Tournament Tips
Strategy
Mike Deubig Asked 3 weeks ago
Hello Alois,
I will be playing in a State Tournament on Saturday. I play with the Waldner Gold Edition blade with BlueStar A2 on the forehand and Stiga Helix on the backhand. I'm a club player. I have an offensive style. Strong on both sides. I tend to spin more with the backhand side close to the table. Further back, I can spin the forehand. I'm a lefty. Two years ago, I won the Under 2000 event. I don't play in many tournaments. I was wondering if you had any tips, like serving, attack shots, or tactics in general.
Alois Rosario Answered 3 weeks ago
Hi Mike,
My best advice is to just get out there and learn as much as you can during the tournament.
See if you can just play the game that you know. This is not a time to try to change something but rather just to do what you know and see how it stands up. Then learn about the areas that you might be bale to work on in the next training sessions before you have another try at playing tournaments.
Good luck with it all. I would love to know how you get on and the areas that you thing you would like to work on.
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Mike Deubig Posted 3 weeks ago
Thanks for your reply...
I started pretty well in the tournament. I played a guy from another city two years earlier in the semi-finals. At that time, I was down 2 games and came back to win it, 3-2. I was also playing doubles at the time, so I would finish a doubles match, and I was summoned over to play in the semi-finals right away. Perhaps that was why I had such a slow start. Anyway, last Saturday, I played him again, and this time, I was on fire against him. I played my game, mixed it up a little at times, and won 3-0. Right after that, I was in another match with a friend from my local club, and he lost to the previous person that I beat, but beat me 3-0...lol. Only 3 in the group, we all beat each other...lol. I didn't advance, but later did in the Over 45 event. I played a guy with anti-spin on his backhand. He had beaten me in all our meetings in tournaments that date back to 2018. Interestingly enough, I did beat the guy who had junk rubber two years ago at the finals in the U2000 event and a year after in another tournament. There was another guy who beat me in the over-45 event who eventually won the event. I thought I had a better chance of beating him, but I was repeating the same mistake way too many times. Early on, I did better, but later on in the match, I was missing a lot. He would get very short to my forehand and hit it with his long pips to my backhand, where I would topspin it over the table rather than on the table. I felt I was under the ball too much.
So what I need to work on, I would say, is dealing with people with the long pips and anti-spin better. And my friend at the club, who is good at spinning the ball with placement and using the opponent's force against them.
Hi Mike,
Thanks for the report on your tournament. Sounds like there are some improvements. Nothing is linear unfortunately.
I think one of the biggest advantages of playing tournaments is that we can find new areas to develop in our game. Looks like you have done that.