Stopping a strong attacker

Every time i play with this young asian guy he will beat me , he has very good and strong loop anything i send to him long he will loop it and 90% of the time it is in and i can not return it.  i serve short and he chop on that and i return the ball but if i send it long i will be powerful loop and i have never return it.  What should i practice so i can play a bit better against him. i went to play in comp in Brisbane and some other older people with more years of game told me that i should try to get long pimple and that may help as returning a ball with long pimple is much harder to loop than a chap with normal rubber, please advise of what you think.

Robert

Hi Robert,

The main thing you need to think about is stopping him from attacking.  Focus on keeping the ball low over the net to stat with.  Also think about keeping the ball short or close to the net.  This will make it difficult to him to swing strongly at the ball.  Then think about which side he is weaker from.  Try to stay away from his strong loop by making him move to make his favourite shots.

I wouldn't go for the pimples because it will stop your own development and this sort of player can adapt to play against the pimples then you have nothing.

So focus on your own game and think about being able to control the ball low and short and to the area of the table that you want to place the ball.

For our Premium members we have a lesson in our Match Strategy section on Playing An Attacking Looper.