So last night I played one of the other top players in my division. I have been finding my division that I’m in fairly easy. However, this guy that I played played like Adam Bobrow with a horrible, phishy, snakey style. He beat me pretty comfortably but I have to play him in a cup match on Wednesday again. How would you go around playing someone as evil as this?
Does he have a real forehand counterloop close to the table or even off it? If yes, then what I am saying may not work. If no, then read carefully.
Serve with backspin to get a long push. If he isn't offensive on serve return, let the ball drift half long if it makes you comfortable but short is best. Short forehand especially. But anywhere short is good.
When you get the push back, open with slow heavy topspin to the forehand. If you can't and you know he is not offensive, push to wherever you think will get you a push until you can open with slow heavy topspin.
The setup is important because lobbers who are incomplete players usually can't play balls that require close to the table angles and he will mostly lose the point on a slow topspin into the forehand (some of them have good backhand blocks, but if his backhand block close to the table is also weak, you can slow spin there as well).
If the lobber survives this slow heavy topspin close to the table strategy (and usually, they won't without giving you a major advantage)
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The other thing is to try as often as possible to make sure that you are playing balls you can read. Very often, people just look at the ball when it is coming, but they don't look at how the lobber hit the ball. Very important. Sometimes, the lobber makes good spin contact, sometimes they make flat contact.
Always MOVE your feet to play a forehand. Don't start moving when the ball is coming, always be moving to play a forehand. If you find yourself swinging across your body, then you are not moving enough, you need to be able to play real smashes by being side on to the table and swinging forward.
The depth of the bounce is also important. Balls closer to the net can be either dropped short or smashed really wide. The ones that come in deep force you back off the table so don't feel bad taking them late.
If you have a chance in the club, have someone feed you multiball with balls coming from really high so you don't feel 100% uncomfortable. Have them feed you the balls to places you have to shuffle to and don't like.