Momentum In Game Discussion

It's a complicated subject. There is also the aspect of learning your opponent. People aren't all equally easily to read and some people don't read others as quickly. Things like serve spin, serve return, and preferred shot placement can influence a match significantly. If the losing player closes the gap by the third game, things can turn around.

This happens at all levels and is a reason why one should not relax when they have a lead. If the opponent figures you out so to speak, you could be in for a ride after what seemed like an easy win. For an example at the World Class level, see Solja vs Fukuhara at the 2015 World Cup. Immediately Solja adapted to Fukuhara's speed and variation, she managed to win at deuce in the 4th and took control and won in 7 as her spin level damaged Fukuhara.

Forget about conserving energy. I say go all in, every single game, every single rally. Energy reserves will expand the more you deplete them, our bodies are amazing in that sense.

I think we have to take this down a level.
Shuki is talking about his personal game without any external support or pre-game training.
Solja and Fukuhara was a very tactical match between two well prepared worl-class players greatly influenced by the coaches, big difference having a coach.

But it is complicated. When playing your contempories at low level, usually it comes down to managing technical errors. That is, do I hang back and play to allow my opponent to miss, or do I force the point by being aggressive thus making more errors on my part. Do I continue to play as I have been doing? or do I change because my opponent has probably figured out my game and is now countering it?
Usually even if they have figured out what is happening, the technical skill is not there to make a huge difference. So most times we do the same general serves etc and squeeze out the win. Big changes at 2-0 up against equals, in my experience, can work but not usually.

Shuki said:

My example was partly personal experiences, but I made the thread as a general momentum discussion. Discussing the pro's is just as nice to hear as what A lowly 1700USATT player should do.

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Thanks. Not sure what I wrote that wouldn't apply to lower levels. Maybe pros are more prepared to play each other than we are to play our clubmates.

Energy conservation can be real, but there is also the issue of athleticism and drill discipline. Athleticism or maybe the proper term is fitness affects your effort level if you have given out much more than you cam comfortably sustain. I am noticing it much more as I play higher level opposition. It's harder to play at the fitness level required to keep up if you play a physical style (and at that level, it is very much a matter of degree). At your level, such issues may show up in sometimes similar and different ways.

Drill discipline is the point Tinykin made about the consistency of players. It is easier at the 1700 level to let people miss. But that is about the level where drill discipline is beginning to kick in and opponents are becoming more comfortable in doing what they do well. So if you relax, you may end up losing to someone who is better at consistently playing the way they were trained. For both athletic and cognitive reasons I discussed earlier, they may have been missing but now they have locked on to that serve and now you can't just get free points. Or their erratic loop is now grooved and you are still thinking they will miss. It's unlikely to be why you lose to a worse player but it can be why you lose to an improving player and often to a better player or better drilled player when you have a big lead. I started noticing more and more how I would be down 10-4 to some players and my consistent pattern of play could get me to 12-10 because they started doing things that were based on the idea that one point must go their way (lower level inconsistency) while I just stuck to the drill discipline of playing the points. Then their panic when it got tight became my reward. Obviously the shoe has been on the other foot as well.

What I try to stress to people is that indiscipline creeps into your game too easily if you allow it to. Play the shots you have trained as much as possible during practice matches, either with more spin or better placement even if with reduced effort. It is more important to do this than to win matches by letting the opponent miss because you are getting closer to that level where people don't miss just like that anymore. And even at the lower levels, the issue once you have good technique is learning to read the ball. Missing gives you a chance to learn from mistakes and adapt to errors. Using passive and flawed strokes or choices to keep the rally going will ultimately creep into your play vs better players as well as you will unable to play that critical topspin or push under pressure as you don't want to miss. Of course, if you have good technique, you could have addressed that in part by not taking unrated matches so seriously that you fail to experiment.

Right now, I permit myself a chance to lose to everyone in my club. That frees me up to try more things and get into tournament shape.

Shuki said:

There's actually a high level player at one of our clubs who, once he realizes he's likely to lose will "throw the game". But he does it in a different way than you'd think. He doesn't stop hitting the table but rather gives the ball to their sweet spot and with not much spin. This prepares him for the next game as his opponent isn't ready for his spike in the quality of balls he gives.

He was talking to me about how this was more effective in the games to 21 where it was much harder to come back from a large deficit. But with the games to 11 its often hard for him to get himself to do this strategy when he's losing something like 8-4 because it really is only a 4 point difference.

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It makes sense and it's one of the benefits of the 11 point game. For all its beauty, the 21 point game's problem was exactly what you just described above. Some people want something in between like 15 with 2 serves each or 16 with 3 serves each, but I think the longer the game gets without a mercy rule, the more interminable suffering that exists. Though with a best of 3 format for lower level matches and best of 5 for higher level, they could probably work as well.

I somehow think that if two high level players are playing each other, and things are going too well for the other and balls are coming to his sweet spot with no spin, he'll immediately see that it's a ruse. It's just too good to be true.

Then again, I don't know. On the world stage, lower ranked European players often get excited when they win a game against a higher ranked Chinese player, and suddenly the Chinese player actually opens his eyes and takes every game from then on.

The Europeans in the top 100's are quite bad at adapting to a dramatic increase in quality, and seem to think that the Chinese "aren't all that good after all" and then go into a panic once the quality of the game goes up. If they're bad at it, I can imagine how bad us amateurs are.

I've even seen players cho-ing and clenching their fist before their opponent's contact on a cross court forehand from a wide angle, and then it comes back and they have an absolutely dumbfounded look on their face.