Strategy against a good technical player.

Discussion in 'Techniques / Training' started by phantan123, Jun 9, 2019.

  1. phantan123

    phantan123 Regular Member

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    Hi.
    So i was playing against a person in my club who is a technical player, his traits are usually his drop shots and has good awareness at the net.I know these traits and tend to anticipate them a bit more but his shot quality in those areas are really good. But one key thing that i have over him....its my fitness (footwork wise tho, his arms are probably even more powerful than mine) and his backhand is weak so my pushes and sudden lifts near the net often leaves him stranded. Can you guys give me tips on how to limit his advantages even more?
     
  2. SnowWhite

    SnowWhite Regular Member

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    I assume this is singles.

    If his backhand is weak then that is the one weakness you should be trying to exploit most of all. If he has an unreliable backhand, then it's not a bad strategy to play everything to his backhand. In general, you want to mix things up and make people move around the court, but if his backhand is limited, then getting him to play a backhand over and over again will win you a lot of points.

    The question is: how limited is his backhand. Can he play a good backhand drops hot? Can he play it cross? Can he play a good backhand clear? If not, then every time he turns around to play a backhand, feel free to get to the front to cover the net. Then, if he plays a drop shot, you should have such a time advantage that any well placed shot should win you the rally, if you can't kill it straight away.

    If he can get around his backhand and play an overhead shot, you need to first pull him to his forehand, either to his forehand at the net, or his forehand in the backcourt, and follow with a shot to his backhand. He will need to move all the way from his forehand and hopefully won't have time to get around his backhand.
     
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  3. Rob3rt

    Rob3rt Regular Member

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    ^this!

    Another strategy could be trying to make it a physical game. Try making him tired and getting your superior stamina into play. While doing that prevent him from using his strengths as much as possible. Don't play to the net, or only when he's at the backcourt. Anticipate his drops and keep on lifting.
     
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  4. phantan123

    phantan123 Regular Member

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    He always do straight backhand drives if i remember correctly. I think i know what to do thanks to your tips. His drop shots are usually aimed at my backhand so when he does i should try to lift it to his backhand or make a cross court net shot.
    And to drain his stamina i think i could play more attack clears to both his forehand and backhand and when he makes a weak return i'll try to kill it or push to his backhand again, making him move the full diagonal line, although this is the most reliable strategy i can think of and he could be aware of that.
    One more thing tho we usually do the high serve to each other and while i do try to serve to the middle to make his drop shots less effective, what can i do to keep him guessing when receiving or maybe do some kind of deception to cripple his movement
     
  5. DarkHiatus

    DarkHiatus Regular Member

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    Sounds good about the drop shot retrieval - make sure to play the straight net if you start to see him hanging back in preparation for a lift; if you start lifting more often, he might stop moving forward and hope to get a lift from you, but leaving a big gap in the forecourt.

    There is no problem with the high serve being 100% predictable if you get it going in the middle, all the way to the back consistently (in the back half of the two tramlines ideally). You should not aim to try and 'trick' him with a high deep serve, but that is not the point of it. The point of it is to make him move all the way to the back with his feet outside the court, and make him open up the front of his court to make him move extra far. If he plays a drop shot, just play it into the net - he will have to move the full distance, so he is unlikely to get a good net shot, therefore you can normally expect a lift (which you should try and punch clear to either corner as he will have just rushed forward to reach your net shot).

    If you want to vary the high deep serve, try a short forehand serve instead. Be very careful about trying a flick serve as high serve variation, as they're often ready to move backwards for a high serve anyway, giving them a very strong smash position.
     
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  6. R20190

    R20190 Regular Member

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    The advice to make it a physical game is a good one. When someone tires, their shot quality goes down and this would affect their whole game, not just a single shot.

    Although you know his backhand is a definite weakness, my view is always to keep this in your back pocket and only exploit it occasionally. Never over expose a weakness. Why? Well firstly, if you repeatedly expose a weakness, a good player will learn to adapt, they will learn to expect it, or they will train to overcome it. Instead, it is better to try to test and expose other areas of their game and occasionally exploit their main weakness. This is better in the long term (if you are likely to play against him again) as it gives you a better understanding of their game and how they think.

    But if it's just a one off or you are desperate to get a single win off him, then you may wish to attack his weak BH more.

    The other point is he may be more powerful than you, but he can only use his power to really attack if the shuttle is high and he has time/get their early. He cannot use his power to attack on a low shuttle - so try to use the net more. If he is left stranded, it seems that your deception is working. This is always good against players who lack stamina as it is mentally quite draining to be deceived when you're already tired.

    Learn to lift the shuttle to his two rear corners nice and deep, just high enough so his feet needs to be close to/on the base line to hit it, but not too high that it gives him time to get behind it. As his BH is weak, I would suggest focusing on doing this to his forehand rear corner first.
     
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  7. phantan123

    phantan123 Regular Member

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    Thanks for giving me better insight. Although yes he has more arm strength than i do his attacks are usually quite easy to defend as hes more of a wrist player and doesnt fully utilise his bigger build.He knows this too plus the fact that i can be creative with my defense (if he made a weak attack i can send it to the corners or even flick it back to the baseline disrupting his rhythm and again crippling his movement) so he'll only attack if hes in his best position or i make a mistake.
    Now, how he can deal with me is that his drop shots are so good that, even though i am expecting it in my mind,the shuttle is so close to the net that by the time i reached the corner it already hit the ground.
    For some reason, all of his shots have very quick initial shuttle speed,this is the main reason why i get pressured easily at the net and even when i do get the drop shot his lifts are just so quick and i have to make a weak backhand or a flat drive where he is anticipating anyways.
    Also my drop shots arent the best and my coach is currently helping me with that, so when i try to do one (usually to the backhand side because thats where i also have a hard time reaching) he can reach it very confidently and do the fake lifting motion which caught me off guard in the first few matches but im slowly getting used to it now and can lift it back more than i used to.
    Additionally, more surprising is the fact that he doesnt learn from his weakness very much and can even get frustrated alot since he sometimes makes mistake or when i deceive him even though we have played each other a dozen times so hes not strong-willed as you guys think.
     
    #7 phantan123, Jun 11, 2019
    Last edited: Jun 11, 2019

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