what happened on friday

so it's friday afternoon, I decide to go to a place I've never been to....
I get there, start playing 5 mins later.
so eventually I stumble upon a guy I already knew who is a very good player, actually probably better than me.
He says he is there to coach a guy and we start talking and then playing.
We play a couple of matches.

At first I find it really hard to play against him, he's like a really good blocker who also hits flat a lot.
So when attacking maybe he'll loop one and flat kill the next one.
Also I was serving short and he was just pushing all over the place, then blocking and really it seemed he was doing nothing and still beating me easily.
Also he was like playing so close to the table, just all wrist stuff, I was getting so tired looping and looping and looping.
Started thinking "wtf am I doing?"

Later I start serving longer and things get a bit more even because I force him to attack or push longer so I have better chances.
Still really hard to deal with this player.

So the end of the story....
He mentions that for some reason another guy has his paddle.
So he's using a backup paddle, he used this in the last tournament he says.
So I look at the paddle.....
the blade is dhs w1010, a crappy 5 ply blade.
the rubbers both sides are butterfly flextra
wtf!!!!!
I had problems with his serves, with his looping, he's playing at a decent high level here and he's using that??????????????????????

Also I know this guy from when he started almost.
I used to beat him easily some years ago.
And now he comes with a w1010+flextra and gives me a really hard time even beating me????????????????????????????????

All my years of ejing destroyed in a matter of minutes....

what surprises me is how fast he was able to develop.
there's another kid that was a similar situation.
played him as rookie, beat him, thought everything was controlled.

give them a couple of years and they are above your level.

both this kids are close to 20 years old and both are LEFT HANDED.
ahhhh yes, the trademark of good talented annoying players, left handed....

achalwins94 said:

Control buddy! Control everything and placement shots, that's what can win you. And yes, keeping a chill mind is also necessary (which i am working on too). Do this and you are winner.
According to my experience, are you an emotional player? Get happy when you win points and get frustrated when you loose points? It seems so, because I am like that ( little bit). Hope this helps !

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no, what I have is like streaks.
streaks when everything goes in and streaks when everything goes out and I find it hard to come back to a good streak.
but I somehow always manage to come back and give a decent game at least.
the guys here that can beat me 3-0 with 11-6 11-5 11-7 or something like that are not that many.

UpSideDownCarl said:

It also sounds like you could use yourself a lefty training partner. I have one so I play pretty well against lefties. It is all getting used to the fact that the ball is coming at you a little differently and they can serve differently than a righty can.

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honestly this kid is just talented.
in not too long he went from the lowest division and starting to play to being 2 or 3 spots from the top division.
not many players do that.

his game is not too offensive or complex.
he just uses a lot of wrist, blocks, loops sometimes and then he just flat hits to end the point.
many times he'll just block until the point ends.
not many players can do that.

in terms of equipment it made me just wanna go get a w1010 + 2 flextra and just use that until I beat everybody here.
but well that didn't happen and I kept my usual equipment (until now )

anybody used this w1010? what's it like?
what about flextra?
is it similar to regular sriver?

oh one more thing:
after some time I gave him my spare paddle.
a butterfly michael maze with andro rasant power grip on both sides.
when he looped with this it was very hard to control but in matches I think it was harder to play him using the dhs+flextra
the maze+rasant kind of killed his touch in the short game and also made it a bit harder for him to block.
he's not much of a looper to start with so maybe it was not the best combo for him.

achalwins94 said:

I did tell you about control and placement. Maze blade and such offensive rubber may give explosiveness, but consistency comes by using things for long and getting it to know it perfectly.
I have used flextra, it was on premade bat, butterfly yuki. It was good times! But I just started training that time.

Let me give you a funny example.
Ever played counter strike? There are two sniper guns, one is magnum,(semi) which is one shot and enemy is dead, and other is automatic sniper,which is cheap(automatic). Now when there are multiple enemies, which is profitable to have?

Hope this helps.

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just don't keep the idea that he plays good because he has slow paddle and flextra.
he plays good because he plays good.
it's him not the paddle.

if you play good it doesn't really matter if you have a flextra or a t05.
you'll play good anyway.
if you don't, then it doesn't matter if you have flextra, viscaria, tenergy or h3.
you'll suck anyway.