Playing against chaotic players

[BaRanchik]

Just came back from the club, and we have a new guy. He was a basement player, and his technique is poor.
However, he is very good at keeping the ball on the table, while making incredibly weird shots. It felt like playing Truls Moregard.
I swear he himself doesn't understand what shot he is making, and neither could I.
It threw me off so much, that after just one set I completely lost my focus, because I couldn't read him most of the time. It felt like playing chaos itself.

What would you suggest I work on to play against such players, whose every shot is literally random in speed, spin, arc, and everything else?

 

[Draycott old man]

Expect the unexpected!! And really self praise yourself when you get his random shots back !!! The more you play him the less random he will become!!! Good luck lol 😆😆

 

[JJ Ng]

Just came back from the club, and we have a new guy. He was a basement player, and his technique is poor.
However, he is very good at keeping the ball on the table, while making incredibly weird shots. It felt like playing Truls Moregard.
I swear he himself doesn't understand what shot he is making, and neither could I.
It threw me off so much, that after just one set I completely lost my focus, because I couldn't read him most of the time. It felt like playing chaos itself.

What would you suggest I work on to play against such players, whose every shot is literally random in speed, spin, arc, and everything else?

You simplify your game and play your game.

Here is what I would do:

One, I assume he has anti rubber. That's what all basement players have. They don't upkeep their rubber so it is anti until proven otherwise. So ask yourself, how do you usually play against an anti rubber player?

Two, I test his ability to read my spin. I basically serve heavy heavy serves right off the bat, heavy backspin first. If he eats heavy backspin, then keep on serving heavy backspin all over the table until proven otherwise. If heavy backspin poses no problem for him, then I serve heave topspin that kicks. If he keeps on hitting my heavy top spin out, then I keep on doing it. Then once he is used to my heavy backspin and heavy topspin serve, I give him heavy side spin, using a forehand pendulum motion. I don't care how chaotic he is, he is a basement player after all. By now I should have won a lot points on my serve.

Three, if he does not eat my serve, then I serve him fast no spin, to the forehand, middle and backhand. Over and over again. My goal is to loop kill when the ball comes back. I am not interested in a rally. I will keep my racket angle relatively closed because he has anti and the no spin serve comes back, well, no spin. I will have to lunge more foreward to loop kill because I know the ball will wobble a little bit.

Four, return of serve. His serve most likely has no spin. I will start off by pushing it back with back spin. I want him to make mistake and I will keep on pushing until proven otherwise.

Five, if your pushing does not work, then you have to start attacking his serve. Regardless of what motions he uses, just assume it is an anti rubber and the ball has very little spin. When you attack, you have to remember to lift the ball up a little bit because that's how anti makes you flounder.

Six, if you are more steady than him, then you will win. Just be patient and let him make mistakes. If he is more steady than you, you have no choice but to attack always first and finish the point ASAP. The longer the rally goes, the more weird the ball becomes. So you have to finish the point ASAP.

That's all there is to it.

 

[songdavid98]

You have to play forcing moves, AKA shots that basically force out a certain predictable response(s).

A simple example is just looping really hard. If they are close to the table, they are generally forced to block.
Another example would be serving very low, short backspin. They are generally forced to push.
Stuff like this are forcing, even if they play with a basement racket of some kind.

Generally, any good shot you make is forcing in some way. And vice versa,
Any bad shot you make allows your opponent to pick from several options, like the unpredictable ones you are complaining about.

Your opponent might not be consciously picking an option, but the fact that you allowed him to be chaotic tells me your shots aren't forcing enough.

 

[NextLevel]

A lot of stuff depends on your playing level and ball quality (spin, speed, power, location/placement, deception). There was a time such players used to give me fits. Now, I can sometimes serve to them a whole game and they won't return one serve. Or they can return some but they will be easy attacks and they miss others because of the deception.

For abstract tips, if you can keep the ball short, especially on serve, it can be helpful as such players tend to run for the barriers are usually lack over the table strokes apart from a few who have good blocks, in which case, try to spin more than loop hard unless you get a high ball (which is what the spin is designed to produce) which you can then smack.

Finally, try to serve a ball that gets you a return you can read and attack. Use your serves and attacks to learn how his strokes respond to your spin. Don't make misses the end of the world if you have a technical structure - use the misses to understand what is on the ball and what you need to do to adjust.

Good luck.

 

[ben1229]

Long corner under spin fast servers. You win the game.

 

[Gozo Aruna]

Just came back from the club, and we have a new guy. He was a basement player, and his technique is poor.
However, he is very good at keeping the ball on the table, while making incredibly weird shots. It felt like playing Truls Moregard.
I swear he himself doesn't understand what shot he is making, and neither could I.
It threw me off so much, that after just one set I completely lost my focus, because I couldn't read him most of the time. It felt like playing chaos itself.

What would you suggest I work on to play against such players, whose every shot is literally random in speed, spin, arc, and everything else?

You sure he is not using junk rubber or Sriver / Mark V he borrowed from his dad that has been seasoned in dust and sweat for the past 30 years?

 

[JJ Ng]

You sure he is not using junk rubber or Sriver / Mark V he borrowed from his dad that has been seasoned in dust and sweat for the past 30 years?

No, I am sure he put the blade under the sun to bake for a week, and then he put baking soda on top of it

And the rubber is Butterfly Pan Asia, not Sriver....lol

 

[blahness]

If they have no loop to speak off and push all the time, just serve fast long with heavy spin variation to all extreme corners of the table. The best are the heavy sidespin serves, if they ever try to touch the ball randomly it's just gonna fly left, right, up, down (depending on what serve) you use. Wait till they encounter the hook serves which swerve in both directions lmao. If they return any serve just sidespin push them to the opposite corners alternatively and make them run No need to even loop or sweat against players like this if you know what you're doing.