Another defender problem

Kevin Z Asked 11 years ago

One of my friends is a defender and it is very tough to play against him. I know a lot of tactics to use but they don't always work. He prefers to push the ball with a close to the table distance. He doesn't really chop, just rarely, he mainly just pushes with a lot of backspin generated from his wrist. Also when I have to use my footwork to reach for a good topspin I often lose the point. He likes to 'stab' the ball in the corner that I'm not standing in or right into my crossover point. Whenever we have a rally of like 5-10 pushes and I decide to forehand topspin the next one, he just knows when its going to happen and pushes it deep to my backhand or forehand and I make a bad topspin. He can see when I choose to go for the forehand topspin-kill from my backhand corner to his forehand side and then blocks it perfectly wide to my fh side.

He told me that when he plays against me, he has to push the ball deep on the table, I don't know what that does but his pushes have quite some speed on it which make it somehow awkward for me to topspin them. I feel that I have always been comfortable playing against other defenders because of their slow chops.

Now he also attacks ofcourse, he only has a forehand topspin though, his backhand can only block. I tend to make more points when I play less agressive shots, but I don't like it, my game is offensive topspin.

I think that's all I can come up with right now. Got any tips to beat my arch rival?

Alois Rosario Answered 11 years ago

Hi Kevin,

The best thing is to try and make a 3rd ball or 4th ball attack.  This will make it difficult for him to get into a rhythm.  You can even serve long and fast so the only option he has is to play long back to you so you can be ready for it.  If you push short then you have less time to recover because he is hitting it from closer to the net.