Strategy against this player

[Zezima]

Hey everyone,
Because last time it worked really well (won against all those players I asked for help) I want to do it again. This time its going to be much harder (300 Point difference)

Again I am asking for his weakness and things I can write down to keep in mind when playing vs him tomorrow (mostlikely)
This video is from 1 year ago so I have improved a bit since then. All I remember from this game was that he kept "mini"looping to the same placement and he basically beat me through placement of his shots and not by speed or spin. I also think he serves mainly with sidespin shorties forcing a bad push from me. I will be cutting those balls from up-> down to keep it short and with lots of backspin. Any other ideas are welcome. Please use Bulletpoints to make it easier for me to add it to my list.

Feedback and what I can implement:
- Flick his short serves when you can (wide to FH seems good)
- Loop if it comes long with the FH
- Serve more short Topspin to the Sides
- Long Side Backspin
- No spin short FH
- Long Fast Serve (see how he reacts)
- Reverse Pendulum serve and attack 3rd Ball
- Push fast
- STOP serving only to the middle with slow serves
- Keep in mind if he plays the first ball to the FH next ball he plays to the FH again -> Prepare to attack

Edit 2:
Games from yesterday. I cut the time between points for you guys:

Watching the videos made me realize my old habits are still there and that I can play much much better if it wasn´t for the stress...

Positive things that stood out for me:
Loop with BH and then transition to FH loop without mistakes.
Attacking long serves
3rd Ball Attack (some very easy mistakes here and there still)
Overall Backhand topspin
FH Topspin once rally was open
Pushing short ( I used to always push long) - some really short to the FH

vs Ess:
Had the attacking mentality
some really good rallys
I think I served really good vs him aswell
----
He really surprised me that he can actually play much much better than last year. Very controlled (he switched to some weird nexy rubbers and blade) His serve was really good heavy backspin couldn´t use my BH flick..
Maybe standing further behind was the solution to just let him start the rally and I focus on counterattacking. But felt like I was too close to the table and/or I was taking the ball too early instead of waiting for the spin to die off a little more. He kept his receive very short when others would push long and let me attack. Overall he praised me that I am on the right track compared to last time. So yeah still happy with how yesterday went. Today is another league game time.

 

[Grumms]

Your pushes are too long and high, and not enough backspin. Your FH blocks are done with the racquet too high. You step backwards too many times. With all this, you play the perfect victim for your opponent. You send him easy balls to play, you step back, you're totally inactive, and you undergo the game 75% of the time. Be more active if you want to beat him. Block with the racquet lower, if you step back, it should be only to counterloop, but he might beat you, so stay close to the table to force him to the fault. Attack his long serves more often.

And push shorter please, he can attack every return you do.

 

[Sims]

You're right, he is a high % player using placement and not overdoing things.
I couldn't watch the entire vid but some takeaways from me
- Banana flick his short serves when you can.
- His attacks are not very speedy, lots of good counter opportunities if you are sharp and ready.
- Jam him to his middle as much as possible. -- - Whatever he covers it with go to that side to nxt.
- At 10:30 ye got into some kind of (weird) passive push rally, where neither of you seemingly wanted to attack. Finally on shot 9 you did but shot 3,5,7 should really have been that. I reckon you need to take the initiative as much as possible.
- Your serves at 13:05 got you returns that were crying out for your FH attack. Use this serve to set up your FH kill shot.
- Clarify your service strategy beforehand.
- I didn't see any fast long serves. How does he handle those?
Since he doesn't loop kill I would definitely throw long side under pendulum (curling into his middle) into my serve rotation.
Other than that, good luck!! 👊

 

[z0uLess]

sometimes its better to just focus on your own game so he will have to adapt to you instead

 

[blahness]

His serves are almost all drifting long and worse, to the ideal looping zone for your FH. Just crunch his serves directly with your FH, it is a gift.

If it is too short FH fade it to his BH and yiu will get easy ball to topspin.

 

[Caravenav]

I'm an amateur player but I can see in the video:


It would help if you took a more aggressive attitude, you are waiting for the opponent make the decision to attack, in the video:

Set 1 point 1:4 and 2:7 you took the decision, attacked, and won the points.

Set 2 1:3. 2:4 3:4. 5:4 the same, decision, attack, and win.

Sometimes you will lose points to take the initiative but you will win more than lose.

You can see the spin in the service, and you know how to answer that shot, but you don't have acceleration in your arm (body, legs). Therefore, your opponent serves a backspin. You attack it with topspin, and the ball goes to the net. That affects your confidence, and later, you prefer to be more conservative. I think that this point is directly related to the aggressive attitude that you should have.

More than a strategy against this player I would suggest focusing on your technique that your first ball attack should be a quality ball (good placement, good spin) and not only a "winner" shot.

As a tactic against this player, be more aggressive, take the initiative, and accelerate the stroke when you attack (weight transfer, arm acceleration). Sometimes, you can pivot to attack from the backhand side with your forehand.



Would be nice if you post the video of your next match.

 

[blahness]

His receive stance (FH oriented but setup in middle) has a big weakness in the BH short corner esp with short FH pendulum serves that go very wide exiting the sides. I dont see how he can receive those well esp sidetopspin. Max he can do is a weak flick which you can again counter it to his wide FH or even to his middle easily. If he pushes that serve it is gonna be a free attack for you so definitely do that. He is not gonna be able to keep the receive short. If he adjusts his position to cover that spot i would serve pendulum fast long to his middle and then no spin to his FH short.

 

[igorponger]

 

[HankSquib]

• Opponent's positioned heavier into backhand (backhand serve and receives middle usually with backhand). Instead of being a stronger backhand player, it looks like they are balanced defensive and a bit weaker on the backhand.
  • You should be working your way into their strike zone instead of away.
  • Play once to their weakside, play the next to their strong side, and then play to pin to middle or counter.
    • (Idea is that if you have enough quality from the weaker return, you should be able to make them play lower quality from their strong side. Then you can play to neutralize their positioning to the middle or finish the point if their strong side return was weak as well.
  • Basic ideas behind tactics is you actively play into their strong and weakside so you can see who has the better matchup on the wings. Always put your best wings against their worst wings.
    • He has a defensive backhand wing and you allow them to open on their backhand way too easily because you didn't push with enough spin or deep enough.
    • His forehand wing is based primarily on his rear leg movement as in he likes to either step out to loop or step in to do a topspin smash.
      • You should take advantage of it by dead looping more to the forehand wing.
      • Play fast sidespin instead of slow sidespin.
      • Punch the ball more often.
• They actually prefer attack wide forehand and puts pace when it's middle forehand.
  • In other words, they prefer attacking when they can load their arm into the shot.
  • When the ball is placed closer to their forearm, they tend to play more of a sidespin topspin mini loop or a topspin smash.
• Given the above, I think you should work on working more attacking shots crosscourt and slower shots down the line.
  • Ideally if they attack your forehand loop with their forehand counter, you should be able to go crosscourt to their elbow or down the line block to their elbow. (This is based off their habit to over commit to their forehand). Forcing them onto the middle forehand would be ideal, and then you should try to win off your stronger backhand wing.

 

[Zezima]

You're right, he is a high % player using placement and not overdoing things.
I couldn't watch the entire vid but some takeaways from me
- Banana flick his short serves when you can.
- His attacks are not very speedy, lots of good counter opportunities if you are sharp and ready.
- Jam him to his middle as much as possible. -- - Whatever he covers it with go to that side to nxt.
- At 10:30 ye got into some kind of (weird) passive push rally, where neither of you seemingly wanted to attack. Finally on shot 9 you did but shot 3,5,7 should really have been that. I reckon you need to take the initiative as much as possible.
- Your serves at 13:05 got you returns that were crying out for your FH attack. Use this serve to set up your FH kill shot.
- Clarify your service strategy beforehand.
- I didn't see any fast long serves. How does he handle those?
Since he doesn't loop kill I would definitely throw long side under pendulum (curling into his middle) into my serve rotation.
Other than that, good luck!! 👊

Hey Sims,
- I practised my BH flick on that particular serve, so I will def try and do that.
- It´s a stroke I didn´t practise yet and don´t feel soo confident doing, but you are right I should start doing it.
- This one I didn´t quite understand? if I give him to the middle he can go to my Bh or to my Fh since I give him that angle no?
- I agree - I ask myself why did he not loop himself?
- Yeah def noted that after doing my reverse Pendulum I am gonna attack the next Ball

Clarify your service strategy beforehand.

That´s the thing - I can do almost any serve with any spin with any length and position. I just vary in the first set and see which one sets me up attacking the 3rd Ball most.
- Back then I had no confidence doing it. Now its not perfect but it got much much better. In Training I can go 90% fast (controlled) but in Matches it is still around 70% but I guess thats normal. Will definetly try and see how he reacts to those.
- I think I did it once (only ) in this game and it worked now that you say it. Can definetly do more of that

Thanks!

 

[Zezima]

His serves are almost all drifting long and worse, to the ideal looping zone for your FH. Just crunch his serves directly with your FH, it is a gift.

If it is too short FH fade it to his BH and yiu will get easy ball to topspin.

FH fade you mean go over the ball like a Flick motion instead of "cutting" what I did in this game?
In the game I felt like his serves were half long and the ball has no "energy" I think it was pure sidespin with maybe 5% backspin to keep it short. I practised BH Flicking (wide to his FH specially) so I will try to use that.

 

[Zezima]

I'm an amateur player but I can see in the video:


It would help if you took a more aggressive attitude, you are waiting for the opponent make the decision to attack, in the video:

Set 1 point 1:4 and 2:7 you took the decision, attacked, and won the points.

Set 2 1:3. 2:4 3:4. 5:4 the same, decision, attack, and win.

Sometimes you will lose points to take the initiative but you will win more than lose.

You can see the spin in the service, and you know how to answer that shot, but you don't have acceleration in your arm (body, legs). Therefore, your opponent serves a backspin. You attack it with topspin, and the ball goes to the net. That affects your confidence, and later, you prefer to be more conservative. I think that this point is directly related to the aggressive attitude that you should have.

More than a strategy against this player I would suggest focusing on your technique that your first ball attack should be a quality ball (good placement, good spin) and not only a "winner" shot.

As a tactic against this player, be more aggressive, take the initiative, and accelerate the stroke when you attack (weight transfer, arm acceleration). Sometimes, you can pivot to attack from the backhand side with your forehand.



Would be nice if you post the video of your next match.

Yes you are right during the match, I sometimes tend to go fuck it what is going on (0-4, 1-7) so I go all out and get my confidence back to loop starting from the receive. I got very intimidated by him aswell almost 500 points higher than me - first set... And me not knowing where he is looping (always parallel to the same placement over and over) And then I was just beating myself that I lose evne though he is doing the same loop same placement.

Over the past year I got much more aggressive I hope I can show it today. (I was 1305 back then and now ~1455) And yes I can post the video here and/or you can sub to the channel I will upload it and you will get notified immediately.

 

[Zezima]

His receive stance (FH oriented but setup in middle) has a big weakness in the BH short corner esp with short FH pendulum serves that go very wide exiting the sides. I dont see how he can receive those well esp sidetopspin. Max he can do is a weak flick which you can again counter it to his wide FH or even to his middle easily. If he pushes that serve it is gonna be a free attack for you so definitely do that. He is not gonna be able to keep the receive short. If he adjusts his position to cover that spot i would serve pendulum fast long to his middle and then no spin to his FH short.

You mean I should serve side topspin short to his FH or with the pendulum serve? I can do both to his Backhand and to his FH aswell. I was also thinking about what serve I should be doing because his stance to the table was so weird and abusable but I didn´t know how to.. I didn´t write down all my services but it felt like I mostly served to his middle halflongish.

 

[Zezima]

• Opponent's positioned heavier into backhand (backhand serve and receives middle usually with backhand). Instead of being a stronger backhand player, it looks like they are balanced defensive and a bit weaker on the backhand.
  • You should be working your way into their strike zone instead of away.
  • Play once to their weakside, play the next to their strong side, and then play to pin to middle or counter.
    • (Idea is that if you have enough quality from the weaker return, you should be able to make them play lower quality from their strong side. Then you can play to neutralize their positioning to the middle or finish the point if their strong side return was weak as well.
  • Basic ideas behind tactics is you actively play into their strong and weakside so you can see who has the better matchup on the wings. Always put your best wings against their worst wings.
    • He has a defensive backhand wing and you allow them to open on their backhand way too easily because you didn't push with enough spin or deep enough.
    • His forehand wing is based primarily on his rear leg movement as in he likes to either step out to loop or step in to do a topspin smash.
      • You should take advantage of it by dead looping more to the forehand wing.
      • Play fast sidespin instead of slow sidespin.
      • Punch the ball more often.
• They actually prefer attack wide forehand and puts pace when it's middle forehand.
  • In other words, they prefer attacking when they can load their arm into the shot.
  • When the ball is placed closer to their forearm, they tend to play more of a sidespin topspin mini loop or a topspin smash.
• Given the above, I think you should work on working more attacking shots crosscourt and slower shots down the line.
  • Ideally if they attack your forehand loop with their forehand counter, you should be able to go crosscourt to their elbow or down the line block to their elbow. (This is based off their habit to over commit to their forehand). Forcing them onto the middle forehand would be ideal, and then you should try to win off your stronger backhand wing.

Maybe it´s my bad English but I have a hard time understanding what you are trying to give me here as an advice.

• • You should be working your way into their strike zone instead of away.?

What do you mean by this?

What is his strong/weakside? feels like he can loop bothsided (slow paced) I dont even think it has much spin on it.

You want me to loop to his backhand then to Fh then to middle?

Yep I can do heavy pushes now but if he loops that ball I tend to block it over the table (I am really bad at blocking slow spinny shots) But maybe if I do it good he won´t have time for a quality loop

I am bad looping with no spin. I focused a lot on looping with spin. I also don´t use smash. But instead I can try to loop "faster" with topspin on it and go more into the balls because the balls are very slow.

I will have no time to think and look at his elbow during the game. I will be busy focusing on my shots and putting good spin and overall good ball contact.

 

[Leno]

Well, I'm again not gonna comment on what shots you should play, because I don't know your current level. I would advise other people from doing so as well, so he doesn't get biased.

Strictly speaking im just gonna talk about positioning and what the opponent can do.

1. Receiving his serve in the far forehand side you need to stop trying to push it to his forehand. You weren't able to control the height of the ball with your angle. If you do, your first objective should be keeping it low as possible rather than as spinny as possible.

2. Receiving the same serve in his backhand will most likely end up into a bh topspin in your fh. You need to prepare for that rather than your bh. You have consirderably more time on your bh side.

3. Receiving it low and shorter. Doesn't really need to be a short push, but has to be low. His BH motion doesn't generate a lot of power, he is only picking it up from your long pushes. Need to check if he tries to loop with the same motion with a slightly shorter and slower ball. If yes, you might get a really easy to handle loop.

4. On passiv, if he does get to start with his FH with loops, you need to remember to put it back into his BH side. He continues to hammer you with FH if you do not. Whilst in BH you get the chance to be even with him.

Lastly I don't have much to say about your serve. Just be ready to play a bit faster off your serve. You were stuck at looking how the ball flies and then adjust. Just keep in mind that you should see his motion and prepare to loop or block with initiative.

 

[blahness]

FH fade you mean go over the ball like a Flick motion instead of "cutting" what I did in this game?
In the game I felt like his serves were half long and the ball has no "energy" I think it was pure sidespin with maybe 5% backspin to keep it short. I practised BH Flicking (wide to his FH specially) so I will try to use that.

No not a flick, it is more like a sideswipe similar to the FH pendulum movement. It is very error tolerant. See

 

[blahness]

You mean I should serve side topspin short to his FH or with the pendulum serve? I can do both to his Backhand and to his FH aswell. I was also thinking about what serve I should be doing because his stance to the table was so weird and abusable but I didn´t know how to.. I didn´t write down all my services but it felt like I mostly served to his middle halflongish.

He is set up near middle, so FH pendulum short sidetopspin with some sideunder to his BH wide angle (exiting the sides of the table) will immediately force him to move to the left, which will open up his wide FH to exploit. I dont see how he can receive the short wide sidetopspin well in this stance - most likely it will be an opportunity ball for you next.

When he adjusts his stance to cover this you can do short serves to his FH short (ideally without sidespin) and also fast long serves to his middle.

Dont serve half long to him, you should really vary the length a lot against him.

 

[Zezima]

Well, I'm again not gonna comment on what shots you should play, because I don't know your current level. I would advise other people from doing so as well, so he doesn't get biased.

Strictly speaking im just gonna talk about positioning and what the opponent can do.

1. Receiving his serve in the far forehand side you need to stop trying to push it to his forehand. You weren't able to control the height of the ball with your angle. If you do, your first objective should be keeping it low as possible rather than as spinny as possible.

2. Receiving the same serve in his backhand will most likely end up into a bh topspin in your fh. You need to prepare for that rather than your bh. You have consirderably more time on your bh side.

3. Receiving it low and shorter. Doesn't really need to be a short push, but has to be low. His BH motion doesn't generate a lot of power, he is only picking it up from your long pushes. Need to check if he tries to loop with the same motion with a slightly shorter and slower ball. If yes, you might get a really easy to handle loop.

4. On passiv, if he does get to start with his FH with loops, you need to remember to put it back into his BH side. He continues to hammer you with FH if you do not. Whilst in BH you get the chance to be even with him.

Lastly I don't have much to say about your serve. Just be ready to play a bit faster off your serve. You were stuck at looking how the ball flies and then adjust. Just keep in mind that you should see his motion and prepare to loop or block with initiative.

I get what you mean. I could have posted a more recent game to show off my current level. But I think noone would have the time to watch both. Thats why I replied them back with I can do that particular shot or I can´t.
1) Yes I will mostly flick them. I mean I do have different rubbers now which makes it easier to keep it short than my previous rubbers in case I do try to keep it short..
2) So you say he loops with his bh almost always to my FH? And to Prepare for that ball?
3) I will try

His technique puts me so off but as you said I still have lots of time.

 

[Zezima]

No not a flick, it is more like a sideswipe similar to the FH pendulum movement. It is very error tolerant. See

Now that I watched it. I actually did that motion when the ball would come to my elbow with sidebackspin lets say. Ok yeah I see. But whats our goal with this? He gets a "no spin" ball slow ball back to his BH side.

 

[Zezima]

He is set up near middle, so FH pendulum short sidetopspin with some sideunder to his BH wide angle (exiting the sides of the table) will immediately force him to move to the left, which will open up his wide FH to exploit. I dont see how he can receive the short wide sidetopspin well in this stance - most likely it will be an opportunity ball for you next.

When he adjusts his stance to cover this you can do short serves to his FH short (ideally without sidespin) and also fast long serves to his middle.

Dont serve half long to him, you should really vary the length a lot against him.

Against any other players, I get a short Ball back and then I am like what to do with this ball, where to place it etc. Mostly I give them a Ball back that is long and this type of player would start looping.
But as you said I can try it out in the first set.

What´s so bad about half long sometimes? I will def try to vary the length and not just spam slow 90% half long serves.