Tactics for a FH-oriented 5th-ball attacker

[Shuki]

try adjusting to his serves better so you can win every single one of his like he wins every one of yours.

What makes a player good? Learning to adapt to your opponent with your strokes... Right? if the opponent can do this and you can't doesn't that make them just better? I think asking people on a forum how to beat someone that they can't see play is a bit of a desperate act in an attempt to beat someone that's better than you. If they figured out how to deal with your stuff so well to where you're losing the majority of your own serves, they've beaten you. ESPECIALLY if you know how they're going to deal with that serve. Getting to a point where you know exactly where they'll place the ball and with what kind of spin and still not being able to counter it, well, that's a sign that we're not going to be able to help you.

If I know exactly where they're going to put the ball and I still can't figure out a single way to deal with it, what would you tell me?

 

[Baal]

But he uses traditional penhold most of the time, so he has no cross-over point.

.....

Tactics matters.

Here is one very important thing that may help. All players have a cross-over point, even penholders. (The only exception would be if some player hit every single ball with their forehand. I assume that is not happening with this guy).

However, the cross-over point is not always in the same place. In fact, for penholders, the cross-over point is not in the same place as the vast majority of shakehand players. It is almost always a little further to the outside. A lot of right-handed shakehanders are going to have a cross-over point somewhere right around their right hip (exactly where varies a little with their grip, if their basal grip is something BH oriented it is further to the right).

Penholders are not really bothered by a shot to the hip because their cross-over point is often about 6-8 inches to the right of that, sometimes even further than that. Pick up a paddle and hold it like a penholder and pretend you are hitting forehands and conventional penhold backhands and you can get an idea of where it really is. Suprisingly far to the outside of where it is for a shakehander. If you find it, you can take away most of their punch and they have to spend a second deciding how they are going to hit the ball.

You are never going to hit it if you aim for the wrong place. The cross-over can be an elusive target against players who move well. But most of us aren't up against pros.

 

[Takkyu_wa_inochi]

Your old tactic doesn't work so go for a new one. I like to serve with my backhand on penholders short to their forehand because they don't have much choice and open their backhand side or straight to their backhand with my BH because I'm waiting for them on my BH side with a quick block on their FH then on their BH again. Usually penholders are strong at pivoting and their unusual traditional block down the line is a problem for a lot of us

The idea is that a lot of penholders are strong on BH side (pivot and block) and moving BH side to the FH side but struggle moving from FH side to BH side