Reading body signals from your opponent
Table Tennis General
Last updated 14 years ago
Mauricio Vergara Unknown Asked 14 years ago
1.- How do you learn to anticipate moves from your opponent just before he hits the ball?
My thougths about this:
Good players know before the opponent hit the ball, what is he going to do, just reading the signals of the body? For example, left arm player moving to his right side to hit a ball, most likely will hit the ball to your right side.Also using this knowledge, good players can hit the ball giving the wrong signal to his oponent, so will have a wrong assumptions about the ball direction.
2.- Is it possible using the mark of the brand typed in the ball as a focus point in the ball to have an idea about the direction of the spin?
thank you
Alois Rosario Answered 14 years ago
Hi Mauricio,
It is true good players are better at picking up cues of their opponent. This comes from a lot of experience. It is something that you don't necessarily have to work on conciously.
It is the reason that when you play someone a lot of times you can start to tell where the ball is going. Good players have a bigger database of these movement stored in their brains and so can react better or earlier.
However, don't try to predict where the ball is coming because until your opponent hits the ball the ball can go in any direction with just the slight change of wrist. It is important to focus on the ball at all times. Using the brand name on the ball can be a good technique to help you to focus on the ball. You will pick up cues through your peripheral vision. Don't try to watch your opponent because you will ned up missing the most important thing, which is the ball.
You won't see the brand going around to be abel to detect spin because the ball spins around too fast, but you will see better the movement of the ball which will help you to detect spin.
Thoughts on this question
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Ji-Soo Woo Posted 14 years ago
Sometimes you can 'predict' where the opponent is going to hit the ball, especially if you've played that opponent many times and know their preferred shots. However, the key thing is not prediction but just common sense positioning. You control where you hit the ball, so as soon as you hit it, you've got to move to a place that centrally locates you in the range of possible returns by the opponent hitting from that location. You see this in the youtube videos of worldclass players. They hit and move to a new location, even before the opponent has hit. This is not because they are predicting, but because there is an objectively best place to be to give you the best chance of returning the next shot based on where you hit it.
Sorry, I must have got out of the incoherent side of the bed this morning. The simplest example is where you hit the ball down the line and then immediately move cross-court knowing that the most likely reply will be cross-court back. You also tempt the opponent to go down the line, which is a lower percentage shot.
That's the big difference with medicore club-level players (like myself). Too often I find myself hitting the ball and then just watching as a passive observer, only reacting after my opponent has hit back.
Alois Rosario from PingSkills Posted 14 years ago