Battle Principles Against Different Opponents
This is a brand-new, technique-focused column in a question-and-answer format. The mystery figures answering are two former national team members, both now veteran coaches, who would rather keep a quiet, peaceful life and a good night’s sleep than become famous. So the “Reaching the Summit” column was born.
Playing often, against different opponents, are there any key points to learn from?
When the opponent is about your level, remember these playing principles: against someone older than you, play speed. Against someone faster than you, play spin. Against someone who attacks fiercely and brutally, mind your angles. Against opponents with good continuity and stability, get fierce. Against someone better than you in every aspect, you can only ambush via the serve, then strive for a one-shot kill, minimizing transition. Because playing this way makes a higher-level opponent tense up. When he is tense, his muscles do not relax easily, and his playing system breaks down. This raises your win probability.
In the first game, observe more. Try different tactics. The real match starts from the second game. Do not mind the first game’s score; do not let it affect you. The important thing is to observe the opponent, not just immerse all your thoughts in your own tactics and performance. Playing a match always self-centered on your own technique loses badly. The real match starts from the second game. Some players react slowly and do not snap out of it even when the match ends — still immersed in their own tactics, not noticing the opponent found their flaw first. That is a big taboo in matches.
By observing the opponent, find his flaw, then run your tactics — that is enough to keep winning. For example, first serve a fast long backhand underspin to the opponent’s middle-toward-backhand, he lightly hangs it up, and you counter-rip. (Heima’s aside: clearly, another answer suited to amateur experts.) After two or three balls like this, he will surely pivot to attack you when receiving; at that point, start serving some no-spin short balls to his forehand. If he also catches them easily, the flaw is fully exposed at once. Note: over 50 percent of table tennis tactical flaws follow the diagonal principle. Understanding this makes it much easier to play.
How do you loop a half-long ball, and how do you generate power?
What I answer here only suits amateurs, not semi-pros or pros. Just talking about how to ensure power on this shot — it cannot compare to a fully off-the-table ball. We normally loop with the right foot back, left foot forward, the whole body generating power in coordination. But for a half-long ball, amateurs can put the right foot in front of the left, the right leg very close to the table edge, then turn the waist back, so your hand naturally is not under the table. But because the right leg is in front, you cannot use leg power; it all relies on the one twist of the waist and hips, and the arm. Looping this ball, if the opponent is a pro, he easily blocks it back. Because your right foot is in front, after looping, your whole center of gravity is forward. So we see pros handling these half-long low flat-arc balls usually not forcing a power rip, but mostly a small high hang to the near table, because firing on this ball does not produce much power either. Especially in the plastic ball era now, ripping these half-long low balls does not easily kill the opponent.
The second way: still a normal stance, right foot back. After the waist and legs push and turn, the fingers lead the blade into the ball. At this point, your eyes must watch your own blade and the ball, not just loop by feel as usual. This loop has relatively less power, and placement accuracy is not very high, but you can recover and link to the next shot.