My Race Tournaments in Germany

[Zezima]

I think you just need to start trying things to develop your more attacking shot. In training just try and finish the point earlier. Even try just putting about 10% more into all your shots and just keep increasing over time so your average shot has a bit more speed to pressure your opponent more. This can help increase your baseline power in your game even when under pressure and nerves kick in.

Your just going to have to accept that you will make errors while doing it and players you normally beat in your club might beat you. Just part of the process of changing your mindset, confidence and muscle memory so you start to put these shots away.

The modern game is about putting your opponent under pressure and IMO you send to many balls back that take the pressure off your opponent and gives them the opportunity to put all the pressure on you.

I think this is something all players have to go through at some point and I think it is important to have realistic expectations. Your not going to just walk into a session, start killing the ball and every shot is fast and hitting the white lines. It takes time and can be a 6mth to a year long process to take this from your pressure free club matches to a high pressure tournament.

Right now it feels like I have many areas to improve on and not just one thing only. Like I have to get the new technique with the open racket into the system. That in turn makes me more confident in hitting more shots aggressively because I don't change my racket angle during the forwardsswing.

At the same time I mostly stop looping after a good loop. So I need to do regular or in irregular drills where I constantly loop no matter where the block goes.

But this is not enough since my shots are not killers most of the time I need to increase the powerlevel as you mentioned aswell. But then I end up with shorter ball exchanges so depending on my practise partners blocking level (low) I will practise looping one time good and don't have to follow up loops so in matches if it gets returned I will be passive again. It's like a devils circle (not sure if this term exist in english).

I also want to think more about my serving tactics more. Because right now I do something in between of: 1. Finding serves where my opponent is not attacking/playing passive back ideally makes an error or pushes high and
2. Doing serves with the sole purpose of me knowing where the return is gonna go so I can open up confidently or 3rd ball kill.
So I end up doing random serves and when it gets to the later stages I forget what kind of return I was getting with that specific serve how much spin I got back and what kind of placement it was. And if I go too simple of a serve like just short backspin serve they get too much initiative and push long and fast to anywhere on the table. And if I go too much in terms of spin (sidespin) unless its the beginning of the set (I am not nervous at the beginning) but in closer or towards the end of the set where I get nervous I feel not confident dealing with the return of my heavy sidespin serves (the survivor instinct kicks in)

 

[jk1980]

i mentioned it a few years ago, but i think the style you describe and want to play should be pretty close to vadim anca who is a little taller than you but shows a very aggressive gung ho style of play

 

[Zezima]

i mentioned it a few years ago, but i think the style you describe and want to play should be pretty close to vadim anca who is a little taller than you but shows a very aggressive gung ho style of play

We do actually play pretty close. We have the same serving game. Same kind of receives. The one big thing that stood out to me was his fh. The wide fh placement with sidespin. That I don't ever think about or have trained enough to do in a match. My loops tend to be placed right in their hitzone so It gets blocked easier. And because my placement is not wide enough I am overhelmed since they can play the next ball parallel aswell. Against him I wouldn't even be able to block it parallel with good quality he would just kill the next one.

He has this soft drive where he seems to not whip into the ball at all. I don't know how the ball doesn't slip off his rubber whenever he does that slow drive. I guess he has a thick contact still.

I will watch the last part aswell and take a few notes that I can try in my games.