2 vs 1 matches

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I come from a badminton background and if 3 players of similar standard are playing against each other in a 2 vs 1 match it is very difficult for the player playing by himself to keep up with the other two. I've never tried something similar in table tennis. Would it be a similar situation where the player playing by himself would be at a severe disadvantage? Of course, the two players would play regular doubles rules where they have to alternate shots. Anybody ever tried this?

In badminton, sometimes we do this when one of the players is quite a bit stronger than the other two and they can have a pretty even match. In table tennis I'm guessing that this would not be the case.
 
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Yes, we do play this setup sometimes, as a variation or we for some reason only are three people in our group. It can actually be quite fun. In table tennis the player playing for himself will usually have a big advantage. This is because the space around the table is limited, you have to play the ball alternating and quite often you will sooner or later come in the way for your partner. A common strategy in doubles is to exploit this too.

If you want to make it a little bit more difficult for the single player, you can limit him/her to only use the double serve area (right diagonal serve) and let the double pair serve everywhere.
 
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If you want to make it a little bit more difficult for the single player, you can limit him/her to only use the double serve area (right diagonal serve) and let the double pair serve everywhere.

That's a good idea. I'm asking because at work sometimes we only have 3 players but we've never tried 2 vs 1 because we thought it would be too easy for the single player. Perhaps we will try the above.
 
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It's not really good.
The 1 guy is always going to win, and it doesn't even really help you practice doubles because doubles is much more about tactics and placement than singles and you're not really learning that when practicing against 1 guy.

dunno.
 
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It's not really good.
The 1 guy is always going to win, and it doesn't even really help you practice doubles because doubles is much more about tactics and placement than singles and you're not really learning that when practicing against 1 guy.

dunno.

Yes - I have my doubts too but I'll give it a shot. Otherwise we usually just play some kind of round robin where 1 person will rest every round.
 
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It can work if you combine it with another funny gamestyle that takes away the big advantage of the 1 guy.

Push 4 tables together, put some kind of barrier to serve as a net in the middle and play doubletable pong :)
We do it some times for the shits and giggles.


But yeah on the whole probably way better to just round robin it :>
 
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... Anybody ever tried this?

In badminton, sometimes we do this when one of the players is quite a bit stronger than the other two and they can have a pretty even match. In table tennis I'm guessing that this would not be the case.

Yes, occasionally we would do this too while practicing. Mainly when a fourth person for a regular doubles match is lacking. We call something like this (1 vs. 2) "English TT"...

Yes, we do play this setup sometimes, as a variation or we for some reason only are three people in our group. It can actually be quite fun. In table tennis the player playing for himself will usually have a big advantage. This is because the space around the table is limited, you have to play the ball alternating and quite often you will sooner or later come in the way for your partner. A common strategy in doubles is to exploit this too.

If you want to make it a little bit more difficult for the single player, you can limit him/her to only use the double serve area (right diagonal serve) and let the double pair serve everywhere.

Thats pretty much how this works at my club, too. It can indeed be quite funny and I personally prefer this version over regular doubles. Moreover I have the feeling that we are more creative when playing 1 vs. 2.
 
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If you play by badmointon rules then it could become a real workout for the single player and more fun. I would pair the strongest single player against the weaker players as a doubles team and eliminate the rule requiring that they alternate.

Yes, this reminds me about that discussion (I think it emerged from a Larry Hodges post?) about the Chinese national team training routines some time ago. One of the points was, how do you find a stronger training partner than you, when you already are the best in the world, and that was precisely the answer - pushing it further with having a player who is particularly good with forehand take the forehand side, and a strong backhand-oriented take the backhand corner.
So it really works both ways, either have strong training practice for the pair by playing TT rules, or strong training practice for the single by playing badminton / tennis rules.
 
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