2 Match Review (best 3 of 5). Open to tips & feedback: Lefty Penholder

[suds79]

Context:
I'm the lefty penholder here. Started playing when I was 30. 46 now. Initially learned TPB and what I'm most comfortable with but will work in a RPB if I feel the time is right. Namely spin shots or power shots.

Here I'm playing Yi. He's an older traditional penholder who was one of the best players in our state in his heyday. He's consistent, has a nasty serve. Can hit every TPB shot you can think of. Open ups vs backspin on that side do not phase him. Occasionally twiddles. Black is sticky. Red is so worn out, the surface of it is essentially anti. He likes to use this in service receive but the sponge allows him to still somewhat attack with it.

So lets get the easy evaluation out of the way.

Point 1:
Too many service errors on my part. There's a part in match 2 where I think I was on tilt and it really got away from me one game. Possibly because too many service types. I might want to simplify it. Maybe I'm wasting my time because he's receiving it with almost anti anyways so I'm not likely to win too many points on serve that he can't handle. Perhaps I should just master a long, fast dead serve and get use to 3rd balling that every time. IDK. Open to thoughts. Just keep in mind that he always takes my serve with his red.

Point 2:
I think i handle his service average to poorly. It's really heavy pendulum and he mixes between side/top & side/bottom. That's about it. Because he's right handed and I'm left handed and it's short many times. If I was a right handed shake hander I think I'd just backhand flip this ball and the flip is going with the spin (something Xu Xin recommends) vs biting into it. Of course I'm left handed here so it's different. Vs the backspin I mostly have to push. I should perhaps work on developing a forehand flip to mix in. Vs topspin I try to just block it but it kicks really hard off my rubber and is easy to send long. Every now & then I'll hit that in and it'll go past him but I'm juts as likely to miss it long. Perhaps I should develop a bit of a pull back block to take some steam off it or try blocking more of the side. Open to ideas.

Point 3:
I mostly play a TPB style of play. I feel more confident with that style. Every now & the I'll hit a nice RPB but it's not my strength and I've had matches where I barely use it. Maybe that's okay. Maybe it isn't. I've over the years experimented with putting long pips back there and incorporating a twiddle game and or occasional RPB chop which comes naturally to me. Let me know if you think that style would suit me better (ie - you think i'm wasting my time with inverted RPB) and if you'd like to see a match in that style. Either way. If i keep this style, it'll be more Ma lin style like. I'll never be a Wang Hao type who uses RPB exclusively. Just can't get the brain to do that. Open to thoughts.

Highlights fun video: Not really meant for analysis. This is why you shouldn't pay too much attention into highlight videos. (1:47)

Match 1: (7:47)

Match 2: (9:45)

I realize analyzing these matches takes time. I put in timestamps as to their length. Thank you in advance to anybody who is willing to do that.

 

[suds79]

So what's funny is not more than 10 minutes after posting my topic, I find this video.

This is directly relatable to me. It's just opposite. So he recommends here biting into the spin with a slow chop. I would this this vs his side/backspin serve. Now I know right away what will happen. This would go to Yi's TPB and he'd likely open up basically never missing (I don't know how he does this so well) but it's not like it'd be a powerful shot coming at me. And it'd be coming to my FH. From there I could simply counter back and we're in the rally which the guy int he video here is suggesting at this point you have the advantage. In a round about way it's just approaching it as just survive the serve and get into the rally.

We played this exact thing right here in this gif.

https://gifrun.blob.core.windows.net/temp/788ed03ba178486498bb678387c3a8ff.gif

This would likely be higher % vs me trying to FH flip the serve too often. Maybe a once in a while play just to catch him off guard.

 

[blahness]

Very nice relaxed playstyle and powerful loops! I see someone is probably watching a lot of Xu Xin matches lol...

Few things that I can see:

You need to commit to looping the blatant long and half long serves. Pushing long serves will land you in trouble most of the time unless you can chop it with a lot of spin, which is also quite difficult especially if it is long topspin. But you can use a more controlled and spinny opening loop during serve receive, no need to go all out Xu Xin style loopkill. Be precise about it. The lefty sidespin means that you can ride the spin with your normal FH loop which is a bit hooked like Xu Xin. So you just need to adjust for topspin (approach from higher up) and underspin components (approach from below the ball).

When you push though, you should always bring your head and eyes very close to the ball with elbow close to the body and body leaning forward. Right now it is very far away and often with your arm stretched which is why it is a bit imprecise and lacking quality. If it is hard to do so, most likely your feet are not landing close enough to the ball. Another thing is to use your body to control the ball, not so much the arm.

Serve choice - If you are playing against weird rubbers (pips/anti), it is better to serve without sidespin. Otherwise the returned spin can be incredibly weird. Try to develop a Ma Lin style heavy underspin / no spin serve and you can then easily combine it with your powerful loops. If you serve sidespin you have to be aware of what sidespin is coming back and adjust precisely, otherwise your error rate when looping the returns will be way too high.

 

[suds79]

Very nice relaxed playstyle and powerful loops! I see someone is probably watching a lot of Xu Xin matches lol...

Few things that I can see:

You need to commit to looping the blatant long and half long serves. Pushing long serves will land you in trouble most of the time unless you can chop it with a lot of spin, which is also quite difficult especially if it is long topspin. But you can use a more controlled and spinny opening loop during serve receive, no need to go all out Xu Xin style loopkill. Be precise about it. The lefty sidespin means that you can ride the spin with your normal FH loop which is a bit hooked like Xu Xin. So you just need to adjust for topspin (approach from higher up) and underspin components (approach from below the ball).

When you push though, you should always bring your head and eyes very close to the ball with elbow close to the body and body leaning forward. Right now it is very far away and often with your arm stretched which is why it is a bit imprecise and lacking quality. If it is hard to do so, most likely your feet are not landing close enough to the ball. Another thing is to use your body to control the ball, not so much the arm.

Serve choice - If you are playing against weird rubbers (pips/anti), it is better to serve without sidespin. Otherwise the returned spin can be incredibly weird. Try to develop a Ma Lin style heavy underspin / no spin serve and you can then easily combine it with your powerful loops. If you serve sidespin you have to be aware of what sidespin is coming back and adjust precisely, otherwise your error rate when looping the returns will be way too high.

You're absolutely right on service receive. Ever been in a match where you get a serve, you know what you should do but you're afraid to pull the trigger so you push? I think that's what's going on here.

Just have to be bold and go for that soft loop open up. I've done that tactic for years but vs his serve just lack the confidence to commit. At least if nothing else do it more often to keep him off balance. He can serve it short or 1/2 long a lot of times but he certainly has his fair share of long serves to my FH and quite simply I need to soft loop open up.

Now I feel as though with his heavy sidespin it's next to impossible for me to play a good ball down the line. Boy if I could I think he'd then have no idea where the ball is going. Something I could practice I suppose. But generally it goes to his BH where honestly I think he's strongest. He's the type of player who tends to feed of his opponents pace at this stage in his life. But then we're in the rally as he will likely counter crosscourt and I just have to go from there.

Thanks for the feedback.

 

[blahness]

You're absolutely right on service receive. Ever been in a match where you get a serve, you know what you should do but you're afraid to pull the trigger so you push? I think that's what's going on here.

Just have to be bold and go for that soft loop open up. I've done that tactic for years but vs his serve just lack the confidence to commit. At least if nothing else do it more often to keep him off balance. He can serve it short or 1/2 long a lot of times but he certainly has his fair share of long serves to my FH and quite simply I need to soft loop open up.

Now I feel as though with his heavy sidespin it's next to impossible for me to play a good ball down the line. Boy if I could I think he'd then have no idea where the ball is going. Something I could practice I suppose. But generally it goes to his BH where honestly I think he's strongest. He's the type of player who tends to feed of his opponents pace at this stage in his life. But then we're in the rally as he will likely counter crosscourt and I just have to go from there.

Thanks for the feedback.

If you aim even further left, you can curve it with sidespin down the line and that is imo the most stable way to go down the line. I do a lot of BH opening loop down the line too in this way too. But with down the line you can't put so much power, you have to really load up the spin, but this should be an easy adjustment for you.

You have an excellent FH loop movement with tons of spin and control - ideally you should aim to get it into play and kill your opponents with it.