Just lost a best of 5 games to someone who is obviously less skilled and less powerful. But he won by very good ball placements, and serves too.
Power is nothing if you can't control it = placement.
So placement is an enormous skill in the game.
As is the art of service.
I do not think you lost to a less skilled opponent. I would wager you lost to an opponent whose actual game skills outweighed the additional power you believe you have.
But since you do not have the skill to use this power in the match, it's power you do not have access to and should therefore be disregarded.
Time to analyze the match again imo.
If winning is the goal then I would say that practice sessions should be geared in the direction of how to get our full potential into match play.
So when I practice, I always return the ball to the most comfortable place for the opponent because I don't want to be a moron and make us spending much time to pick up the ball.
It depends on what you're practicing. If it's a particular drill that begins with a service and service return then yes, you would return to where the opponent can make the next shot.
But if it's
service return practice then you should both expect mistakes and many balls to pick up but that's the only way to master it. It's vitally important to practice this A LOT because (stating the supremely obvious here) every point begins with a serve and receive!
But then, this just goes into my muscles habits/memories. I think I was not doing my practice correctly, or my mental state was just too passive when I practice. Does anyone have this issue?
Game mentality is something that can take a while to develop. I had the same issue at the beginning of my league play because upon returning to TT I was months just rallying and having fun so come match time I didn't have the killer instinct at all. I was constantly hitting to opponents comfort zones and had undeveloped serves with zero service strategy.
I'd recommend you read any book on TT tactics to sharpen you mind to this and then introduce it into all of your practice sessions.
To practice placement you have to start slowly and it's a good idea to use props, either some small cones or some chalk on the table and after you've mastered at a certain speed, slowly increase the speed until you're off target and you have your new practice level.
BH to BH and FH to FH drills are perfect to start for this. It should be easy to hit the same spot in the table and discover with your practice partner where your weakness comes at. You can then, if your practice partner is better than you, start by getting the placement correct by learning to first block his faster shots with accuracy before moving to FH/BH drive then FH/BH topspin etc.
