Aspiring towards a playing style
Match 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.
Thoughts on this question
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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?
Alois Rosario from PingSkills Posted 8 years ago
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,
Arjan van Luttikhuizen Posted 8 years ago
Do you think it might be worthwhile for me to ask a local long pips player to have a go with their equipment and try some chops / other strokes against the robot or something?
While it's certainly possible to execute the chop with my current setup (I already tried it with varying degrees of success) I do realise that my setup is a little bit on the fast/bouncy side for defensive use. I did opt for thinner sponges and more forgiving/softer offensive rubbers but I'm just really curious how material designed for defending feels and plays like.
But as someone with just a couple hundred hours of experience... I'm wondering if it's too early for me to dabble in such things, or that I'm better off forgetting about it and keep developing using double inverted. Is using 'junk rubbers' really equal to 'joining the dark side' as some of my club members say?
Easier, faster, more seductive... but weaker in the end...
Jeff Plumb from PingSkills Posted 8 years ago
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.
Arjan van Luttikhuizen Posted 8 years ago
Asked a club member who was done playing to try his long pips for a bit, had a go for about 10-15 minutes on the robot and...
It felt really weird, kind of a delayed contact that drags the ball along. Putting the spin mechanics aside the pips didn't behave quite as I expected. I'm definitely not sold on the feeling but I'll try to get a hold of him sooner next week and see if we can play some rallies.
But man I had a laughter attack when I went and produced some knuckle-balls, the feeling on the bat, the trajectory of the ball... They actually seemed to wobble in the air! what a crazy sight, I had not thought the laws of physics would allow for such a thing!
So, will experiment more but I'll likely stick with double inverted for the time being.
Alois Rosario from PingSkills Posted 8 years ago
OK, good experiment at least. Have a longer go and let me know your thoughts then.