Now that the college semester is over I had a chance last night to play for myself, rather than train with the University club. I'm slowly learning to just have fun with the game, which is leading to me playing a lot better, with more mental strength to fight back from behind. I'm also learning how to change tactics to throw off opponents and adapt to their game, but definitely have many shortcomings.
I served for the first 15 minutes to work on spin generation on short serves - nobody is ever good enough at this.
1st match was an older gent club rating ~1600 that goes back and forth between Seemiller grip (inv/anti) and regular shakehand (2x inv), without much discernible difference in level. I first played him shakehand 2 weeks ago and won, then he beat me with Seemiller grip last week. He attacks well on both wings regardless of grip, gets good spin and can loop some half-long serves/pushes that are pretty ludicrous at our level. Today, I felt pretty good and was able to get him 3-1. I came back from 2-8 in the 2nd game to beat him 11-9, which is a huge achievement for me. He tightened up his game and was much more aggressive in the 3rd and 4th games, forcing me to really shorten up on my serves and be more aggressive in my attacking as well. I still got a little smash-happy at times, but overall I reminded myself to stay relaxed, move to the ball, and spin it.
2nd match is a younger guy, way under-rated at 1100, that has a lot of power in the open game but is unpolished in serve, receive, and tactics. In an open rally we're pretty evenly matched, maybe he even has the advantage. I knew I couldn't let him attack, and that my attacks needed to be higher and spinny. So that's what I did and it worked well. A couple times I'd attack flatter than I should and he'd smack it past me, and a couple times he'd do a fast serve to my wide forehand that I would either not even get to (poor positioning), or would have to try and smack back, and get clobbered. Overall won 3-0.
3rd match was against a rec player that just came to the club for the first time Friday after playing as a kid and stopping. He had a Stiga pre-made from Wal-Mart that was dead as a doornail and did a pretty good job using it. He kept the ball on the table and did very well for only ever playing ping pong and not table tennis. Seemed eager to learn, I hope he gets coaching and stays dedicated.
4th match was against a new learner, just 1 game since he had to leave. He's been getting lessons for about 6 months and is learning well, but just hasn't played enough to have game sense yet. I worked on my weaknesses and tried to attack everything with spin, even stupid shots, and won 11-8.
5th match was against a dude I've played probably 30 times and have a dead-even head-to-head score with. Older Eastern European guy that's a complete wall and can also slap the crap out of loose balls. He likes to serve and play fast and dead and I, quite frankly, freaking struggle with it. I think my biggest issue is that I don't do well spinning his fast, dead shots, and play right into his strong suit by driving the ball back to him. He jumped out to a 7-2 lead first game, then I calmed down and remembered I need my heaviest spin to keep him from blocking/slapping me to death. Got to 9-7 and he beat me 11-8. 7-11; 16-14; 13-15; 11-9. He had the better, more stable game today.
Happy about:
- Footwork - finally relaxed and moving to the ball. Still get jammed in the middle sometimes, but I don't feel like I have cement shoes
- Forehand spin and power
- Backhand loopdrive vs dead/top
Need to work on:
- FH vs flat/dead/fast
- BH opening loop
- Choosing between FH flick and FH push. Still trying to flick some stupid low serves and netting about 80%. The 20% that go over are winners, but I don't like those odds.