Trying to move a player to the center of the table.
Strategy
John Hamilton Asked 8 years ago
I practice with a coach. He is upwards of 1800 and uses his backhand almost exclusively. It is fast and with great spin. How can I get him to move to the center or at least more to his right as I cannot get much past him by going down his left side. His right side is well protected somehow and I would like to play his right hand, but he will not allow it and if I do I am on the defensive as he has wicked speed on his tops spin there also.
Alois Rosario Answered 8 years ago
Hi John,
It sounds like your coach might be a good level player to be able to do that.
Try starting by serving short or wide to the forehand side. If you serve from your forehand corner diagonally that will face him wider on to the forehand corner.
Then make sure you are using the whole table width. If you use the whole table and he is still able to cover it all with his backhand, then he is too good.
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John Hamilton Posted 8 years ago
Dear Alois,
My friend came the other night and it was the same old thing. He just slams and slams and all I could do was return them to the best of my ability. Then I figured I have nothing to lose so I will do as Alois told me to and I began putting two long shots to his right hand corner and then I put one in the middle then two back to his right hand corner and on the second one when he returned ti to me I hit it to his right side, of course it was a good hard long shot to the corner and he could not get back in time. Wow, it really works. Of course I will never beat him on any regular basis, but I did play him quite a few good games. We practice for two hours once a week and for the first time in our practice sessions I was able to consistently get some good shots past him. Thank you so much for your sage advice John
Nice one John! Good to hear the pleasing result.