Hey Dan! Not sure what happened to my answer here, I had responded but looks like it’s not showing now. When you said these slow balls make you feel like you are having a medical episode that made me laugh! I can totally understand this feeling as lots of the players I coach also struggle with this. So for both of these players when playing the really slow, flat or no spin balls the biggest two things that cause mistakes are rushing in too quickly and indecision. So trying to find that balance between not rushing in too quicky but still choosing your shot early is the challenge. A really good tip for these shots is to still focus on getting good spin on the ball but think of brushing the ball forwards rather than brushing more upwards like you would when playing an open up against backspin.
Against Voldemort it will be very important to focus on playing good quality pushes and keeping them low and deep in the table so he can’t attack and it gives you time to force him into the elbow or get in your heavy spin loop you said he struggles with. Also to avoid losing 6 or 7 points in a row try to slow down and take your time if you lose a few in a row, take your towel if possible and just give yourself time to regroup and think a bit. It’s easy to rush through a few points and then realise you’ve lost 6 in row without making any changes.
Last thing with the slow balls, if you do spot it early really focus on taking a second, pausing and then playing your shot, often players struggle if you actually give them a slow ball back to them, as long as you can keep it low enough of course. When pushing try to think of holing the ball on the bat longer to avcoid it popping up high and giving them an easy attack.
I hope this all makes sense and any questions on it just let me know!
thanks, Tom
