Playing against stronger players
Training
Yap Zhi De Asked 9 years ago
Hi Alois
Does playing with players better than me help to improve my skills, why? They did not teach me anything.
Alois Rosario Answered 9 years ago
Hi Yap,
Just by hitting with them you are getting better quality shot coming at you. This is a big part of training. However, you can utilise players of any ability to train with, the better players can provide that higher quality shot that you can't get from some other players.
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Yap Zhi De Posted 9 years ago
Hi Alois
How about matches, how can I improve my skills by just playing matches with players stronger than me. I also heard about a player's experience in matches, why is that so important and how does our experience help us in a match, it is the skill that helps us, right?
Ilia Minkin Posted 9 years ago
Stronger players are good at tactics, so they can dissect your weaknesses quickly and ruthlessly exploit them. After you see it, you will get a stronger desire to work and fix your weaker sides :)
D K Posted 9 years ago
Illia,please,don't you have any idea how can I solve the situation when no one except PingSkills is willing to help me with looking for my weaknesses and their reasons are "You cannot utilise the tactics that I am able to teach because it would require you to play without long pips" or "it is a secret" or "I cannot advise a defender" etc. ?
Dieter Verhofstadt Posted 9 years ago
A few things that happen to me when playing stronger players:
1) My usual tactics don't seem to work any longer. They pick my serves with which I confuse weaker players. They block my topspins which weaker players push out.
2) Their serves are better and they put me under pressure, while I'm used to put the weaker players under pressure.
So, I need to be more ready for 3rd ball because their returns will be good. And I need to concentrate much more on my own returns. Also, I will have to change tactics faster and more often, so I'll need to think more about variation of spin or placement, and figuring out what exactly isn't working.
DK, you can't rely on other players to fix your own game. You need to discover your weaknesses yourself and talk about them with a coach (live or online).
Last match, I was having lots of trouble with half long backspin serves which looked like tomahawk side spin serves. I'm going to ask some of my peers to throw serves like those to my backhand and replay that part of the match situation which I was struggling with.
Tushar Verma Posted 9 years ago
Provoke your opponent to play some complex shots that will help to learn something new.
chris Lee Posted 9 years ago
I asked a similar question: What to learn from playing the best players?