Anticipating Opponents
From TableTennisTraining
This page is devoted to techniques for anticipating what your opponent will do and taking advantage of it during game play.
Contents |
Anticipating Serves
Anticipating Strokes by observing opponent's body motion
Anticipation is one of the most important skills for table tennis players. Every player may be able to return the ball to the other side but the best players are able to anticipate the opponents shot selection and get ready for the return very quickly. Since table tennis is being played in a very narrow distance compared to other racket sports, players have very limited time to get ready to return the ball efficiently. Therefore, table tennis players should be able to anticipate the direction and the type of the ball using the clues by watching the opponent's movements, especially the angle and motion of his bat at the point of contact with the ball. This takes some practice to learn, but once learned, you'll suddenly find yourself defending and counterattacking at a totally new level of play.
Anticipating automatic responses by your opponent
Many player either intentionally or accidentally develop a fixed set of possible responses to a particular type of ball sent to them. For example, when faced with a short serve to their forehand, they may tend either push long to your backhand or flip to your forehand. If you start to recognize such patterns in your opponents play, you can often use this knowledge to improve your anticipation.
Do not get the idea from the above paragraph that it's a bad idea to have a couple of set responses to a particular ball. These can be very useful, especially when you need to react quickly in the heat of a point. But you do need to recognize when such a pattern of yours has been discovered by an opponent, and be able to take steps to change your response thereafter if they're able to take advantage of your pattern. This latter ability is one of the keys to high level play.
Improve anticipation by practicing your opponent's style
Often players will find that they do relatively well against conventional loop style players, but suddenly develop problems when playing against less common playing styles (e.g. a chopper, a blocker, a short pips player, a long pips player, a left-handed player, a backhand-dominated player, etc). Of course, the best way to learn to play against such players is to try to play such players more regularly.
Another useful technique is to try out the style for yourself. Playing a particular style will give you insights about it's strengths and weaknesses that will probably never occur to you just by watching the guy on the other side of the table. It's also a great way to learn something new and different, and you never know when you may learn something that you may be able to take back with you if and when you resume your regular method of play.
