How Can I Escape the Ping Pong Zone?

I bet everyone has that problem!

Most of the time, those type of players just learned to play some of the strokes BUT due to limitation in number of available strokes, they are adept at the few strokes they learned. If those strokes happen to target your weakness zone, you're done for. It doesn't matter whether you're the "better" player, if you play your weakness against their strength, you're bound to be surprised of the outcome.

On the other hand, such encounters are good for your development because those players gratuitously point out what you need to develop if you analyse your match against them.

Promted by Jeff, here is my feedback. Even though I perform forehand drills usually better than backhand drills during warm-up (especially loops), I enter the Zone as soon as the game is played and become... backhand dominant (my BH is not that bad, so I do win the occasional game). The reason, I think, is because I view the backhand as being less commital: I feel more confident in the stroke (pushing and slow BH loop) and feel like I have a greater room for manoeuvre, whereas the FH tends to be a "do or die" type stroke for me.

What a fun question! Thanks for the good writing, Bud.

These players can be humbling. Be sure not to bet money on the games.

I've passed a number of them over the years, but I still enjoy playing them to get a refresher on the particular lessons each has to teach. Some of those wiggle-waggle razzle-dazzle serves developed on some lonely, remote military post are fantastic. You might like to cook one up in your garage to frustrate earnest young players with perfect strokes.

Yeah I had the same problem. The point is, these players can often return what we think of as the "best" shots but somehow cannot do anything themselves. The thing is to think of a stroke which possibly be returned by a good player, but not a bad one. These include hitting it wide, using spin etc. Personally, I found a block good as these people lack consistency and use strange serves since they cannot read spin.

I play with a guy like that quite often who has wierd spins, but i think that has Really helped me read spins better and faster just by his odd movements :)

I have the same problem...

When playing against these types of players in front of my friends who know that I am the one of best players in the school, I directly feel my heart beating and when you loose against them everybody just irritates that you are nothing..bla bla

these things just prick you

Yes Bud a nice question. What oft was thought but never so well expressed! I, too, have started playing like you after a gap of some 30 years and come across such frustrating experience quite frequently. For instance we have a player who used to return my FH topspins with his awkward looking blocks away from the table on both the flanks and take away my joy of having hit a winner. I decided to alternate my shots to his FH/BH and add sidespin for the forehand corner. That fixed the problem. As Alois and Jeff said one has to take one's game a bit higher, and come out of the tunnel which you so beautifully call 'the ping pong zone'. As in Peter Principle, such players can rise only to their level of incompetence. Good luck to you. 

Do good players also do this though? Do they also do the weird sidespin stuff you mentioned (though with better technique) early on in the rally to stop opponents from attacking or do they just do the mainstream backspin pushes?

Better players usually do straight backspin with pushes.

This also happens to me
i have 2 friends that "knows" how to play tennis, they tell me that they started playing a year ago (i started playing tennis when i was 12 years old) obviously am more experienced player than them
i play with them and i lose points i start getting mad , everyone start laughing because the good player is loosing :( :@ and i actually lose every single time, 
i read articles about mental preparation, i went today and i played one of them, i lost again
i can't believe how my smashes simply just don't hit a point with those people ! i hit the net a lot i send the ball out million times and they just play simple backhand !!! just return my shots !!!!!  

Oh dear, I'm right in the same boat. In my last game I played against someone that only knew two strokes: a push and what I would call an "anti-smash" (smashing with a rubber that is so worn out, it's got less grip than any anti). I agree, that you need to attain a certain threshold in your (tactical) game to beat these kind of opponents...

Well a good discussion of Bud's question on 'ping pong zone' a phrase which also catches my fancy. I have already commented on this issue but after watching your video discussion I feel like adding a few more words. We too have a player among our midst playing with whom is always irritating what with his unconventional pushes and cuts and his ceaseless commentary on each of the rallies. No matter how hard you hit the BH counterhit/topspin drive he with his ugly looking sidespin 'cut' more often than not succeeds in returning the ball in your exposed vacant FH flank! It is frustrating to see this and you feel like tearing your hair. Can it be Alois and Jeff that lokking at their unconventional style we become complacent and 'casual' in playing with such players? And that is our undoing, I think. After many hours and sleepless niights I decided not to take it easy with him. I increased the speed of my strokes and kept on changing their placement. That fixed the problem and I coould beat him easily in the annual tournament.(11-3, 11-2, and 11-5). But yes I agree such players can be very irritating to play with and if we do not take care we are sure to enter into that abominable 'ping pong zone'!

Hi Vijay,

I think complacency can be one factor, especially early in the match.

Is there any "universal strategy" against this type of players who only know push and "antismash"?

I know many players that basically can do a BH push and nothing else lol. I started losing to just about every single one of them until I realised that they can't deal with much spin... Try putting heavy backspin on most of your shots as they don't knowhowto to react to it.

This topic is so interesting!

I think that one aspect of this situation is that when people think of what constitutes the skill of playing Table Tennis, they mostly think of stroke mechanics. However, there are many other skills that matter: footwork, reading spin, service & return, anticipation, placement, tactics, deception, and even more. Unorthodox players may have ugly (and even inconsistent!) strokes, but their other skills can be solid. For example, from zillions of practice hours they developed excellent anticipation and very deceptive unorthodox service with weird spin. And the serve is probably illegal, but people around don't care :)

There is another side of this stroke mechanics obsession. Sometimes people come to me and give an advice on my game. And in 99% of situations they say that there is some imperfection in my forehand stroke. Like I should finish less forward and few inches higher/lower or something like that. And they never ever notice that I have really huge problems reading spin on some services and have very, very poor anticipation. Or instead of exploiting the glowing weakness of my opponent to win a lot of points, I just change my tactics for the sake of changing. And that is why I constantly lose to "ping pong zone" players, not because there is a slight imperfection (or a feature?) in my forehand.

So morale is: strokes are important, but there are so many "soft" skills behind them. Unfortunately, these skills take lots of time to develop and are very hard to notice with a naked eye.

Well said Ilia.

There is an amazing Podcast at experttabletennis with a former Norwegian national player Istvan Moldovan. The whole podcast is amazing, but at 19:30 he talks about "technique freaks": people that pay so much attention to stroke techniques. While his opinion is that technique is actually what he calls "perception": ability to anticipate the ball and read the spin and adapt strokes to that.

This same thing happens to me alot. When i play better players that put topspin and back spin and side spin normally i can handle it. But when i play my dad who is very unconventional and not at all trained and doesnt do normal strokes i seem to struggle i usually beat him but as he is my dad i want to really beat him bad. I play my normal strocks and he just swings in all ways and manages to make these great shots i just cant handle. He cant take lots of topspin or backspin at high speeds but it is hard for me to get these fast shot opportunities when he is makeing these funky shots. I can recognise the spin but cant handle it like other players spins on the ball. What should i do? I practice lots but only against a wall because i am an only child and my dad doesnt want to practice strocks and such he only wants to play. And when i go to school i dont play people people like him so im kinda screwed. Please help me and thanks for all your help. P.S. Jeff and Alois you guys are awesome i love the site and all the advice u give me. 

Hi Matthew,

Play your Dad in matches as much as he will play.  The difficult part of playing these players is adjusting to the different spins as you are finding.  Take every opportunity to play against this type of ball you can.

Hey Matthew -

Your Dad knows that someday he'll win his last game against you. He just wants to have fun with you while he can. Play hard, but remember to have fun with him! Maybe make up some funky shots of your own, with impressive names like Passive Sidehand Flick Of Power.

- Another Dad

Love it Douglas.

- Another Dad

 Oh I was so happy I ran all around the house in celebration the first time I beat my dad!

It took me a long time to beat my Mum.