Until, I've noticed that my play style was very stable, playing safe shots, yet a very fun game. consistently looping from both wings but never that aggressively, just taking control of the table. Playing a bit of a fishing more often than I should simply because the lobs, long slow loopsish LOW shots were easy to land and messed with players often. Pace change, from slow- to very slow to average pace. That was my style in a gist. I just had fun with my opponent's seeing what they could do and then exploiting their weaknesses instead of playing my own kind of game.
My personality was reflective of my playstyle, patient in person, trying to find the best way to complete the outcome of a project I was working on with optimal success. Making that project as perfect as possible, taking little risks, going for slower path to complete it so it would be perfect. (When I say Project I'm talking about my part time job as a Jeweler, I work on gold, wedding rings, setting diamonds and various precious gems into the Jewelry I was repairing or working on, and simply repairing all gold types of Jewelry. Whether it be studs, rings, bracelets, pendants, necklaces, etc.) I always wanted all my work perfect which sometimes took longer than it should, so I'd put in extra hours off the clock to make sure what I was doing was great.
But I felt myself capped out in table tennis. Players over 1800 I couldn't beat more than 60% of the time, I felt myself just getting blown away by speed. If a player over 1800 played slow I could still manipulate my style around them but most 1800's I've been playing were just too agressive for me to deal with. I can loop virtually any ball COMFORTABLY, but these loops aren't strong (with spin or speed). The only time I would give a strong ball is if the ball already had a lot of spin or speed on it. If it had a lot of speed I would use a short stroke, not quite a block but more of a counter, using their speed as my source of power. If the ball was more spinny than fast, whether it be any variation of back, top or side spin, I would be able to loop it with a decent amount of spin comfortably.
But as of recently, I've found myself getting off the table after my opening loop instead of going to a close to the table counter game after my loop. This was causing me to get into counter topspin rallies that I was losing 20% of the time. Not because of my opponent hitting stronger, better placed loops at me, but because my loops were dropping earlier than I would have liked them to. I'd never had problems with my loops going into the net, but these off the table topspin loop rallies had all my balls going into the net. I tried more of an upward stroke to fix this but my coach didn't like this, (Well if I'm being completely honest she didn't like me getting off the table at all).
And so, I switched to the beloved 75$ sheet of rubber everybody knows and loves, (or loves to hate). I instantly started playing more of an aggressive game because I really had to go through the ball more with my grazing strokes and couldn't play as "blocky" or else I'd lose control. I was attacking everything and my game completely changed, I have the strokes to play any style because my coach tries to make her student's as well rounded as possible until about 2000 rating, and thats when she wants to work harder on more specifics like tactics. But just because I have the strokes to do any style doesn't mean I have the experience and footwork to play any style.
Back to how this aggressive style has changed my personality. I'm not aggressive or easily agitated and with people I'm still pretty patient, (at least in person) probably because I'm still patient enough to only attack the balls I'm comfortable with. But I've found my schoolwork and job's projects have changed. I still do my work optimally, but now I don't spend nearly as much time on them. For example, when welding a gold ring with say and opal set in it (opals are extremely easy stones to break and heat will destroy them). I used to just pack wet paper towel around the opal and slowly heat the gold until my solder flowed well. But now I just don't want to waste all this extra time and I crank the heat up on my flame and flow the solder almost instantly. (this is much easier to melt gold and mess it up by melting it, but it doesn't heat the entire ring all the way to the opal since I'm heating so quickly). I'm getting much more work done and am no longer a perfectionist.
With school I'm doing my work much more quickly, saving time and not making everything perfect. Still getting good grades, because I know what it takes to get the grades, but I'm just saving so much time.
Could it be that my change in style in table tennis has changed the way I go about my every day life?
Edit:
Red= Aggressive
Blue= Passive
Purple= edits.
). People say that I am really aggressive and my game is pretty flashy(like crowd pleasing/ like Xu Xin). However, people also say that I rush and that I am too eager to attack.
