Inverse Results

Have you noticed there are some weekend players who have an unusual problem. They do better against good players but struggle against weak.

In my local division 4 competition, for example, I noticed there were some players who could reserve for division 3 and be very competitive, winning their share of matches. But they struggled against weaker competition...even losing to no.3 players in division 4.

I suppose each case is different, but are there any common causes of this problem? And what general advice could you give such players?

Hi Ji-Soo,

Table tennis is a game that depends highly on styles.  Some players are good at playing against the orthodox type player that play with topspin and hit the ball cleanly but when it comes to something different they struggle.  These are usually the players that have done a lot of rigid training and haven't played as much competition at various levels.

Advice to these players is to put themselves into the mix a bit more and play more competition against a variety of players. Get down to the club and play games with as many different types of players as possible even if they look to be weaker players.  Exoerience against different types of balls is vital.