This little essay will be about the tactical skills of chopper/attackers Park Mi Young and Kim Kyung Ah of South Korea. It is (sort of) a sequel to the essay on Gionis I posted a while ago. It should have been a collective effort by Bogeyhunter and myself again, but BH is tied down for a while, so I did this one on my own. So please note that the mistakes and other shortcomings are mine exclusively!
Tactically, Park and Kim play a somewhat more complex game than Gionis. To be sure, it looks
much more complex and I found it takes quite some time to get to grips with it. I guess their opponents will feel the same
. The reason for this seems to be that, whereas Gionis essentially uses one basic pattern, Kim and Park use two - that is, they use one that is twofold. Gionis chops a series, than changes it in order to force a return he can attack from halfway behind the table. Women generally do not have the power to successfully attack from that distance, they have to come close to the table for it; as this necessity of moving in is weakening their defense as such (which is the most effective from medium distance), they need to smother the offensive potential of their opponents even more than Gionis needs to. In order to achieve this they do something that consists of two seemingly mutually exclusive, but actually complementary parts.
One part, similar to what Gionis is doing, is chopping a series and then vary it - this allows the opponent to find a rhythm, which is broken in order to catch the opponent off guard and force her to make mistakes. The other part, however, is
disallowing the opponent to find a rhythm. Combining these two parts in one tactical pattern results in messing up the opponent.
The second part of the pattern (disallowing a rhythm) renders play unpredictable for the opponent and this will make her uncertain and hence hesitant about attacking with full force; her uncertainty will also induce her to cling even more to any rhythm whatsoever when it is offered to her, which is the first part of the pattern. Then, breaking that very rhythm will be an even greater mental shock and hence be more likely to provoke mistakes.
Psychologically this tactical pattern is as sound as it is - in the final analysis - simple. The difficulty for Park and Kim lies in its execution; more specifically in finding ways the two parts can be effectively combined. Again and again they are faced with the choice between allowing and disallowing the opponent a rhythm.
Allowing a rhythm and then breaking it is achieved by variation of placement and variation of spin. Kim and Park will vary placement by chopping 3 or 4 balls to the backhand corner, then 1 to the middle, then 1 to the forehand corner or again to the backhand corner. Spin-variation is achieved by chopping down with the inverted rubber using the full flick of the wrist for maximum backspin, then chopping down as fiercely but with less wrist-action, and sometimes - coming closer to the table and taking the ball very low so the opponent cannot see very well what is happening - by feigning a chop and floating the ball back instead. With the long pips they vary spin by rubbing the bottom of the ball very fast going horizontal, or making even more backspin by doing the same (i.e. going horizontal) in a slightly scooping motion which increases friction; they do not risk low-spin balls with the pips, because these balls will be attacked hard. So, spin-variation is varying mostly between very heavy and medium heavy backspin; this will force the opponent to keep spinning with high arcs. Of course, changing from forehand chop to backhand chop is a variation in its own right.
To decide whether or not - and if so, when - to vary spin and/or placement is actually not difficult. A rhythm has to be established before it can be broken, so the variation comes after at least 2 similar strokes. Also, it has to come before the opponent can use the rhythm to her own advantage because she knows what to expect; in this respect, 4 similar strokes in a row is pushing it. So, variation will come with the 3rd or sometimes 4th stroke.
Messing up the opponent by
disallowing rhythm is done by attacking. Park and Kim will come in to the table for that. Park almost exclusively attacks with her forehand - 2 or 3 fast short, well angled loops in a row - and then fall back chopping again. Kim will use her backhand also, but not frequently, punching the odd push or high ball with her pips. Most of the time these attacks are not aimed at winning the point immediately, although Park tends to get carried away with her aggressive strokes and in such instances does seem to want to make the point (this may explain why Kim is ranked higher!).
To know the right moment when to mess up the opponent by attacking her is of course crucial. The same rule as with variation of spin and placement seems to apply here. The moment is determined partly by the opponent: a high bouncing ball, a weak push, a weak loop will be attacked instantly. Mistakes like these are provoked by the variation in spin and placement, so Park and Kim will be on the look-out for weak returns as opportunities for attack
as soon as they have started to vary their defensive strokes. But taking the initiative is as important; so, a 3rd or 4th return may be attacked even when they are perfectly sound! In such instances, the attack's only goal is disruption and surprising the opponent this way now and again is very important. With service return it is the same: every 3rd or 4th serve may be attacked rightaway; of course, if the opponent serves very well, this will happen less frequently.
And then there's a catch! If Kim and Park would always try and mess up their opponents on the 3rd or 4th return, this would establish a rhythm of itself and become predictable; so they really have to attack a 2nd or 1st ball from time to time, or in a rally refrain from attacking at all, and there can be no rule for either of these actions, because any rule to them would make their game on principle predictable again. This is where intuition and creativity come in, but experience is also important; a chopper/attacker will learn to read his or her opponents and develop a fine sense of timing the unpredictable. Intelligence is indispensable; a player has to be smart enough to understand how he or she can become unpredictable by being predictable - an opponent who expects change and doesn’t get it, will be messed up as effectively as an opponent who does not expect change and is getting it anyway. Sometimes, for this reason, Park and Kim will even attack from medium distance, although they know their loop will not be powerful enough to win them the point.
There is only one element in their play which never changes and this is their serve. They will invariably serve with their backhand (using the inverted rubber and twiddling immediately after the serve), standing more or less with the right hip behind the middle-line, maybe a meter away from the table. Most of the time they will serve parallel. This is because they favour their forehand for the first chop, which has to be loaded with backspin in order to disallow the opponent an easy attack. But there may be another reason for this invariability also: always serving the exact same way will give a false sense of security to the opponent who may be relieved by seeing something which resembles a pattern, or it will make the opponent uneasy from the start, because she knows that even in recognizing a pattern there is no safety, and she will have to deal with variation and surprise all too soon...