Old rubbers and a lesson learned....
Match Strategy
Phil Hackett Asked 7 years ago
So I played a match tonight against an ostensibly weak team. 2 of my games were no problem but I lost the third.
I normally win a good few points off my serve - I'm a left hander and usually serve with heavy spin to the opponent's forehand. Against this guy he was getting most of my serves back but I could tell he wasn't reading them - he was just doing a tentative push back and they were returning with crazy and unpredictable spin. On top of that he just kept relentlessly pushing yet I found it hard to loop the returns - I kept misjudging them - they went long or in the net. When I did connect with one he was nowhere near returning it!
So...the lesson learned was - check his bat before the game - turns out the forehand rubber was shinier than a polished table and the backhand was fairly dead too, but had a tiny amount of friction.
My question though - although I'd have abandoned my heavy spin serves if I'd checked the bat first - I was still struggling with loops - felt like I didn't have anything to work against when trying to generate spin - any tactics for playing someone with a wrecked bat??!!
Thanks in anticipation!
Phil
Alois Rosario Answered 7 years ago
Hi Phil,
I guess the first and good lesson that you have realised is to check the players bat first. This is a good one for other readers to learn.
I think the best thing to do when a player has that type of bat is to keep the spin simple because if you put a lot of sidespin you will get something weird back.
Backspin and no spin serves are often good because the ball doesn't deviate sideways when they return it. You can control the amount of backspin on the ball. You will get the amount of spin back that you put on yourself. If you put a lot of backspin then you will get a lot of topspin back. If you put less spin you will get less spin back.
Since he had different rubbers with different friction on both sides, it may be a matter during the match of experimenting a little as to which side gives you the more comfortable return.
Thoughts on this question
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Phil Hackett Posted 7 years ago
Hi Alois
Many thanks for the advice - sounds similar to my strategy against long pimples - I normally do a gentle chop and loop the next one - if it comes back, chop again and repeat!
I also think I need to focus on my looping of dead balls - I'm more confident to loop balls with heavy top or backspin - those which are floated seem to give me more trouble!
Phil
Alois Rosario from PingSkills Posted 7 years ago
No problems Phil. With the float ball really focus on moving forward with your bat and putting some topspin of your own on the ball to get it to dip.
Phil Hackett Posted 7 years ago
I'll see if I can get someone to feed me a load of floated balls to practice.
Alois Rosario from PingSkills Posted 7 years ago
That is a good idea.
Ilia Minkin Posted 7 years ago
I've encountered the players using dead rubbers and it took time to adjust. Once I was quite surprised that the guy could return my serves regardless the spin I put on the ball using the same stroke, and the returned ball was very weird, exactly as Phil described. Once I met a folk who played with a seemingly normal racket, but the rubbers had no friction. It looked like there was some oily substance on the topsheet, like a lot of sweat. I wonder whether he put it on the rubbers intentionally. I also heard that some people breath on a rubber and don't wipe out the moisture to use that side for service receive, it's like a having a temporary antispin rubber. All kinds of tricky people out there :)
Phil Hackett Posted 7 years ago
Surely doctoring the rubber before a serve is illegal!
What makes me cross is I expect I could have beaten him if only I'd checked the bat first!
Alois Rosario from PingSkills Posted 7 years ago
Yes doctoring the rubber is definitely illegal.