We are only a couple of weeks away from releasing the PingSkills Vault. We thought we’d share with you our thought process about how we came up with what to record for each opponent.

Tactics

The main information we wanted to store was our tactics. We know from experience that it is not always easy to know what to record so we’ve created a template which will come up every time you add a new opponent. You can just insert the relevant information wherever you are prompted or there is a series of choices. Of course you can always overwrite this information with your own tactics. Here is the template we’ve been using:

My opponents best serve is a

• pendulum
• reverse pendulum
• tomahawk
• backhand
• other

with

• sidespin
• backspin
• topspin

I find this serve most difficult to return when my opponent serves it

• short
• long

to my

• forehand
• backhand
• middle

Against me my opponent tries to ….(list the tactics they use)

My best serve against this opponent is the

• pendulum
• reverse pendulum
• tomahawk
• backhand
• other

with

• sidespin
• backspin
• topspin

placed

• short
• long

to their

• forehand
• backhand
• middle

When returning serve I should try and push short/flick the ball to their

• forehand
• backhand
• middle

My first attack using my forehand is most effective when directed to my opponent’s

• forehand
• backhand
• middle

My first attack using my backhand is most effective when directed to my opponent’s

• forehand
• backhand
• middle

During the rally I should try to play to my opponent’s

• forehand
• backhand
• middle

My general tactics against this opponent should be …..

Keep it simple

Our philosophy on tactics is the same as our philosophy for learning strokes. Keep it simple! Trying to plan a rally out beyond the 3rd ball is very difficult. The problem is that there are so many different things that can happen and you can’t cover all the permutations. You don’t want your tactics to hamper your ability to play each ball on it’s merits. That is why the questions in our template are focused on the first 3 balls.

Serving and returning serve is something you can plan quite effectively. We recommend that you store as much information as you can about what types of serves and what types of returns work well against your opponent.

Having a general idea of where your first attack should be directed is a useful tactic that you can employ during a game without confusing yourself too much.

After the third ball don’t plan too much, just simply know whether your opponent has a stronger forehand or backhand side and record the preferred direction to play during a rally.

Rating Your Opponent

To help you decide on your tactics, it is helpful to know your opponents strengths and weaknesses. We’ve come up with the following list on which you can rate your opponents:

• Forehand Attack
• Backhand Attack
• Forehand Defense
• Backhand Defense
• Footwork
• Service
• Service Return
• Mental Toughness

Forehand and backhand defense can be be used for your opponent’s blocking ability if they are an attacker or for their chopping ability if they are a chopper. You can also add a small comment up to 100 characters long against each of these items. Any longer pieces of information should be stored in the tactics section.

If you know that your opponents backhand block is stronger than their forehand then you should record in your tactics that your first attack should be directed towards your opponents forehand.

Other Information

You need to record the style of each of your opponents. Are they are a looping attacker or an attacking defender? You also record the grip your opponent uses, what hand they play with and what type of rubber they have on their forehand and backhand.

How to use this information

When you are going to play a match, you should review your tactics. Remember the important pieces of information. As soon as the match starts you should play every ball on it’s merits. The tactics are not something to be followed blindly on every point. If you’ve decided that you should play your first attack to your opponent’s backhand, you don’t need to play every attack there. You still need to mix things up to keep your opponent off guard. Just know that in general it is the better place to attack.