Tips against left-handers

Josh Black Asked 14 years ago

I'm playing in a camp wide tournament in about 3 months, and I started to think about this player who is really good and is left-handed. And besides him, I'm probably the 3rd or 4th best player there, but for some reason I can't beat left-handers! Can anyone please give me some tips on how to beat leftys?

Alois Rosario Answered 14 years ago

Hi Josh,

Come on, do you really expect a Lefty to help you out to beat us poor lefties.

OK, just this once...

One of the things to think about is your ability to go wide from your backhand to the extreme forehand of the lefty. Also a lot of lefties don't block well on the forehand. Then just go through the same things that you would against any player. Find their weaknesses. Take a look at this link to Basic Tactics to help you out.

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Aaron San Posted 14 years ago

The guy I play table tennis a lot with is a penhold lefty. I find that doing fast forehand loops to his backhand helps win a lot of points. Slow spiny loops to his backhand get punched back. If you are a decent back hand blocker, it could be useful to lure your opponent out to his far forehand side to make him loop then block his loop down the line. I'm not that confident with my backhand block, so I find myself pivoting to use my forehand to block his loop to my lefty opponents backhand.