Last night I played a really annoying style and totally screwed it up. The guy wasn't a high level player, maybe 1700 and I've seen him lose commonly to lower level players. But I have a problem of freezing up and becoming super hesitant when I'm uncomfortable.
First, the thing that troubles me the most is that he has a really unorthodox FH loop. It's not a loop that you think of normally, but he brushes under and side of the ball, and no exaggeration every FH loop of his is basically a snake shot like Adam Bobrow. To make it even worse, he is left-handed, so his loop goes into my BH. I would estimate his fh loop ball jumps about 30cm to my left after it bounces on the table. So I really feel stuck here. I can't really attack the ball because I don't know where the ball is going to be, and its hard because its on my bh side. What I usually do is wait to see where the ball goes before I block it back. But even then, I still missed a lot of these blocks, and it also just gave him an easy ball to smash. How can I deal with this snake shot into my bh?
The other big issue I had was with his serve. From his bh position, he just swipes at the ball and it has heavy sidespin. I didn't know how to receive this, so I kinda defaulted to a push shot. But then my push just goes crazy, sometimes into the net, sometimes pops up high. I think the ball sometimes has slight under or slight topspin, and so my push ends up getting killed to both balls.
Hey man,
on the surface it may feel like you freeze up and everything suddenly goes to shit when its match time. That's purely a symptom of a larger problem.
Larger problem: You haven't developed the tools in your skillsets to deal with the nuances he gives you. I'll give you the very common example of pushing against serves that are topspin.
We humans do this because:
1.) We have at times misread the serve - Solution: Learn how to read Topspin and distinguish how it's different to other spins - I linked a video to this in the previous thread where you asked about returning serve.
2.) It's comfortable to push. And human beings psychologically will always do what is comfortable for them. The solution: Develop your ability to read topspin serve (as said in point 1), and also develop your ability to play a flick so that you can stop putting these serves up for him to hit. How well you return serve quite literally changes the dynamic of the point right then and there, COMPLETELY.
Often we return serve badly against someone and then think and feel to ourselves "man... how does someone actually beat this guy" and then we see others destroy this person or have zero trouble, because they didn't let them start every point with a huge advantage haha.
In terms of how he is a bit dodgy for you as a lefty, you'll need to get comfortable with the things that you are currently uncomfortable with. These struggles you are having against him highlight bigger issues, which ultimately is the inability to
1.) Understand nuances of the game
2.) Control points from the very start (serve and receive - remember that table tennis points have an average shot length of 1-4, yet so many people practice side by side footwork in their training 99% of their time - which is super sad to see them wasting their time in not developing the things that really matter and move them forward as a player). Service, receive and third/fourth ball is where matches are won and lost.
If you want more customized help and for me to review your matches personally, jump onto my FREE skool community here: ->
https://www.skool.com/letsthinklikeeliteathletes
