to be working extremely well and I won lot of points initially. For some reasons, I could not keep winning points at the end of each set and my opponents seemed to win points by playing some low percentage shots.Even though I managed to prevent him from looping, he won some points by playing some floating shots . This was really an unexpected development. I lost 1-3, but winning margin of each set was not more than two points. Anyway, my team-mate D beat him by mainly serving long and attacking from both wings. However, this opponent managed to beat team-mate K in a close battle.

As far as the doubles were concerned, we managed to win one. So, at the end, we won the night 6-5. Even though it was a disappointing night for me, it was a great win for our team since we beat the top team. We will still be in the third place, but the situation will definitely change next week when number 1 and 2 meet. Given the fact that we will play the second bottom team next week, we have a strong chance to take up the number 2 position again .

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S/U 1:Primorac Carbon Offensive- BH Joola Maxxx 40 Max, FH Andro Rasant Powersponge Max
S/U 2:Primorac Carbon Offensive- BH Joola Maxxx 40 Max, FH Andro Rasant Beat Max
S/U 3:TSP Hino-Carbon-BH Stiga Boost TX Max, FH Joola rhyzm 375 Max