Strategy against this player

[blahness]

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.

It is not nospin. You can get very heavy sidespin (coupled with topspin if you drag ball upwards or underspin if you drag ball downwards, a bit like the sideunder and sidetop spin variation with the FH pendulum serve). It produces opposite sidespin to your current FH push. With this you can first test which placement is most disgusting for him to loop - my guess is middle curving into his elbow or wide BH. If he doesnt loop this it will be an opportunity ball for you. Even if he BH loops this, just block it stably back and you get into a 50-50 rally instead of what you have now which is getting immediately attacked by his FH and then losing the point. Then, sometimes you can push deep wide to his FH when he is getting used to the sideswipe. Dont be too predictable.

 

[blahness]

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.

It is very difficult to short push if you miss the early timing, especially against sidetopspin. The thing is that he cant get to the short wide BH corner in time to short push with his receive positioning. If you serve sidetopspin it will be even harder for him. Especially not when he has to take care of fast long serves to the middle.

The problem with serving to the same spot all the time (for eg half long) is that you are not challenging his footwork and anticipation which allows him to be very comfortable receiving and doing whatever he wants to your serve. So in the end, instead of him who has to anticipate your moves, you are the one who has to anticipate his moves.

 

[Zezima]

It is very difficult to short push if you miss the early timing, especially against sidetopspin. The thing is that he cant get to the short wide BH corner in time to short push with his receive positioning. If you serve sidetopspin it will be even harder for him. Especially not when he has to take care of fast long serves to the middle.

The problem with serving to the same spot all the time (for eg half long) is that you are not challenging his footwork and anticipation which allows him to be very comfortable receiving and doing whatever he wants to your serve. So in the end, instead of him who has to anticipate your moves, you are the one who has to anticipate his moves.

yeah makes sense. And I was terrible at anticipating his moves that game.

 

[Ghostzen]

That 300 points is quite a jump to be fair....

There was quite a difference in speed and also spin from your opponent which really threw your shots off and looked very frustrating. It looks a bit like you never quite got the ball you wanted to play your game or shot you decided.

A shorter service might be more helpful sometimes. 2 bounces so it's not as easy for him to spin the ball up which really caused alot of issues with breaking your timing.

Try and move the ball around a bit more if you can on service placement to see which return is better for you. Then you can build a bit more of a plan or sequence to get into the game more.

On your returns maybe look again at a bit more spin and safety on the ball to get into the rally so you can start to work your shots.

Once you were in the point work harder on actually making the ball on the table with a stroke. Lots of players under pressure hit flatter and don't spin the ball. This is not reliable and you need to be reliable against a stronger player.

Keep moving your feet and not leaning. Being taller you were leaning a bit to cover which broke your balance alot. A better player will always break your balance. It doesn't have to be a power stroke if the placement is good.

This may sound very silly to say but enjoy the match. It's fun. It will help you relax and remove some of the pressure and free up your thinking so you can get into the match.

Really nice video btw. Kudos for uploading and good luck with the games.

Cheers

 

[Tyce]

I watched the first game to 11, here's my two cents.

You're missing pressure, most shots are gentle/nice with not much sense of power.
A lot of shots are arm-only (which is not necessarily a problem) where a fuller stroke might have saved the ball.
The final two half flicks are extreme examples, you're trying to apply topspin to a very short, arm based stroke. That only works when someone gives you a dead ball in training.

I think I can see your intention is to play attacking, but it misses in conviction, power, pressure. Just go for the game you want to play! The results will follow eventually if you keep at it

 

[Zezima]

Can someone explain why my receive 17:28 and the next point went into the net? In the game I thought its only sidespin and in the video it looks like it might even have slight topspin? Either way I would expect the ball to go out rather than into the net. Is it really backspin?

 

[Tyce]

Either way your bat angle is too closed for the short stroke you can make. A FH flip generally is mostly a slap

 

[Tyce]

Excuse me I was looking at the wrong ones.
But the theory remains, you are contacting the ball on its top rather than its back which makes it extremely hard to lift the ball

Both serves are clearly side/under to me

 

[blahness]

Can someone explain why my receive 17:28 and the next point went into the net? In the game I thought its only sidespin and in the video it looks like it might even have slight topspin? Either way I would expect the ball to go out rather than into the net. Is it really backspin?

It is sideunderspin. The upwards elbow lift is a fake movement.

 

[Tyce]

It is sideunderspin. The upwards elbow lift is a fake movement.

I didn't even see the fake movement I assumed he just had a weird technique

 

[Zezima]

Excuse me I was looking at the wrong ones.
But the theory remains, you are contacting the ball on its top rather than its back which makes it extremely hard to lift the ball

Both serves are clearly side/under to me

how was it so clear to you even though you didnt watch his movement?
Tbh it doesn´t look like it has a lot of backspin or any backspin on the ball so if I hit it at the back I thought I would overshoot the ball.

 

[NextLevel]

how was it so clear to you even though you didnt watch his movement?
Tbh it doesn´t look like it has a lot of backspin or any backspin on the ball so if I hit it at the back I thought I would overshoot the ball.

No one else can see what you saw, but throughout the match, he had been serving sidespin or light side back, so this time, he served a heavier side back twice and you put it in the net.

 

[Tyce]

how was it so clear to you even though you didnt watch his movement?
Tbh it doesn´t look like it has a lot of backspin or any backspin on the ball so if I hit it at the back I thought I would overshoot the ball.

I see contact with the bottom of the ball, and the bounce it makes doesn't look like he's pulling the bat back to create topspin. The subsequent first bounce on the table doesn't show a forward angle like a topspin kick would, but that's hard to see from the other side of the net sometimes.
The elbow as I said just looks like clunky technique, which would correspond with how I feel he plays in general.

It's kind of hard to put into words and consciously think about it, for me it's a subconscious mechanism.

 

[blahness]

He accelerates downwards with a flat bat angle, this has to be sideunder. He would have to accelerate upwards with the elbow lift, or use a more closed angle to produce sidetopspin.

But tbh it is not that easy in a real match unless you have some cheat code like LP or anti lol (I tried it the other day and I could receive all serves with a sideswipe lol)

 

[Zezima]

updated my post with the link to all 3 games + thoughts

 

[Zezima]

Also someone experienced please give me feedback on my current setup. From what I have seen in the first 2 games (not Ess) I tend to "drive" with my backhand after looping and don´t think I looped twice in a row "agressively". When I have time and get low I seem to have a good backhand topspin on first long ball early in the rally but thats it.
Also what I noticed was during the game I don´t bend my wrist back (head shows at my stomache) even though I seem to have time.

My FH looks also weird sometimes (Racket angle very open and upwards motion only, sometimes with Backhand the same) -> Here I was in the progress of playing with a more open Bat angle because I used to play with a very closed one and hit edges or miss the ball entirely or loop backspin into the net almost always. Now it feels like its the other extreme.

I actually have so much to criticise about my game after watching it again in slowmo. That I don´t know what to practise(and how) first.

Today I have another League game (mostlikely 3 games for me again) where I am debating if I should actively think about the stroke or just play from subconsious and think about fixing it after todays game...

 

[Ghostzen]

Fix after the game but be aware of the issue and be active when addressing the stroke in match play. You can cloud the mind with what you should and shouldn't do which might actually stop you from doing either very well.

Are you thinking of a video of the match?

Hope it goes well and enjoy.
Cheers

 

[Zezima]

Yeah makes sense.

No I am not thinking about a video during the match more like about my stroke generally. I feel like my racket angle changes a lot during the shot

Fix after the game but be aware of the issue and be active when addressing the stroke in match play. You can cloud the mind with what you should and shouldn't do which might actually stop you from doing either very well.

Are you thinking of a video of the match?

Hope it goes well and enjoy.
Cheers

 

[Ghostzen]

Yeah makes sense.

No I am not thinking about a video during the match more like about my stroke generally. I feel like my racket angle changes a lot during the shot

Best to video this match and get some more information on how things are going. There is very little you can change right before the match apart from being aware of the change in angle. If you overthink it you may have alot going on in your head which will cause an issue with your performace in the match.

Good luck and stay strong when playing.

 

[Zezima]

I was at WTT Frankfurt watching semis games. Turns out I am way too passive.

Will also Upload my 3 games from Friday. Next week no game so I will be training hard.