So bad lose against a veteran player (Match Video) What should I improve?

[Alpay]

Hi! I'm alpay and I recorded a match which is the finale of 4th league of a veteran table tennis club. (I'm on 4th league because I started this year on playing veteran club league.) I lost badly to this veteran and I want to ask you what are my errors and what should I improve on my technique. I won this man 3 weeks ago. I improved a lot but I lost. Maybe I scared while playing. And I was a bit tired. But I won't make excuses. I played bad generally. I didn't deserved to win with this play. So I lost 3-0. I have videos of these 3 sets and a warm up video. Can you watch warm up and help to fix my technique? And I want you to watch my match video and tell my in-game errors. Thanks for helping!

WARM UP

1ST SET

2ND SET

3RD SET

 

[perham]

First thing I noticed is that the old guy’s serve is totally illegal.


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[yogi_bear]

You keep feeding the guy with services that are easy to loop. You lack the intensity and energy in your game. It seems you do not have a gameplan in your matches.

 

[Alpay]

You keep feeding the guy with services that are easy to loop. You lack the intensity and energy in your game. It seems you do not have a gameplan in your matches.

Right. I don't make gameplans. How do I improve it? And what do you mean saying intensity? Is it fearing of shots?

 

[JHB]

Perhaps it would be worth varying your services a little more - serve from different places, throw in the odd backhand serve as well as the regular forehand pendulum, maybe even a fast topspin once in the match as a surprise. Oh, and there is no way he should get awy with that serve where he throws the ball backwards onto his bat !

 

[ZhouZhekai]

1. At each beginning of each set you started out with long easy to lop served. At lower levels long serves might be good because especially as a lefthander you can cause errors for the opponent, yet if you want to become better, which you clearly want to short serves with backspin(with some long serves) are the way to go, because they allow you to attack first
2. After each hit you kind off jump back one step. This takes away your times, gives your opponent less pressure so he can play controlled shots which force you farther from the table until you do not have enough power to do a full movement forcing you to just hit the ball over the net. So try to stay close to the table, bend a little forward(your upper body).
3. Try to go for more attacks. For me in the short term it caused errors, however in time i became much more confident and got better. Also your loop goes a to much up and you tend to jump instead being steady.
4. A question about the equipment: Did you choose it because Ma Long played it once, or do you think it fits your style?

Not my intention to sound arrogant if it comes of that way

 

[tropical]

You should have beaten him the 1st game. I only watched the 1st one so can't really comment on the rest. As a left haded player you should have served more to his forehand; short, heavy,top, side, & suddenly long to back hand. Always attack his long serve. Do not be afraid of attacking.

 

[Alpay]

You should have beaten him the 1st game. I only watched the 1st one so can't really comment on the rest. As a left haded player you should have served more to his forehand; short, heavy,top, side, & suddenly long to back hand. Always attack his long serve. Do not be afraid of attacking.

How can I get confidence? What is your method?

 

[Baal]

Your serves are terrible. No other word for it. They are not tricky, they are not spinny, and they are going to the middle of the table and no matter what your motion seems to be there is very little variation. Your return of serve is weak. You can't read deadball. When he hits even a little spin with his forehand you block off the end of the table and a lot of this is because you don't move your feet when you get nervous.

This sounds harsh but that much was clear.

You will get better and your basic strokes are sound (although your backhand loop is way too big a stroke). But I would be curious to know how you train.

 

[Takkyu_wa_inochi]

Alpay,

as everybody noticed already, your serves are way too weak, they are too easy to attack, no spin, too high, not short enough or not long enough, its like a penalty kick. If you're not good at serving, just focus on keeping at least the ball LOW and try to serve SHORT. to keep the ball LOW, try to impact the ball much LOWER than you are currently doing

your receive is weak. too many long pushes where you should attack. ball is popping up because you're not reading the spin well

Your 3rd ball is weak. Thats because your serve is weak, you don't get an easy ball. Still, you SHOULD change your mindset and get ready for the 3rd ball much quicker after your serve, especially because you KNOW your serve is quick and the ball might come back fast. Many times, the opponent got the point just returning with an attack on your BH and you're missing the block because you're late AND because you're standing up too straight

Apart from that, I've seen a few good loops from both FH and BH during the few rallies. You have to train more on your serve/receive and to attack more that 3rd ball. You have some basics but you have to get much stronger to beat this kind of experienced player

btw
*** all his serves are illegal *** [but I don't think it would have changed much if he served legally tbh]

 

[UpSideDownCarl]

Why on earth do you back up so far from the table and just put the ball back when the opponent is back from the table. If your opponent is back from the table you should have enough time to play up close.

Also, why are you not ripping his loops instead of putting back easy balls right to him?

 

[QWERTY Spin]

Why on earth do you back up so far from the table and just put the ball back when the opponent is back from the table. If your opponent is back from the table you should have enough time to play up close.

Also, why are you not ripping his loops instead of putting back easy balls right to him?

probably because his equipment is too fast.

I noticed a couple of things after scanning your sets. first off i like your backhand topspin. that one is quite effective if you get to it.

Now it appears to me (knowing that you play the HL5) that your equipment is too fast. that is one of the reason you move back after all of your strokes. and after 2 ball contacts you are 4 Meters away from the table.
Also your serve return needs some work. You struggle too keep the ball low or attack and so you back off the table again.
Most of the times you even move back while hitting the ball. So it seems to me that your offensive racket makes you play defensive.
you can improve that by placing a barrier 2 meters behind you.
aside from that most of the things were already said.
Always remember: you want to play through or against the ball not away from it. your main body movement when hitting has to go forward not backwards.
Try to improve your serve/serve return and short game in general.
I hope that helps. From what I read and see you are eager to improve. so keep on working and you will get better.

 

[Xylit]

I have watched the first set:

1. You should really improve your service.
2. It looks like you had no matchplan at all but rather tried some random things and played each ball different.

 

[Alpay]

My serves are good for our club but it's not working on another players. Generally our coaches aren't working on serves and returns. My returns was insane 4-5 days ago. But in training, I got afraid returning aggresively. And I got nervous while attacking. I couldn't dealt with serves in matches. I need to get more confidence. And I don't know how to serve with a lot spin and low/short. How can I train it?

 

[v100ev]

Ok, a lot of good stuff in the comments. I may repeat some but that's what I think:
I have a theory that you can not control your equipment(I don't encourage equipment changing but sometimes it just seems that a player is not ready to use his bat(not enough exp points to equip it )). I mean it seems to me that it's too fast and furious for you. I think that's one of the reasons why you run from the table all the time, and why you second/third topspins are not strong but only accurate. Your pushing game also is very weak - not a lot of spin, didn't see a lot of short game(again, racket may be too fast?). You'r basically feeding rather easy balls to the opponent - no real placement(this is totally on you - think where to place the ball, don't just throw it away).
Even if we say that's not the equipment - still the problems are there.
Ok, if we eliminate the equipment, this will be some advice from me - just be more active on ALL of your shots. If you push - push with intend, if you play a good 3rd ball - play a good 5th ball after that, don't go back and throw easy balls to your opponent. Be brave with you attacks.
And also every time you make a shot - make the shot and then move, don't move back while making a topspin. Concentrate on the shot, then on you position. Cause if you run from the ball - there will be no quality in it.

 

[langel]

All said above is right.
You played this match just as you had training session. I don't know what is your temp of comfort, but in this match the temp is dictated buy your opponent and are playing negative just trying to keep the boll on the table. In the few attempts you decided to attack you usually overthrough the table because you didn't switch to an attacking mode, but just hitting the ball a little bit stronger.
Work for your service - changing positioning, direction, strength, length and spin.
Try to dictate your temp of play.
Analyze the comfort temp, distance, wing and position of the opponent and make a plan how to disturb him and how to attack him.
Don't miss opporunity to attack and work for it with the above said, don't play just keeping the boll on the table and waiting for a comfortable boll.
Work on your attacking technique, you have a good OFF setup, but you still don't utilize its capacity.

Aside from all critics and advises - you are doing very well, keep on developing.

 

[Alpay]

All said above is right.
You played this match just as you had training session. I don't know what is your temp of comfort, but in this match the temp is dictated buy your opponent and are playing negative just trying to keep the boll on the table. In the few attempts you decided to attack you usually overthrough the table because you didn't switch to an attacking mode, but just hitting the ball a little bit stronger.
Work for your service - changing positioning, direction, strength, length and spin.
Try to dictate your temp of play.
Analyze the comfort temp, distance, wing and position of the opponent and make a plan how to disturb him and how to attack him.
Don't miss opporunity to attack and work for it with the above said, don't play just keeping the boll on the table and waiting for a comfortable boll.
Work on your attacking technique, you have a good OFF setup, but you still don't utilize its capacity.

Aside from all critics and advises - you are doing very well, keep on developing.

I have a question. I have a fast setup I know. And if I use it slowly, is it good or bad? A coach said to me, "you have a fast setup. If you fear and don't attack, Your balls will go easy for opponent. You have a setup and you have to use it as strong as possible." Should I attack all balls? I got a blue sponge for forehand and tenergy05 for backhand. It's faster now. How can I use it with this level? I can't get a new setup in these 6 months.

 

[langel]

Your coach is right, but it depends on you how to implement this words in practice. You don't have to attack every ball, as I said above you have to work for the ball to attack, prepaire yourself for the attack and to attack with the propper technique.
It seems that you feel comfortable with your BH. Now, as you said that your BH is T05, I start to think that the reason for this is more because of the rubber. Your HNeo needs much more energy and more full motion with good brush to make it work the spin. Why don't you try your FH with the T05 side, it may work better.

 

[Alpay]

Your coach is right, but it depends on you how to implement this words in practice. You don't have to attack every ball, as I said above you have to work for the ball to attack, prepaire yourself for the attack and to attack with the propper technique.
It seems that you feel comfortable with your BH. Now, as you said that your BH is T05, I start to think that the reason for this is more because of the rubber. Your HNeo needs much more energy and more full motion with good brush to make it work the spin. Why don't you try your FH with the T05 side, it may work better.

I used tenergy in my forehand and I can't play effectively with that. Chinese rubbers are more suitable for me I think. And players in Turkey are not using chinese rubber. Maybe 20 or 30 players are using chinese rubbers. So they can't play to my forehand mostly. They are not familiar to chinese rubber players. They say "ball is vibrating while coming to me. I can't play for these balls." It's an advantage I think. And I use Tenergy for my backhand because, using Hurricane 3 for backhand is really hard. It makes higher balls while short rally as you can see. And backhand flicks are harder with that. I improved my control with BH with H3 maybe I will use Tenergy 05 tomorrow. I will try it on HL5. I hope it won't be a mega fast setup. I think it will be more consistent for BH.

 

[langel]

And a more particular advise - in this match your opponent uses a lot of cutting and you received these balls too late and too away from the table. At this distance you need to make a strong full motion stroke with a lot of top spin. Your hits overthrouh the table because of the lack of spin and the poor motion. I know you step away just to have more time for reaction and to feel more safe to keep the ball on the table, but this is not a winning tactics. This way you just wait for the opponent to make a mistake. Try to go closer and to meet the underspined ball earlier just as it starts to foll with a sharper motion and brush. Try to send the ball to the corners, don't look at the centre of the table only.