Beating a very good blocker. (first post)
Twiddle_TV asked 3 years ago
Hey guys! My name is Adam. I live in Des Moines, Iowa (middle of the US). I’ve been playing TT for about 6 years now. I’ve always felt like I was progressing all these years but I’ve felt stuck lately, so I’m here seeking some more advice on how to improve!
This video is my buddy Noi and I playing at our local club – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqoVKeIZPx4. We have played a TON of games together and I have beat him once in a best of 7 set. He has very good serves, pushes and blocks, and a good forehand loop. He is the Mr. Consistency of our club. It’s always very hard to get him to make any mistakes at all and he always has some kind of quality on every shot. I try to take advantage of his passive backhand but his backhand blocks are insanely consistent. I know it’s a long video any advice you can throw my way would be great!
Thanks! Look forward to working with you guys! 🙂
Twiddle_TV answered 3 years ago
BTW I’m the one in the blue shirt and ridiculous covid pony tail. 😛
Tom Academy Coach answered 3 years ago
Hey Adam, welcome to the Academy, great to have you on board!
Yes these types of players are not easy at all because they don’t give you many cheap points and you really have to earn everything, so lots of players find it tough.
So what’s good is that I can see you are mostly trying to be positive and play the opening attacks here which long term will help you improve for sure. The key thing against these kinds of players is firstly generating more spin and quality on your shots and secondly variation in your shots. So of course mixing up the placement, speed and spin etc. Often these consistent players get used to feeding off one speed or one type of shot and there isn’t enough variety in the rallies to really get them thinking.
The best way to start doing this is to try and vary the speed on your first topspin, so sometimes be brave and go for a bit more speed and others try to play a slower more spin ball at him.
In terms of placement I would say you can definitely try to play more balls into the body of the opponent to try and tie him up, because as you said and I can see he’s very consistent with retrieving either side.
Also if you can improve the consistency of your pushes I think this would help, it may sound a bit negative but if you can match his consistency on pushing you won’t feel forced into attacking all the time, you can be patient and wait for the right ball or maybe even force him to attack on his backhand if you can keep the ball over there. As you mentioned this would help you to take advantage more when he is passive on the backhand, but remembering the placement and variation I mentioned.
So there’s a few things now to think about, don’t want to totally overload you with too many things at first but those areas I’ve mentioned should definitely help. Of course it may take a bit of time to improve them and get it happening regularly but with practice I can see you’ve got the skills to work on it.
Hope this helps and of course let us know if any questions on what I’ve said here and how it goes next time you play!
Cheers, Tom
Twiddle_TVThanks Tom!
I worked on my pushing and variety yesterday! I’ll upload those videos to get some tips too.
