Chopping problems

Table Tennis Match Strategy

Last updated 6 years ago

Tam Eastwood

Tam Eastwood Asked 6 years ago

Hi Alois, I played my first league match on Wednesday with the LP and had quite a difficult time.

First, my consistency was non - existent, my first opponent would do a light topspin serve to my backhand and then keep spinning in a comfortable position until I missed. I am struggling to find why I keep missing. Filus, Gionis etc all have the same stroke regardless of the ball that comes at them, so do I just need to extend my stroke, from Ear to knee and have a faster vertical swing with a light grip?

Secondly, I felt my tactics were wrong. I would just serve, and 'hide' behind my backhand and hope they would miss, whilst I kept playing it to the same spot every time, which resulted in me missing the table on their 2nd topspin in the rally 75% of the time. I know this is a very broad question, but what are the pros tactics? I notice they twiddle quite a fair bit, but I didn't know when to implement it in the game. 

Lastly, when I was getting in some sort of rhythm towards the end of the evening and getting a few chops on, the opponent would just slap - smash it past me, which I found quite bizarre because with it being backspin, it should go down into the net. When speaking with my team after the game they said that my shots were quite high and close to the net. So I was wondering, how do I chop the ball so that it goes lower and closer to the edge of the table with a 'skid' effect? Least to say I didn't enjoy the evening haha

Thanks 

Tam


Alois Rosario

Alois Rosario Answered 6 years ago

Hi Tam,

You are just starting with the pimples.  You will need to work first on the consistency of the chop with the pimples.  At this stage it sounds like they are able to put a couple of balls to your backhand and get an error.  This takes the pressure off the attacker completely. Once you develop the consistency it will start to add pressure.  The next thing is to get the quality of the chop better by getting it longer... lower...  Again this will add pressure to the attacker.

One you can do these two things they won't feel so free to slap winners.  It will also them open up the opportunities for you to attack as well when they start to give you softer attacks.

Don't worry too much about results at this stage.  Firstly gain the consistency and then quality of the chops.  This will take a few months.


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Thoughts on this question

D K

D K Posted 6 years ago

Tam,

As someone who had already gone through this I understand you.
May I ask what setup you are currently using?


Tam Eastwood

Tam Eastwood Posted 6 years ago

@D K Corneliau offensive (wood)

Tibhar evolution MXP 

Butterfly Feint long 2.0 1.1 mm thickness


D K

D K Posted 6 years ago

Hmm I have no knowledge over the blade,Corneliau is quite....lets say rare brand in my region.

Speaking of Tibhar Evolution,it is an offensive type,but it really can control the ball.
It is not a chopping rubber but it certainly allows chopping quite well.

Butterfly Feint Long with thicker rubber is,along with TSP curl P1 or P4,one of the best longpips when it comes to transitioning from inverted to longpips.
At least in my opinion.

You seemingly have very similar equipment type to Gionis.
He also uses OFF blade,OFF rubber and DEF longpips.

Otherwise I would follow Alois' guidance.
I see you did the same mistake as the majority of all players starting with longpips.
Dont rely too much on their reversal effects unless you find out that the opponent really does not know what is going on there.
On lower level you will have success with that.
The higher you will go,the less will the reversal mean.
On Gionis's level,the reversal means well almost nothing.
Am I right Alois?



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