Playing Attacking short pimpled opponent!

Wesley Ho Asked 16 years ago

What tactics should I use to play a player with short pimples who drives and smashes the ball very powerfully and fast. This player has pimples on his back hand and inverted on his forehand. Whatever I do ends up being smashed so fast that I don't have time to do anything it seems. The balls I am able to loop to his back hand are blocked and when I try to loop them again,  it goes off the table or into the net. Heavy under balls and no spin balls are also attacked very easily to my elbow or wide forehand and backhand. Pushes are always returned with no spin short so I tend to pop them up or do a very weak return that is easily smashed again. Whatever I seem to do is attacked quickly off the bounce. I can't get into a rythm with this player and feel so rushed and out of my game. Heavy no spin doesn't bother his pips neither does no spin or top. Everthing can be attacked. Any suggestions to play an opponent like this? Thanks in advance.

Jeff Plumb Answered 16 years ago

Hi Petra,

It can be very daunting playing someone who seems to rush you all the time and hits lots of winners past you. The main thing is not to panic. You need to try and improve your game little by little. Often players are surprised that if they can increase the pace of their shots by just a tiny bit, it ends up rushing your opponent and makes their shots much less effective.

If you are able to find someone with short pimples that you can train with, this will help a lot. You said that you have trouble looping the ball once it is blocked with his short pimples. So I would definitely try and arrange some practice where you can just keep looping to the short pimples. This will help your confidence and once you can make a few balls in a row, it will really start to test out your opponent.

If this player is able to attack everything you do, you need to find a way to put more pressure on his shots. When you are serving, try placing the ball to different areas to see if you can find a particular serve he doesn't like. This may give you the chance to play a stronger attack and give you the upper hand in the rallies. If you find a serve your opponent doesn't like it can win you an entire match.

When receiving the same applies, try different returns. With the short balls, rather than trying to be too clever, try pushing or flicking the ball deep, and try different directions. The three areas you should try are wide to the backhand, wide to the forehand, and into the opponents elbow. If you are going to push short then you need to confident otherwise you will pop the ball up and be in trouble.

So stay positive and keep working on improving your game little by little. If you do this then one day you will find that it is your opponent that is rushed and you will be hitting all the attacking shots.

Let us know how you get on.