Aspiring towards a playing style
Strategy
Arjan van Luttikhuizen Asked 8 years ago
Hi Alois,
After half a year of hard practice together with the guidance of your video's, I've come to the point where I can quite comfortably make most shots I envision, Placing and varying the speed/spin to a degree where I feel like I have control over the flow of the game. (rather than just being happy the ball lands on their side of the table more often than mine!) Obviously I still have miles to go in terms of technique but having that "feeling" down has recently made me start to think about strategy again...
Something that worries me is that while I've been sort of aspiring to be an attacker (which seems like the most sensible and popular thing to do) my game more closely resembles that of a junkballer who tries a bit of everything.
I love playing high tempo/topspin rallies, I love tricky serve setups and third/fourth ball attacks, however... I also strangely love long pushing rallies and placing the ball around the table with a lot of touch. I even love to throw in a few chops every now and then despite the fact that my equipment isn't very suitable for it!
The point is, I have no idea what I'm developing towards anymore, everything seems like fun! Should I just play as I naturally want to play or is it wise to choose a style to gravitate towards? In other words, How do I find my ideal playing style?
Alois Rosario Answered 8 years ago
Hi Arjan,
I think you are progressing towards a style of your own. Just keep going and play like you want to. It will be a difficult style to play against with the mixture of attack and defence.
Recommended Video
Berry v Datta
Shibaji Datta is a hot favourite in this match up against the unusual style of Brian Berry who loves to mix the game up with some great defensive play and some whippy forehand attacks.
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Arjan van Luttikhuizen Posted 8 years ago
As a response to the same question I asked here, a club member pointed me towards this article: http://protabletennis.net/content/develop-winning-playing-style
What are your thoughts on this?
Interesting.
Jean Balthazar Posted 8 years ago
Two things:
# At a high level, I think you will need to be somewhat specialized, because you will need a set of very strong shots to have an edge over your opponents who won't have any major weakness, and you just cannot develop the full range of table tennis shots to that level. Also, to maximize the efficiency of this set of shots, you will have to use optimized blades and rubbers, that won't work that well for the other shots (e.g. long pips for a chopper or superfast big sponge sticky backsides for an attacker).
# At a lower and intermediate level, being an versatile player can be very efficient. Even if none of your shots are perfected enough to be killers, adaptability and unpredictability will be your weapons and they can often win over players with one or two strong shots but also one or two major weaknesses. I'm mainly a looper, and a couple of weeks ago I found myself against a young and strong fast looping attacker. At the table he was too fast for me, and I ended up making most of my points... chopping, because he wasn't used to receiving strong backspin and persisted trying to loop them again. I didn't win by the way, but it became much closer than when I tried to play "my" game.
And I totally agree with you, it's a lot of fun to play all the shots in the game. And fun is what it is all about, at least for me.
Have to read the article now.
Ciao,
Hi Arjan,
I think some experimentation is always fun. It certainly won't hurt to have a hit with someone else's long pips. Give it a go and see what you think.
We do tend to recommend that people start with inverted rubbers but if you are set on being a defensive player then maybe it's OK.