OOAK Table Tennis Forum

I have been using slick anti for like 4 months now (previous offensive modern defender) and I am starting to get a hold of it when it comes to technique and some tactics. But yesterday I ran into a new problem. I met a fellow who I have lost a close match to before (using SP on BH) and won one rather easy (using MP on BH) to before. We played some 8-9 sets yesterday and I only managed to win one. I missed many of my own attacks and he is very good at retrieving. But what really botherd me was that he used soo little spin and as soon as my block or stroke with my anti was a few centimeters over net height he would very easy just smash it far to my BH. If I placed them to BH he just lifted them over to my BH (ratger low and fast) and then waited for an opportunity with FH. He served sometimes low and fast to my BH and attacked instantly if I did not manage to place the ball low and to his body. If I backed away and tried to chop he just blasted them away.

How do you deal with people who plays with no spin, who serves fast, who smashes good? The set I won I managed to play more with my FH and looping slow, spinny and with arc. Mostly he managed to keep me on BH side. I tried to twiddle some but I got out of balance and timing when twiddeling back after he blocked my attack. When he loopedback my back spin serve he did not add any spin, so the loop comming back carried very little spin, and my blocks was rather useless.

I ran out of ideas... Do you have any strategies that could work?

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Def-attack's attempts to find balance between defence/attack | Getting better - health and game |
My Youtube

The only thing that comes to mind is to play wide to his fh side often, move him around the table as much as possible and be more aggressive with all your shots...
Don't let him have time to smash the ball at you...

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My TT blog
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Not sure which Anti you're using AD, but most Anti's do present a weakness when the opponent comes up with a good attacking strategy. Yasaka Anti Power which isn't so slick and can be hit with is the only one Ive seen used successfully to combat it. And even then, some still find its weakness. But if you can use the Anti to produce a weak shot from them and then blast away with it or the inverted, it keeps them off their attack.

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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.

I am using as my signature says, Transfromer 1,0 on a fast carbon blade. Rather easy to attck back spin but very difficult to attack top spin with. I was a litle successfult when I drive-attacked far to his BH and then managesd to get a shot I could attack with FH.

might have a clip here soon....

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Def-attack's attempts to find balance between defence/attack | Getting better - health and game |
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I was more succssful playing wide to his BH... Since he placed most shots to my BH I could not get the angle far to his FH that often, unless he was already in position there.

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Def-attack's attempts to find balance between defence/attack | Getting better - health and game |
My Youtube

OK, here are the last two sets. The first one was rather ok if I forget about the first 4 points. The second set he managed to get back whatever I gave him, and I made a cople of unforced errors (tired).



Point starting at 0:40 is how I tried to play but did not manage very much.
Those missing blocks at 1:53 and at 2:01 were me trying to add a little speed to slow and low spin loops.
At 4:40 he made that ind of shot I was talking about above, but otherwise I manages to avoid most of those in these two sets.

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Def-attack's attempts to find balance between defence/attack | Getting better - health and game |
My Youtube

Actually, I didn't see him hitting into your anti a huge amount. He slow loops a lot looking for a pop to smash. Then whatever position he has when the pop comes, he smashes from there. His smash is clean and hard, so hard to deal with on either side. BH tends to be the harder side for most people to block on anyway. I think you are still learning the anti rubber you are using in terms of touch, feel and power to apply, which is natural after just 4 months with a new rubber of is type.

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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.

Correct on all. He had been hitting more the previous sets, so by the time these two were played I tried to keep the ball low and away from his FH as much as I could. But when he got an opportunity to smash I had nothing to do. I might have been able to twiddle and block, but that is difficult. Twiddeling during this type of game is difficult. I tried it a couple of times in the first set but I got myself out of balance instead...

I now realise I could work more with short returns (if serve is not fast), and trying to play loose and short.

But what would be yourdefault strategy against such a player? Would you serve fast to body and try to attack? would you aim deep to his BH with every BH-block/stroke you did and try to step around for a FH killer? Or just always play where he is not? Or using the inverted side as much as possble to force him to use spin?

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Def-attack's attempts to find balance between defence/attack | Getting better - health and game |
My Youtube

Strategies? My experience is that fl antis are not very helpful in match situations like this or against SP players who use less spin. Actually they´re more a handicap if you can´t play active strokes (ok very few players can). The basic advantage of fl anti is reversal of spin. It´s difficult to win without spin. So first I´d add as much spin as possible to the game starting from serves. Vary between short and long backspin returns to his fh/bh 70/30 to force your opponent to play loops. Don´t keep them too low but use enough backspin to avoid him from smashing. If he just lifts balls you should pass on to play active yourself. Again use one ore two spinny loops. A winner attack should follow. If you twiddle use the anti on your fh and play save returns to make the player think. If you´re confident use bh twiddling to play active shots. I think such a match can not be won by passive play. Transformer is probably no rubber to keep the ball in the match like lp do. You have to take some risk to win. To me your other ideas of preparing attacks sound reasonable.

I play fl anti for 7 years and still don´t like opponents who prefer SP/counter-attack. Sometimes I even change set-up before such a match and don´t use the fl anti. The player in the video is fantastic compared to such players.

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Antipower
FH: Waran or Hexer PS
BH: fl Antispin

Thanks Mr B, good advice!

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Def-attack's attempts to find balance between defence/attack | Getting better - health and game |
My Youtube