I’m interested to know if you personally put more emphasis on taking away the opponents strength and stopping how they want to play or do you put more emphasis on getting your own strength into the game first.
I don't think the decision between these two things are mutually exclusive.
I think you can play to your strengths while trying to avoid theirs. If you're an attacker, attack. Play your game. If they are too, well which side is more dominant? Do they have a big forehand? If yes, then play more towards the BH more often. Maybe they're good at both. Then what about their cross-over point? etc. This is just tactical play. What can you do to stay away from their strengths and what can you do to get into yours.
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As I read through this thread, it seems like it has evolved into the question
- Do you play whatever you have to do to win in that moment? Even if that means not playing the shot you should?
or
Do you play the style that will take you further and play shots you should play to get better in the long run but might not necessarily be great at now thus hurting your chances in this particular game.
That's entirely a different question but still a good one to ask. For that I would say it depends on the person and what your aspirations are.
If you're young and pushing to improve high much higher level of aspirations to place high in leagues and/or travel around to varying tournaments and place well, then I would say "Work on the shots you should be playing and try to improve. You might take a higher % of losses now but it'll be good for you in the long run."
But if you're the type of player who say might be older and/or you are happy with where your level is realizing that a big jump might take either professional coaching and/or a much greater time commitment than you're willing to give, then to those people I would say "Don't worry a perceived level that nobody outside of you cares about anyways and just have fun. Play your strengths. Do what you can do to win that match as winning is naturally more fun for most."
Neither choice is wrong IMO. Just depends on where you are in your TT hobby/career.