Gamestyle adjustment - Discoordination and slow reaction while in match play

thekleifheit13 said:

Do you play in a league or do you play in a club? If you play in a club you can ask your playing partners if they can block for you while you work on developing a backhand loop. If you're in a league that might be a little more difficult unless you can get there early enough to do an extended warmup and work on your backhand. If neither of those options are a possibility you can get 4-5 balls at home and work on looping a ball without a table. USDCarl and NextLevel have some pretty good drills that helped me with my loops even though I didn't have access to a table.

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I play in two different leagues, in two different clubs. Here in Portugal you can play in two different clubs as long that you don't play in the Second League of Honor or First League. I Practice in two clubs. Normally in one club(the one I have the chinese coach, but he doesn't do multiball to us this season) I play with always one partner and he has great technique and great blocking and it's where I can pratice better, as the chinese coach i watching us and correcting our technique. And I practice in another club, but it's a more confusing practice, because we are so much players, and they have younger players also, and there's no organization there, the normal practice there is to warmup and sets between all players, so there it's difficult to practice more seriously, as the robot could save me in this situation! I always try to get early enough in league to do a good warmup, because until that I also has a horrible lack of touch

Lula said:

Do you win or loose those matches? It is interesting if a player should make their strengths better or make their weakness better. I think better players work more on the first one and i think that is the correct way to go. I think it is very important to develop a playing style, know your strengths, develop those and play so you get to those balls. In example Gatien, Wang Liqin and Ryu Seung Min could barely play backhand compared to alot of other players but had great Forehands and developed their game and tactics around them. It is hard to have the time to become good at everything. Maybe you should not think so much about your weakness but focus more on developing your strengths and how to use them in a match. If you loose the matches your serve, return, first ball and footwork proably is not good enough for you to use your good forehand as much as you would like. But if your backhand is really bad, maybe it is good to practice your weakness aswell. A mix is proably the smartest, but with more focus on practicing the strengths.

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Well, honestly I think my best characteristic is that I'm a good practice partner. I have a solid block and a good touch(after warmup, otherwise it's horrible eheh ). But in competition I'm a reasonable player, but not consistent, my game relies too much on my physical shape and on my warmup before matches and tournaments. I can win to higher level players but also lose to lower level players. I've been improving my consistency, but I think this is mainly fault of my game style.

I know and I would like to develop a forehand oriented style, but not a 100% FH style like Tiago Apolonia for example! You're right and I loved to watch them all playing but for nowadays, the most FH oriented players that you have are Liu Dingshuo for example, and he uses his BH several times, maybe also Jang Woojin(one of my favorte players nowadays). I agree with you, I think it's a mix, as long as we have time to pratice everything. I should continue to improve my backhand so I could use it in matchplay every time I need and learn how to prepare better a point to use my FH. Yeah besides my physical shape I think my footwork could be better, as already some of my teammates told me that I'm moving a bit slow(unless I'm lobbing, idk but feels easier to move). I'm working on this, as before I moved the upper part of the body to the ball instead of the feet. And now I'm also trying to move much more in match play with my heels raised(I think it's like this, or tiptoe?) in order to move faster.

Lula said:

Returnboards works okay too. It would be interesting to see a video of your matchplay. That would make it easier to give good advice

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Hi all! Here's a video of my matchplay! I'm the younger guy, the one with the pale green shirt! It was useful to me as I have seen already some errors that I'm doing like:

- Lack of footwork;
- Too much passive play;
- Don't flex enough my legs, playing too straight;
- FH loop lacks quickiness of stroke, but hope this is temporary as I recently change from composite blade to a heavy(99g) 7 ply blade, very good feel, but not so flex, struggling to opening loops, It's not so easy lift the blade, if this problem persists I'll change in the future for a lighter and flexier 7 plywood blade/ Hardwood 5 Ply blade;
- BH I tend much to block and hit instead of looping;
- no BH to FH transition.

Please feel free to advice and criticize everything you have to! I'll be very grateful!

Lightzy said:

It's only a matter of confidence

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Need to practice more to get that confidence

Lightzy said:

Its enough to force yourself stand at the backhand side and use the backhand even if the habit is to go forehand I think.
Confidence is first forced, then it becomes real

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I've been doing that! I hope that my BH can turn effective in match play! I'll have tournament for the next weekend and I hope that pressure don't make me play all FH! Thank you for your advice

Takkyu_wa_inochi said:

hi. Saw the videos
Not bad.
If you want to improve, work on consistency and footwork. Serves are a bit high as well

If your partners don’t want to drill, try to play those matches not with the aim of winning at all cost but of improving something like
I want to make 3rd balls with my backhand
I want to have 80%+ consistency on FH opening loop and I always play cross those
I want to receive short all short serve
Etc....

I think you should also try to take the ball earlier, but that’s more me comparing to my own style.

Multiball is the best training you can have

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Thank you for your advice! Yeah I agree with you! I usually only practice serves in match play, so maybe I should practice serving more often!

No my partner he's a serious partner! He likes to practice! Yeah, I'ts good that I already do some 3rd balls with BH, but It's not enough, and also they are very soft loops, I'll try to do a more offensive opening loop! The same applies to FH, too soft in opening loops(But in this case it's also the blade, It's a bit heavy).

Yeah, service receiving it's one of my problems... When I changed to chinese rubber FH, it turned easier to receive short serves, but I still struggle on longer serves, and in the leagues that I play most people serve long. You're right about the ball earlier, I've been improving this but as you said, multiball it's very good for this, and I don't have that right now :/

Thank you once again!

Hi all again! As I said I would find a lighter and flexier allwood 7 ply blade, as my 99g 729 L5 was hurting my wrist and made my stroke recover very slow, despite his good feel. I ordered an 87g~88g Avalox Blue Thunder 777 and man, his touch is much better than 729 L5, has more flex but retains some stiffness, has no annoying vibrations(L5 had some) and has a good weight balance, more to the handle.

Plus, I've changed to 729-08 (Commercial Version) on FH. The right choice, I've been using 729-08 Pro, and I'm liking the commercial version much more, because it's harder and tackier, Pro version wasn't so tacky. And in BH I've changed from Bluefire M2 to 729 Origin 45º. It's awesome, linear, easy to loop, counterloop, block.

Now I found a setup that I can be more offensive, and playing close to the table.

Because:

- Has more stiffness than my previous blade, Andro Treiber K, and it's enough flexy to make some good loops;
- It's fast and it has a great feel, as isn't composite blade;
- Heavy enough(my rubbers help ofc) to put some power in my shots but light enough to recover fast after a stroke.

I've changed too young from 5 ply to 5+2 composite blades... It's my regret... In that time I didn't had much acknowledgement about equipment, and I thought 7 ply was too stiff for loopers, plus I tried a 7 ply blade(Don't remember the blade, but I know that was from Yasaka) in one practice session and I found it too stiff, and I thought all 7 ply were like that, only for hitters... If I had changed to a nice flexy 7 ply maybe in the long run my technique development could be better and faster, because I don't feel that I need more than this!

I'll have a tournament in 29 December, and I'll try to record some points so I can show here so you can check my development after my equipment change!