Garage players

Mohammad Hassan Asked 11 years ago

Hi alois and Jeff i was wondering what are the best tatics against a garage player who is really good that plays all junkies shots.

Alois Rosario Answered 11 years ago

Hi Mohammad,

I think develop your spin serves and try to use them to win some easy points.

← Blocking with Anti spin When to use upper, lower arm and wrist →

Erriza Shalahuddin Posted 11 years ago

Hi, coach.

In my college, there are many garage players (doing those unconventional strokes with "almost-dead" bat). I find that due to their equipments, my serves doesn't seem to be really effective, yet they're still good enough to rally with me. Any suggestion?

Alois Rosario from PingSkills Posted 11 years ago

Keep developing your serves. It can be difficult to play against those players because they are unconventional but it is also a good learning experience.

Kaustubh Kulkarni Posted 10 years ago

What is a garage player?

Alois Rosario from PingSkills Posted 10 years ago

I think you could describe it as a player that hasn’t had any formal training and plays an unorthodox game.

DHS Lover Posted 10 years ago

I also found the same problem, most of them like to hit the ball fast with sidespin especially for penhold player and difficult to attack the ball so how to win against that players?

Jean Balthazar Posted 10 years ago

Hi there,

I consider myself (quite proudly actually) as a garage player. I, literally, learned to play in our 2 cars length sized garage with my father. I spent 5 years in an actual table tennis club: 1984/1985/2012/2013/2014 (born in 1972). Growing up "in the wild", you do develop some weird shots, that can indeed be useful to confuse a better player with a perfect standard technique. That's actually very satisfying, you almost consider yourself as "an artist" :o) But in the end, all you can ever do is spin the ball more or less, in different directions, like any other player. So if you watch the shot carefully, you will know what's in it and you should be able to adjust to it. Sometimes it takes a while, and today a set of 11 points can be over very quickly.

Now if you want a trick to help you play against an actual "garage" player, shoot with the most angle you can, wide into the forehand or backhand. Since a garage is rather narrow, they're not used to move that wide. Personally, I cannot even do these shots, as I never trained them, since they were unfair (untouchable or even dangerous) in our garage. I also smash straight 99% of the time, which is a weakness if my opponent notices it.

Hope this doesn't help :o) Go fellow garage players !

J-B.